PR opportunities abound. You just need to know where to look. Every business should take a few moments to setup the two following processes to be alerted to new PR opportunities which will help in <a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/building-backlinks-should-be-building-your-brand" target="blank">building your brand</a>.

These two PR tactics are simple and free. They just require that you set aside a little time and effort.

1. HARO
2. #JournoRequest and #PRrequest

__HARO__

HARO stands for Help A Reporter Out and is a free service you can sign up for at <a href="https://www.helpareporter.com/" target="blank">helpareporter.com</a>. You will receive 3 emails a day that include requests from journalists looking for quotes or answers to specific questions around topics the following broad topics: 

- Biotech and Healthcare
- Business and Finance
- Entertainment and Media
- General
- High Tech
- Lifestyle and Fitness
- Public Policy and Government
- Sports
- Travel

You just need to find the inquiries that apply to your brand and email your response before the deadline. Deadlines are typically 1-4 days from the receipt of the email so you need to set aside some time every other day or so to answer relevent inquiries.

If your submission is used in the journalist's article, typically they will mention your name and brand and link to your website in the response.

__#JournoRequest and #PRrequest__

These are hashtags used on Twitter by journalists looking for info on a specific topic.

There are 3 ways you can find these types of tweets related to your industry.

1. Manually do a search on Twitter for one of those hashtags followed by a keyword in your industry. For example, I found the following tweet when searching on twitter for "#journorequest seo".

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Hi <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DigitalMarketing?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DigitalMarketing</a> friends, I&#39;m looking to write an article on regulating the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SEO?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SEO</a> industry. Anyone willing to provide an expert comment? Are you for or against the idea? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/journorequest?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#journorequest</a></p>&mdash; Helen Pollitt (@HelenPollitt1) <a href="https://twitter.com/HelenPollitt1/status/1108976044122521606?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 22, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

2. Use <a href="https://ifttt.com/" target="blank">IFTTT</a> to setup an auto response to email you everytime someone tweets using #journorequest or #prrequest and one of your keywords. This way you don't have to schedule time each day or week to remember to search Twitter for PR opportunities. You just need to take action when you receive an email.

Below is a quick tutorial from <a href="https://rofe.co.uk/" target="blank">Mark Rofe</a> with <a href="https://riseatseven.com/" target="blank">Rise at Seven</a> on how to setup IFTTT properly for this purpose. 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">PR tip: How to use Twitter to land coverage. <a href="https://t.co/HOsLJmvE6U">pic.twitter.com/HOsLJmvE6U</a></p>&mdash; Mark Rofe (@iamrofe) <a href="https://twitter.com/iamrofe/status/1220095133410037761?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 22, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

3. Use a nifty Google Sheets Add-on called <a href="https://gsuite.google.com/marketplace/app/tweet_archiver/976886281542" target="blank">Tweet Archiver</a>. This tool will monitor your Twitter search query once every hour and pull in any new tweets to your spreadsheet. You can then open any tweets that you want to respond to and engage with the journalist.

![Tweet Archiver Google Sheets Add on Tool: Find PR opportunities](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/LUqwFfHXSJ81vbVHejLxv/0de845b7ad184261952216978c3b4aee/Tweet_Archiver_Data.png)

Below is a video that shows how to install Tweet Archiver on a Google Sheet. Start watching at 2:08 for installation instructions.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MGU7azCYFpw?start=128" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<br>__Take away:__ Spend 10 minutes right now to set up the alerts for these two PR strategies and set aside 30 minutes each week to follow up on any new PR opportunities that come your way.

Happy brand building!


Tweet Archiver Google Sheets Add on Tool: Find PR opportunities

PR opportunities abound. You just need to know where to look. Every business should take a few moments to setup the two following processes to be alerted to new PR opportunities which will help in building your brand.

PR Strategies for Businesses: Build Your Brand and Acquire Links Simultaneously

PR Tactics and Strategies for Businesses: Build Your Brand and Acquire Links Simultaneously

Backlinks, love them, or hate them, are a critical component to doing search engine optimization.

While there are a variety of methods that have changed over the years as Google rolls out more algorithm updates based on feathered and furry animals or Sesame Street characters, one thing is for certain—backlinks still remain an integral part of how a website ranks.

## Creating High-Quality Backlinks
One of the most common questions for most people in digital marketing is "how to create quality backlinks."

Unfortunately, for a lot of marketers, this is where things start to get confusing. 

After all, how do you create “quality links?”

Here are a few things I’ll be discussing in this article:
- [Common link building pitfalls](#pitfalls)
- [Why entities matter when building links](#buildYourBrand)
- [Actionable link building](#actionableLinkBuilding)
- [Content juicing](#contentJuicing)
- [Leveraging automation](#leveragingAutomation)
- [Link continuity and UX](#walkingAMile)

<a name="pitfalls"></a>
## Backlink Pitfalls
Typically, there are a couple of common pitfalls when people build backlinks.

### Pitfall 1: Content Only Strategy
It’s true, content is king. However, content without links is a lot like having a car without any fuel. Sure, it looks nice and may get the attention of a few people—but how far can that really get you? 

Even with the most experienced wordsmith at the helm, content without links may be overtaken by sites that are seen as more authoritative and trusted. 

So how the heck does a site become more trusted? 
In spite of all the advancements Google has made in its algorithm, links still provide one of the clearest signals that a website can be trusted. The more links from quality sources can equate into traffic increases and additional authority within a particular market.

### Pitfall 2: Link Only Strategy
If you’re relying on links alone to rank your site it’s probably not going to happen. 

That’s not to say you can’t brute force a website up in search results, there are plenty of case studies showing how this can be done. However, using this method, will most likely not stick without a lot of additional effort. Additionally, you’re probably going to be penalized depending on how aggressively you’re seeking those links. This approach is commonly classified as a black hat tactic.

The problem is that many people in this camp tend to have horrible content (looking at you lazy spinner). It's blasé and uninspired. In order to get a link from someone, you must have content worth linking to.

The sad reality is that, without quality content, links alone won't get you very far. You must have something worth linking to if you want a link from a quality site. 

To be truly effective, you need *both* content and links.

## Build Your Brand

Before building links, I cannot underscore the importance of getting your on-page SEO dialed in.

Making sure your on-page SEO is correctly implemented will help ease the process of backlink building. In fact, you’ll need far fewer backlinks to rank well.This means you’ll need to spend some time on your titles, descriptions and headings, adjusting site architecture, improving internal linking, and structured data. 

As Google moves from the web of strings (search queries) to the web of things (relationships) working on your entity becomes increasingly more important. Similarly, an understanding of natural language processing (NLP) and semantic search can provide a competitive edge.

Brand building, or building links around a brand is a fundamental part of marketing. If done properly, it can weather the storm in spite of algorithm updates. Wouldn’t that be nice—"worryless SEO?"

<a name ="buildYourBrand"></a>
## Building Your Brand Using Entity-Based SEO

In case you’re not familiar with what entities are and how they relate to SEO, I’d recommend checking out this article on <a href="https://www.searchenginejournal.com/entity-seo/277231/" target="blank">Search Engine Journal.</a> Entities are defined as, “A thing or concept that is singular, unique, well-defined and distinguishable.”

To illustrate this in something less abstract, entities often trigger knowledge panel results or additional SERP features. Unfortunately, Google doesn’t always get this correct. In most cases, this is due to multiple results that may be unclear.

As a simple example, the word “cars” could mean a lot of things. By itself (without any kind of clarification) you could be talking about any of the following:
●	An automobile
●	The Disney-Pixar movie
●	The 1970’s new wave band (You’re just what I needed…🎶)

![cars-image-carousel](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/6qaYVk8xREa34y9gsGB9Zh/c1207d10db4bbfae91b9c7551236c665/cars-image-carousel.jpg)

However, when we provide additional context and add keywords to the page like, “1964 Shelby Cobra,” “muffler,” or “transmission system” it becomes quite clear that the keyword “cars” is clearly talking about an automobile.

![cars-disambiguation-image](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/14Z67XgL9HrKudpGCVa0mW/a4d901a4791c0561aece4eb190125580/cars-disambiguation-image.jpg)

Disambiguation can be a powerful thing when paired with the implementation of structured data markup.

## Brand-Based Link Building

<a href="https://www.link-assistant.com/news/entity-case-study.html" target="blank">Using entity-based SEO</a> can have a significant impact on brand visibility. When you get your entity right, it only takes a few links to provide a decent amount of “push.”

So how is this done? Connecting relationships between your brand and other keywords that are so strong, you’re seen as the definitive result.

Think about brands like Kleenex or Google. You’d never say, “I’m going to get a facial tissue”—you’d say please get me a Kleenex. This is because Kleenex has become synonymous with the brand. Some could even argue that they are THE brand and others are the generic version.

The same could be said about Google. We rarely say “I’m going to run a search query” on a particular topic. We say, “I’m going to Google that.”

While this is an overly simplified way to look at brand building, the concept should be quite clear. You want to be the definitive brand that represents the entity.

To start brand building, obviously consider all of the profiles that any business should have. These can provide additional signals that validate your entity:
- Google My Business (if a local business)
- Facebook
- Instagram
- Twitter
- Linkedin
- YouTube
- Yelp
- Pinterest
- Vimeo
- Foursquare
- Crunchbase

Branded properties help provide signals that can serve as a foundation for your link building efforts. Like our example of Kleenex and Google, we want to be ubiquitous. You don’t need to be active on each of the platforms, but claiming these profiles increases your brand’s footprint as well as prevents your competitors from hijacking your brand.

Next consider places in which you can start building brand signals. These could be places in which you share photos, whitepapers, resources, or news. You could also consider building citations as long as the site isn’t too spammy. 

To get you started, consider the following:
- Press release news rooms
- Whatsapp
- Tumblr
- Flickr
- Blogger
- Slideshare
- Issuu
- Medium
- Alignable
- Upcity
- Paper.li

When building these additional profiles, remember that you’re creating signals about your business. At this point, I’m not too concerned with follow vs nofollow links—it’s simply getting your name out there.

<a name="actionableLinkBuilding"></a>
## Actionable Link Building

Before embarking on a link building campaign, take a moment to develop your plan. Having a blueprint in place can help you identify potential pitfalls.

A blueprint can also serve as an anchor point that you can refer back to. I’ve found this to be invaluable, especially when you’re in the middle of a campaign and things get crazy.

Sometimes, you need that reference to keep the campaign focused and on-track.

The key questions to ask when creating your plan are:
1.	__What do you hope to accomplish with the campaign?__ This should follow SMART goal setting (specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-based)
2.	__Who do you want a link from?__ Before starting a link building campaign, ask yourself who/where you want a link from‒this could be another website, social shares, public relations or brand recognition.
3.	__Is this time-sensitive or evergreen?__ I almost always opt for links to evergreen content, since they’re easier to obtain when content juicing.

<a name="contentJuicing"></a>
## Content Juicing

One of my favorite link building techniques is a repurposing technique I refer to as “content juicing.” 

This method leverages off-page branded assets that can pass link equity back to your primary property.

When you have a piece of content, think of the various ways that you could repurpose and leverage it on as many mediums as possible.

![content juicing diagram - link building technique](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/5xdwzVnEAZhG97TRTHkBzY/585678e78e81b0da6559e43b63950193/content-juicing-diagram.png)

As an example, you might consider the following:
1.	Create a vlog or video interview
2.	Cut the vlog into short clips for snippets or social posts
3.	Separate the audio from the video and create a podcast
4.	Convert the audio to text using a service like Rev
5.	Add additional content to the text as necessary and use as a blog
6.	Create an infographic, incorporate visuals, and create a video thumbnail
7.	Create additional resources for your blog (Google slides can work very well for this purpose)
8.	Before publishing the blog, use the previous assets you’ve created to allow users to read, listen, or watch your blog—whichever happens to be their preferred medium

The key component of content juicing is to provide multiple platforms in which a user can engage with your content. Additionally, a call to action should assist in driving traffic back to your website. Ideally, this would be in the form of a link or call to action.

When considering this method, it’s important to run your properties through a link tracer, such as wheregoes.com or Link Redirect Trace Extension, to make sure that you’re getting value from the links you’re building.

<div style="position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0;"><iframe src="https://www.loom.com/embed/c3ff8981a4174699a621ccd18096089b" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen style="position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;"></iframe></div>

![link redirect trace Chrome Extension Example](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/3c8V1Ks0Jaqvf4GALNPePW/f888499256605459b980628bb04233b0/link-redirect-trace.png)

<a name="leveragingAutomation"></a>

## Leveraging Automation

This is more of a content syndication method, not necessarily a link-building strategy. Still, it can enhance your brand signals, which can have an effect on people linking to you.

It goes without saying, but consider the platform you’re publishing content to. Facebook users consume content in a different way than Instagram users. 

Also, it’s important to note there’s no substitute for personalized engagement. Using automation to schedule or promote your content can buy you a ton of time!

Whether you do this manually or through automated processes is irrelevant. The point is that you want to promote your content on several channels and create signals that point back to your primary entity. 

Another benefit of automation is that you can schedule many top-of-funnel activities, such as posting your content and focus on engagement. Imagine, spending 2-3 hours on developing the content for the entire month, then interacting with users—this allows you to spend more time cultivating meaningful relationships.

<a name="walkingAMile"></a>
## Walking A Mile In Your Customer’s Shoes

Be honest, when was the last time you did a top-to-bottom screenshot of your website or social media page and analyzed it. 

For that matter, when was the last time you’d evaluated the engagement of a page?

It doesn’t have to be a laborious process. I’m talking super-simple, knee-jerk analysis:
- Is there cohesiveness in the links and messaging?
- Does your content elicit a reaction from people? If so, what does that look like?
- Is your content and backlink strategy in-line with what other big players in your industry are doing?

Doing something this simple can uncover some opportunities.

Consider interlinking content together using traditional silos throughout your branded properties. This is one way to funnel authority to your primary pieces of content. It’s also a powerful link building method that you can control.

Also, just because you’ve promoted a piece of content once or twice, doesn’t mean you have to stop. Keep building links to your evergreen content on a monthly basis. This will help increase the relevancy and authority of not only the link, but also your entity.

### Conclusion

Link building doesn’t have to be difficult. By focusing on your entity, creating quality brand signals, repurposing content into multiple mediums, you can create quality links. 

Quit thinking of yourself as an SEO or link builder. Instead, think of yourself as a marketer and focus on places you can promote the brand. This can help uncover opportunities you may have previously overlooked.

Remember: create for humans, optimize for bots.


content juicing diagram - link building technique

Backlinks still remain an integral part of how a website ranks. Build your brand and your backlinks at the same time using the 'content juicing' method and more.

Backlinks, love them, or hate them, are a critical component to doing search engine optimization.

Building Backlinks Should Be Building Your Brand

Are you wondering how to use keywords for search engine optimization (SEO)? Do you find yourself at a loss when figuring out where to put keywords in your content? Then you’re at the right place because we’ve dedicated this guide to telling you exactly where you need to use keywords for SEO so Google can rank your pages higher for those keywords.
 
Before we dive in any further though, let’s get this right off the bat – you need to use keywords in your content. Organic search is responsible for over half of website traffic, <a href="https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-101/seo-statistics/" target="blank">51% to be specific.</a> So it makes sense to conclude that your business is losing out on potential traffic, leads, and sales when you aren’t paying attention to adding keywords in your content.

Now that we’re on the same page regarding the importance of keywords for better ranking, let’s talk key placement.
 
By the end of this guide, we’re hopeful you’ll learn exactly how to use keywords in your content naturally and strategically.
 
Let’s get started:

## Where to use keywords in your content: 7 different places to pop your KWs in

Here’s a handy infographic showing you the exact places you need to add keywords for SEO, followed by a detailed look at why you need include keywords in the places identified:

![Where to add keywords in your content for on page optimization](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/6hXVqixeCkvxI8474uQyvq/977e623a117e00bf01e25c161e74b52e/Where_to_add_keywords_in_your_content_for_on_page_optimization.jpg)

### 1. Use keywords in your title tag

Your title tag is the first thing Google looks at when determining what your page covers. It’s also an invite for your readers, which helps them decide whether they’ll find what they’re looking for on your page.
 
As is common practice, invites are better off when they’re direct, which is why you need to add your keyword to your title tag.
 
Here are two proven tips for you to correctly use keywords in the title tag:

Use the keyword in the beginning of your title

- Although a title is worth a 100 characters, Google truncates the last 35 characters when displaying it.

![Use keywords in title tag for Keyword optimization - SERP screenshot](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/716KNvNEzzHOTgzkB2g1Vw/6caf9ea4d396a934475327da6e59954b/Use_Keywords_in_Title_Tag_-_SERP_screenshot_with_truncated_title_tag.png)

This means you need to add your keywords within the first 65 characters of your title so it shows up in search.
 
One good way of doing so is using the keyword right away. This is why you’ll find the following headline style common:
 
__Example keyword:__ Content repurposing

__Example title tag:__ Content Repurposing 101: Your Guide to Reusing Your Content for Maximum Reach
 

- Use the Yoast SEO plugin to differentiate your title tag and headline
You also need to know that there's a difference between the title tag and headline. The title tag is the title that displays on a search engine results page (SERPs). A headline, on the flip side, is your content’s title, displayed on your web page, and you can make both different using Yoast.

### 2. Add the SEO keyword in your meta description

The meta description is the small snippet that shows up below your title tag on a search results page.

![SERP Screenshot - Add the keyword in your meta description for on-page optimization](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/7diSOZSr2ZeUFBOOkQpchu/df73551d2aecaf9944ddc1046b1d1130/On_page_optimization_-_Add_the_keyword_in_your_meta_description_-_SERP_Screenshot.png)

I like to think of it as a couple of enticing words that support the invite (your title tag), encouraging people to read your content. That’s what it technically does too.
 
Come to think of it – how many times have you found yourself reading the meta description to get a sense of what the content includes? In the example above, the meta descriptions give a quick idea of what’s included, like calendar, noting taking, and to-do lists apps in the piece by CNET.
 
You’ll find yourself clicking on the result with the meta description that speaks to you the most. This is also the exact reason why you need to add your keyword in the meta description – for the reader – encouraging him to click.
 
Of course, the more the clicks, the better your chances of ranking.
 
On a side note, Google does not pay attention to keywords in meta descriptions for ranking purposes. You’ll be adding your keyword here for the humans, not the bots that crawl the content for ranking.
 
Always keep the following trick in mind when adding keyword in meta description:

- Use keyword in the beginning of your meta description
You have between 55-160 characters in a meta description before it’s chopped off by Google like a title tag. Therefore, a keyword toward the start of your meta description is a better idea.

### 3. Include your keyword in the URL

The URL is another important place Google looks at when figuring out what your page talks about. From a reader’s lens, the URL needs to be simple so it’s easy to recall.
 
Think of it like this – a visitor enjoys your content, even remembers your site, but not the exact title of your content. He has two options. Either he heads back to your site and does a site search or he remembers your URL and types it in.
 
Even typing the basics like “Visme how to make an infographic,” for example, can instantly spit out your piece (because how to make an infographic is what’s in the URL)

![SERP screenshot showing keyword in the url for keyword optimization](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/7Gfn6xjEXZAr6T2tFZHaX6/7fc1ac42ae2bc83f357d2d07da61162f/SERP_screenshot_showing_keyword_in_the_url_for_keyword_optimization.png)

Makes sense, doesn’t it?
 
Plus, here are your tips for adding keywords for SEO in your URL:

- Add nothing but the keywords in your URL
- Remove any extra hyphens or punctuation marks so it’s clean and crisp – ideal to remember

Note the difference between an SEO-optimized URL and one that’s not tended to:
 
❌  __Bad URL example:__
 
https://xyz.com/content-marketing-tips-that-will-blow-your-mind-away-in-2020

✔  __Good example:__ 
 
https://contently.com/2020/01/08/content-marketing-2020-tips/

### 4. Don’t forget to include keywords to your content headings

Heading tags like the H1, H2, H3, and other tags guide Google regarding what’s on your page.
 
As for the reader, headings and subheading improve reading experience. How, you ask? One, by dividing the piece into readable blocks of text so readers don’t run into an ugly, I’d-rather-not-read wall of text (remember, you’re writing for the web – not an essay for your English teacher). And, two, by showing readers what’s covered on the page. This way, your reader can scan and tell if your piece is worth reading or not.
 
Here’s how to play with keyword placement when it comes to headings:

- Add your keywords in the H1 heading
You have two options here. Either include your keyword-packed H1 heading straightaway. Note how Fingerprint for Success does that:

![How to use keywords for SEO - Keywords in heading tags](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/542nWo3NCkSVrIhsq7mYB6/36033752eb806192bc4f29c0d7374e05/How_to_use_keywords_for_SEO_-_Keywords_in_heading_tags.png)
<center><a href="https://www.fingerprintforsuccess.com/blog/defeatist-attitude" target="blank">Source</a></center>

Or, include your H1 after the intro just as G2 Learning Hub here:

![On page optimization in SEO - keywords in H1 tag](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/1dIfENgGMpQ5YZmIgoPACN/2868cd99913068912d04ba71674ac03f/On_page_optimization_in_SEO_-_keywords_in_H1_tag.png)
<center><a href="https://learn.g2.com/graphic-design-mistakes" target='blank'>Source</a></center>

- Keywords in your subheadings H2, H3, and so on
This one’s important because keywords in your subheadings can show up in Google’s answer boxes or featured snippets like here:

![How to use long tail keywords - keywords in subheading H2, H3, H4](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/54xCFziep3qttrClmgI652/786173230a96e45440645f5c0ea6f1b8/How_to_use_long_tail_keywords_-_keywords_in_subheading_H2__H3__H4.png)

__Tip:__ Make sure you add keywords in your subheadings at least 2-3 times.

### 5. Sprinkle in keywords throughout the content

But don’t be a douchebag about it. Meaning: use them naturally + subtly. Here’s where your keywords will go:
 
- First paragraph
This requires you to be creative to get the keyword in the first line. If not, keep it to the first paragraph. 
 
- Throughout your content
It’s best to use keyword variations and long-tail keywords here. One quick way to find these is to conduct a quick Google search and see what results show in the search box:

![Using long tail keywords for seo within content - Find them in Google search dropdown](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/76xWtVDuMa33aU3I8xq4IB/95858f0dbd8d45ddb62ec57673241590/Using_long_tail_keywords_for_seo_within_content_-_Find_them_on_Google_search_dropdown.png)

Also look at the related searches and use them as your keywords variations. Find these at the bottom of the SERP:

![Search engine optimization keywords - Screenshot of bottom of SERP](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/7u8tVTju20cjHkJYaEef5u/952420773b05de518be6e89f4deb05e0/Search_engine_optimization_keywords_-_Screenshot_of_bottom_of_SERP.png)

- Last paragraph
Bonus points for slipping your keywords in your last subheading too.
 
__Tip:__ Don’t be spammy and overstuff keywords. Remember you’re writing mostly for humans while ensuring the bots see your page too.

### 6. Include keywords with images too

Google indexes images. So when a reader clicks on the ‘images’ search option, he finds all the images with the keywords. Naturally, this makes your content more findable.
 
Here’s an example: My featured image for ‘email writing tips’ is ranking among Google’s images, but not in the SERPs. 😀 See the difference using keywords in your images can make?

![SEO keyword optimization - Use keywords in alt text and image file names](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/3OQFcDwMMhIwnUTtTAvGgg/5c71d86bd417f57361ad027188156482/SEO_keyword_optimization_-_Use_keywords_in_alt_text_and_image_file_names.png)

You have two places to work your keywords with images:
 
- Image file name
This helps you get your images indexed on Google. A handy way to go about doing this is naming your image files and screenshots with the keyword or its variations as you save them.
 
- Alt text
Keywords in alt text play another important role – they make your content accessible. Wait, what? Yep. Alt text are small tags that pop up when you hover your mouse over an image. This is, particularly, helpful for those with visual impairments. Alt text is also great for making content readable for those who block images.
 
__Tip:__ Don’t use the main keyword only. Use variations and synonyms so people and search engines can better understand what your image talks about.

### 7. Last on how to use keywords: add them to links

Links? Yes, you heard that right. This applies to both incoming and outgoing links.
 
Let’s elaborate. Incoming links are links that come to your site. Of course, you have little control over these. But, when you’re consciously building links, say using any of the <a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/5-proven-off-page-seo-tactics-to-help-you-build-powerful-links-in-no-time/" target='blank'>off-page SEO tactics</a> like guest posting, you can have a say.
 
In that case, request the site linking to you to use your keyword phrase to link to your page. The keyword-packed text used here is the anchor text and it’s <a href="https://www.wordstream.com/anchor-text" target='blank'>an important signal Google uses to determine</a> what a web page covers. Don’t forget to make sure the linked page talks about the keyword. Otherwise, you’d be linking to the wrong page – misleading readers. That’s a big no-no.
 
On the other hand, outgoing links are links that go from your page to another one of your pages. Hence, when you’re internally linking content (just as I did above with off-page SEO tactics), make sure you use the right keyword too.
 
But here’s an important __tip__: always vary the keyword text linking to you. Using the same text for every internal link sends the wrong signal to Google, which can get you penalized.

### How to use keywords for SEO: Best practices

The truth is – an important difference between good content and poor content is that the former uses keywords as naturally as possible. Poor content, on the flip side, adds a chock-full of keywords in the content and throws it to their reader. How well do you think a reader will receive it? Pretty bad, if you ask me.
 
So here’s what you need to do:
 
- Always use keywords natural and subtly. This way your readers learn your content is answering their questions and isn’t written to please the search engine solely.
 
- Write for humans. Ultimately, Google appreciates and rewards in ranking the content that its users click, spend most time on, and link to. So if your post doesn’t satisfy them, it won’t be long before your ranking tanks. Or, like Wendy Piersall says, “Google only loves you when everyone else loves you first.”
 
- Stick with using keyword variations, synonyms, and long-tail keywords. These are different versions of your primary keyword. Using them comes with a serious advantage – you don’t sound repetitive and unnatural with your keyword usage.

### Go on and use keywords in your content

So what are you waiting for? Now that you know where it’s best to use keywords in your content, you’re in a better place to create content that ranks. Remember, keywords go into your title tag, meta description, URL, headings, and images. Slip them into the rest of the content and add keywords to anchor texts too.

Where to add keywords in your content for on page optimization

Are you wondering how to use keywords for SEO? Nozzle presents a comprehnsive on page optimization guide plus infographic. Optimize your pages today to get more traffic tomorrow.

Keyword placement guide for on page optimization. Get optimizing!

Where to add keywords in your content to improve your ranking? [Infographic Included]

Keyword Optimization: Where and how to use keywords in your content to improve your ranking

![Top SEO Tweets of 2019](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/5szGbN7kR7YvyJtVC2jwjA/af19af52a9de473566ee6687c9985258/___2_.gif)

I personally scoured over 700 twitter accounts to find the most popular SEO related tweets during 2019.

To be including in the list, tweets had to meet the following criteria:

- Included more than 600 likes, retweets, and comments combined 
- Related to SEO in some way, shape or form
- Was tweeted from a personal twitter account
- Was not negative towards another human being
- Was found by me 😊😉 

(If you know of any tweets that meet the criteria above that I failed to include, please message me on twitter: @boydnorwood.)

This post was supposed to be published in late January but it took longer to do the research than anticipated (and then a pandemic threw things off), but I'm glad I stuck with it because there are some great gems in this list. Also, doing all this research is how I found almost all of the tweets I included in my <a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/seo-humor-from-the-twitterverse" target="blank">SEO humor article</a>.

And now, without further ado, lets look back at what the SEO world was like last year so we can reminisce what occupied our brilliant SEO minds before the pandemic.

By default, the tweets below are sorted in ascending order according to total engagements.

<center>__Click on any of the filter buttons below to see only tweets related to specific topics.__</center>

Top SEO Tweets of 2019

Come on in to find a list of the 57 most popular SEO tweets of 2019.

Tweet List

Top SEO Tweets From 2019

If your company offers a scholarship to prospective and current college students, then good on you. Now you need to advertise your scholarship opportunity in as many places as possible to reach as many of your targeted students as possible.

![Scholarship Link Building](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/tgxej5RwuY9xVBeEKH8vV/d04d0cf4d014cf1abc85f32796bb95a2/Scholarship_Link_Building_smaller_size.png)

Below is a list I compiled that will get your scholarship seen. Some of them will turn into links back to your website which is also a side benefit.

- https://www.fastweb.com/

You can submit scholarships for free as long as you follow the following criteria: https://www.fastweb.com/content/scholarship-provider-guidelines

It doesn't appear that it will become a link but it will be a brand mention and potentially get some exposure.

- https://studentscholarships.org

An example with a followed link: https://studentscholarships.org/2020_college_scholarships.php

Adding a scholarship appears to be free: https://studentscholarships.org/scholarship_upload.php

- https://www.honorsociety.org/scholarship-directory

Followed links and category pages like, https://www.honorsociety.org/scholarship-directory?tid=38905 and company/scholarship pages like, https://www.honorsociety.org/scholarships/king-charles-lucille-family-foundation-undergraduate-scholarships

I can't find an easy way to submit a scholarship. The best option I found so far, besides calling them, is https://support.honorsociety.org/hc/en-us/requests/new

- https://brokescholar.com/scholarship

The scholarship page includes a nofollowed button link to your scholarship page on your website. Click on any of the scholarship by study area pages, then a scholarship listed to see an example.

Fill out their contact form here: https://www.brokescholar.com/contact

- https://scholarshipowl.com

Submit scholarship here: https://scholarshipowl.com/list-your-scholarship

There directory appears to hide behind a login so it won't count for links but it can still get you some exposure to students.

- https://www.careeronestop.org/Toolkit/Training/find-scholarships.aspx

Followed link from scholarship listing page: https://www.careeronestop.org/toolkit/training/find-scholarships.aspx?keyword=textile&sortcolumns=BestMatch&sortdirections=&lang=en&scholarshipid=9998315

How to submit scholarship: https://www.careeronestop.org/Toolkit/Training/scholarship-finder-help.aspx. "How can I add, remove, or change scholarship information provided by Scholarship Finder? Requests for additions, removals, or any other changes can be sent to info@careeronestop.org."

- https://www.tuitionfundingsources.com/

Directory is hidden behind membership account but still worth submitting.

- https://www.chegg.com/scholarships

There is a followed link from the scholarship listing page. Example: https://www.chegg.com/scholarships/james-j-burns-ca-haynes-textile-scholarship-2380

I could not find a contact form. So call or fill out form to find out how to submit scholarship opportunity. https://www.chegg.com/press/contact-us/


- https://www.scholarships.com/

Several individual scholarship listing pages did not link to their website. Here is one example: https://www.scholarships.com/financial-aid/college-scholarships/scholarship-directory/artistic-ability/art-furnishing-and-design/agl-over-the-rainbow-foundation. 

But I found this, https://www.scholarships.com/scholarship-providers-resources/scholarship-provider-guidelines/, which says, "Scholarship URL must link directly to provider’s scholarship page. Scholarship information landing pages must be hosted on a web page specific to the scholarship, at a domain/URL registered to the scholarship provider." So it seems like you can get a link.

The submission form is here: https://www.scholarships.com/scholarship-providers-resources/list-your-scholarship/create-account

- https://www.listsofscholarships.com

This site lists your scholarship with a followed link. Example: - https://www.listsofscholarships.com/avalaunch-media-scholarship/

To post your scholarship, go here: https://www.listsofscholarships.com/post/

Scholarship Link Building

If you have a scholarship opportunity, you need to advertise it properly to get as many links as possible and to be found by as many college students as possible.

Learn how to advertise your scholarship opportunity as many potential students as possible can apply.

Scholarship Link Building and Getting the Word Out

How to Properly Advertise Your Brand's Scholarship Opportunity - Scholarship Link Building

In order to try and obtain some more links for Nozzle, I found a list of startups from a blog posted by Twoodo.

![list of startups tweedo blog post screenshot](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/1uGXRKvPViIAtYwBpRXMfB/96a68f95115aa71afbf29cdd92e91c05/twoodo.jpg)

As a SaaS startup, we have been looking for places to promote Nozzle and get more brand exposure, traffic, and links.
We came across Twoodo’s list of 33 startup directories that are mostly geared towards SaaS and web apps.

Out of 33 websites, I was able to submit Nozzle to 10 of them with mixed results. Some of the submissions are still pending review. I'll come back and update the following information as we hear back from those sites.

## The 10 sites I submitted to:

1.       Alternative To- This was a really easy submission process. I entered information about Nozzle, as well as added competitors of our product.
![AlternativeTo nozzle submission screenshot ](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/33MXafrHgMNyG0jriBTqzW/ea7809fc991ab65444fbda53f1013c74/alternative_to.png)
 
2.       CrunchBase- Another easy submission asking for company name, description and location. I also recommend connecting founders and employee profiles to the company profile and adding your company’s LinkedIn and Twitter profiles.
![Crunch base nozzle submission screenshot](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/11qmZAN8P39uyAzv42licX/12a7fac7e527628b8adc396d6b2fb998/crunchbase.png)
                                                                                
 
3.       Listly- Listly is unlike the previous two. It’s a website where people can create lists about products, services, and so on. I made a list of 5 rank trackers, and included Nozzle. Listly was more difficult to navigate compared to the others. The list I made as well didn’t come out in the order I wanted it to. I’ll try and see if that can be fixed.

![Listly top 5 rank trackers including nozzle](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/6DLJVdSMlBEqDt1mHdTYlg/d82883829ad58923d8741080e1dc3b31/listly.jpg)


4.       BetaList- BetaList was an easy website to navigate, and I was able to submit Nozzle to be reviewed. I have not heard anything back yet, and BetaList said it could take a month or more for my application to be reviewed.

![Betalist home page screenshot](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/6DlMK341Hg40Fb1E3s568e/45608a1cf33ac772e65b95ca346e5164/betalist.jpg)



5.       Top Alternative- Top Alternative easily allowed me to submit Nozzle for a review. I haven’t heard anything back since my submission.
 
 
6.       Launching Next- Launching Next had an easy submission form in order to submit a startup. Once submitting Nozzle, I had a message pop up on my screen telling me it could be 2-4 months before our application is reviewed. 7.       Killer Startups- Killer Startups was another easy submission to fill out with our information. Once submitted, I was told that it could take up to 90 days to review. 

![Launching next home page](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/4F9Fj5ODYzhbxUe0RYeXPd/2e8b0419281ed1d8a39439c3693507e6/launching_next.png)


Capterra- Capterra’s submission process was easy. After going back on the site, I couldn’t find the exact place where I had submitted our application. I received a  message back that they needed more information about Nozzle in order to process our application. I’m waiting to hear back about what the next steps are.
  
Hacker News- Hacker News is like Reddit, where you submit different ideas or questions as threads. I submitted a question asking if people are looking for a rank tracking tool. 
I don’t recommend submitting to this site unless you are going to invest some time to learn how to properly engage with its audience.

Addictive Tips- On Addictive Tips, I sent in a  message talking about our work here at Nozzle, being an enterprise level rank tracking tool and how we stand out against our competitors. At this time, I haven’t received a link or a message back.

![Addictive tips tip us page](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/7fuJeWArOaTss1pcnWRzFP/f76baf59ff3951f8c1ae99fd5bfea161/addictive_tips.jpg)

 Mashable- On Mashable, I submitted a  “Hot Tip” about Nozzle. I haven’t heard back yet at this time regarding if Nozzle would be featured or not.

## Some of the sites I didn’t submit to:
The following sites require payment and I haven’t tested any of them as of yet: GetApp, Erlibird, Top Alternative, and App Appeal. This next group of sites don’t exist anymore: Maqtoob, Start Up Vid, The Next Web Marketplace, About Your Startup, Launch Sky and Startups FM.
![Money](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/4A5Fw5LRl8c6vCK077D0th/ecdb720180a20dcce5b9e7f763861d73/giphy.gif)

I tried submitting Nozzle to New Big What but after filling out the application I was denied because my browser was a “spambot”. I found that funny.

# And finally, the following sites weren’t a good fit for the industry that Nozzle is in:
Product Hunt, AngelList, All Web 2, TechCrunch, Startup Tank, AppStorm, Upload.com, Fuel Up, Reddit, Gust, and Clpud base 3.

![Not a good fit](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/1Wt49vKl2OeGWA3w4YZOhh/ae8acaecc86ab0de95b2dd24f782c297/giphy.gif)

Overall, submitting to these start-up, SaaS directories was okay. Hopefully my successes and findings above will help you save time so you can focus only on the handful that worked. 


Tanner Linsley

tanner

Finding SAAS Directories from a Blog Post

Our results from submitting to various SAAS directories off the Twoodo Blog

Our Results Submitting to SaaS Directories

Have you ever pondered the time disparity between how long it takes to build something versus destroy it?

For example:

- I spent dozens of hours over the course of five months putting together a 5,000 piece puzzle; it took only 2 minutes to destroy it and put it back into the box.
- A building takes months to construct and days to demolish.
- A great marriage takes years to nurture and develop but can be ruined in a matter of weeks, days, or even minutes.
- A wooden marble track I build with my kids takes minutes to construct but one accidental movement knocks it down in seconds.

The same fast-acting destruction can happen to all of your hard work and efforts in SEO. It takes weeks, months, and years to build up a well optimized site with tons of authority and backlinks and buttoned up technical SEO. In a matter of minutes, it can all be destroyed because of a simple mistake, oversight, or decision made by the upper brass.

Let's take a look at five destructive SEO tactics--er--mishaps that can ruin all your SEO progress before you finish reading this post.

## 1. Noindexing your whole site

![car crashing into garage door is like noindexing your website](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/3CEjn5gIFrO1Lna0DYpMao/0a90efcf44da1694285bd4e8ee904bd2/car_crashing_into_garage_door_is_like_noindexing_your_website.gif)

I've seen this happen several times over the years, mostly by accident.

One website I worked on a few years back launched some site updates with their robots.txt file disallowing their whole site. This company lost weeks of organic traffic before anyone realized this huge oversight. Unfortunately, this happened twice.

It makes sense to have your staging site disallow search engine indexing but you need to have a process in place to change that when you launch. Since this time, they have added an automated process that corrects the robots.txt file when moving from staging to launched.

## 2. Deleting all of your informational pages

![shooting a pole at a window pane is like deleting all of your informational and authoritative web pages](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/2qxfOayNOxVc4Ytv6LkM8X/e5c8a1ad426d0d07106a4adac23f9bfb/shooting_a_pole_at_a_window_pane_is_like_deleting_all_of_your_informational_and_authoritative_web_pages.gif)

Rankings and organic traffic can suffer as a result of business decisions. Eoghan Henn, co founder of <a href="https://www.searchviu.com/en/" target="blank">searchVIU</a>, shared a case study that showed the <a href="https://searchengineland.com/case-study-the-true-value-of-informational-content-for-e-commerce-seo-327692" target="blank">negative impact of deleting informational pages with link authority</a> from a website.

The homepage and category pages lost most of their top rankings for search queries responsible for generating revenue for the company resulting in a loss of about one-third of its overall visibility in the SERPs. Ouch! 

## 3. Failing to redirect an old domain to a new domain

![knocking down shelfs with a forklift is like not implementing 301 redirects properly](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/PWv0RVJUaC8A4qJJdb5oe/3d5942acf73dd3e91d514c2c411e01c0/knocking_down_shelfs_with_a_forklift_is_like_not_implementing_301_redirects_properly.gif)

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">A disappointing few months on this one...client moving domains wouldn&#39;t redirect the previous domain. Even worse, they then let the old domain expire &amp; it&#39;s been grabbed by someone else. We gave them *plenty* of warnings...it had 1 million links pointing to it 😱 <a href="https://t.co/Zbd0hC44W2">pic.twitter.com/Zbd0hC44W2</a></p>&mdash; Will O&#39;Hara 👨🏽‍💻 (@willohara) <a href="https://twitter.com/willohara/status/1132750204661305351?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 26, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

This has to be one of the saddest SEO stories out there. Unfortunately, it happens way more than it should.

Here's another example from the same twitter thread. As you can see, we SEOs like to commiserate with each other.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Been there. Site&#39;s blog had 800k links, 10k pages of content, and back when we measured those things? A PR10. <br><br>They moved it to Tumblr, carried over none of content, and redirected none of the pages. <br><br>I nearly cried lol<br><br>So hard to save clients from themselves at times :)</p>&mdash; Kristine Schachinger (@schachin) <a href="https://twitter.com/schachin/status/1132952136730308608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 27, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


## 4. Removing a large quantity of valuable backlinks

![exploding a watermelon with rubberbands is like deleting your backlinks one by one](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/5FUWKi8EPbH76qBlTVXARV/ec96b5e5d586b0226393d63b70b191fc/exploding_a_watermelon_with_rubberbands_is_like_deleting_your_backlinks_one_by_one.gif)

One healthcare company, after an FDA inspection, decided to immediately ask hundreds of websites to remove the link pointing to their website until approved content could be verified.  As a result, a large quantity of their links disappeared over night.

Eventually, most of those links were reacquired once they could verify that all verbiage on each individual site was compliant with the FDA's approved messaging.

## 5. Not adding optimized content to every important page

![house falling into a river is like ignoring adding optimized content to your web pages](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/7LfeTRdr7tSLSLCMQPCwL2/f0dffbbf4ac70eecc3d23b798371cba9/house_falling_into_a_river_is_like_ignoring_adding_optimized_content_to_your_web_pages.gif)

Every important page on a website will fare better with optimized content. Choosing to not add more content to important pages can hurt your ability to rank for more keywords.

I recently wrote about the <a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/success-story-adding-content-to-ecommerce-category-pages" target="blank">results of one ecommerce site</a> that added a few paragraphs of content to all their ecommerce category landing pages. After it was all done, they ranked in the top ten for 800 more phrases than before they added the content.

__In Conclusion:__

Sometimes frustrating decisions are made that affect your job as an SEO. Do your best to communicate to the decision makers the ranking and organic traffic consequences and what that will mean to the bottom line. You can't win them all but you can come out looking like you know what you're talking about.

In the end, if you can avoid any of the above SEO disasters, then give yourself a pat on the back.


car crashing into garage door is like noindexing your website

In business, decisions sometimes are made that will impede or destroy all of your SEO progress. Look out for these and good luck.

5 Destructive SEO Decisions

What are the benefits of tracking your competitors rankings alongside your own with a <a href="https://nozzle.io/features">SERP tracking tool</a>?

- To identify, in realtime, any big fluctuations in the SERPs for your keywords so you can analyze those URLs to see what has changed
- To know which competitors show up the most in the top ten across the board for all your keywords
- To easily see which domains own spots in featured snippets, video packs, image packs, local packs, etc.

Why does Nozzle allow you to track an unlimited amount of competitors?

- When a new competitor pops up in the top ten that you haven't noticed before, you can add them to your list of competitors and we'll rewrite history for you so you can see the history of their movements as if you'd been tracking them from the start.
- With reputation management, it's sometimes tricky to know which of the sites in the top 30 have the ability to move up to page 1 to push down the negative results. This is why you'll want to keep an eye on 30-40 "SERP competitors"--to be able to have the data on which of these you should continue to put more resources into higher rankings.
- You are not just competing against known brand name competitors but any URL that shows up in the same SERP that you are working to climb. And when you multiply this across thousands of keywords, you're going to want to track more than just a few competitors. 

So <a href="https://nozzle.io/trial">start tracking unimited competitors today</a> with Nozzle and don't listen to anyone who claims <a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/is-seo-dead/">SEO is dead</a>, otherwise your competitors will win.

Why does Nozzle allow you to track an unlimited amount of competitors? Because we can. :)

Track SERP Rankings for an Unlimited Amount of Competitors with Nozzle

Track SERP Rankings for an Unlimited Amount of Competitors with Nozzle | Competitor Tracking

As with almost all things SEO, there are varying opinions about adding content to e-commerce category pages.

Some argue that a few paragraphs of content on a product category page isn't going to make much of a difference in terms of rankings and could distract people from clicking through to the product pages.

My counter-argument is that you can always place the content below the product listings to not distract from the products or write better content that visitors are happy to read.

Another argument is that successful e-commerce sites like REI.com and Zappos.com don't include content on their category pages so, why should I?

In response, I would ask: do you have as many inbound links and as much authority as they have? Furthermore, just because other sites are doing something a certain way doesn't mean that you shouldn't try something different.

Anywho, you should always be testing different tweaks to see what works best for your site, in your industry to get the best ranking results that you can.

Let's take a look at the results for one e-commerce website in terms of number of keywords ranking in the top 10 before and after adding a few paragraphs of content to their category pages.

Back in August of 2018, I began overseeing this campaign. At this time, none of their category pages contained any content other than their product listings.

We began adding 3-5 paragraphs of content to 20-30 pages a month starting in September, and finished the content additions to all category pages in January 2019. 

First, let's look at sitewide gains.

This first image shows the growth in number of phrases ranking in the top ten from August 2018 to February 2019.

![growth of total number of keywords in top 10 positions](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/Dv67HrMHbVqB1ecmoMseb/8e2f23084b32b528f60d73e3a44e9d84/growth_of_total_number_of_keywords_in_top_10_positions.jpg)

Here is the increase in just top 3 positions:

![growth of total number of keywords in top 3 positions](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/6YyHIfqGTLCd3MvyrmiPX8/348f85e6c1d7a594f494e8b60ddc884f/growth_of_total_number_of_keywords_in_top_3_positions.jpg)

Here is the increase in positions 4-10:

![growth of total number of keywords in positions 4-10](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/5wxnpwdzKhBHzf33mg53pj/a6b187117f5a4d9db0c4c44c7d636908/growth_of_total_number_of_keywords_in_positions_4-10.jpg)

To be fair, there were more SEO things happening on the site during this time period too but I can assure you that only a handful of new links were acquired during that time frame and all of them pointed to the homepage. We also added canonical tags to the site in September. And we also used the opportunity to add a couple internal links to other pages from within the new content that we added.

But to get more granular, let's take a look at 5 specific category pages that we added content to and their keyword ranking improvements during this time period.

![1st Category Page ranking improvements](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/5WWNaTcoKxM6OIqbHJrWse/78d99622fd8ebd902abcb395ff52d661/1st_Category_Page.jpg)

![2nd Category Page ranking improvements](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/4uvX73eI2f5e6tjtG7cCjL/8797c2496ef1cb3f7a9377dedd910453/2nd_Category_Page.jpg)

![3rd category page ranking improvements](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/E8VNNrgi9eeq3jhacKzE6/936636396e8e7285b3b286631486ec7a/3rd_category_page.jpg)

![4th Category Page ranking improvements](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/5Hi9u3kmRSQ8pqUT8xQV8H/a68cb22cdc613fdcd869b5f226f1d075/4th_Category_Page.jpg)

![5th Category Page ranking improvements](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/4aE3aIarUmQFfIgaRzChPm/337498f1c8ca41bd8f0cb0b3c7e5d1ba/5th_Category_Page.jpg)

There are dozens of more examples of category pages with similar increases. Some of the increases started in November, December or January based on the timeline of when we got to those pages.

These increased rankings obviously resulted in more organic traffic to the site and has proven to be one example of why you should test adding content to e-commerce category pages.

Now go learn <a href="https://www.searchbloom.com/blog/6-ways-smaller-companies-can-keep-up-with-ecommerce-giants/" target="blank">6 additional ways to compete with ecommerce giants</a> in your same industry.

growth of total number of keywords in top 3 positions

Success story from adding content to an ecommerce site's category pages.

Success Story: Adding Content to eCommerce Category Pages

Funny SEO Jokes and Humor from the Twitterverse

SEO Humor from the Twitterverse

SEO Humor from the Twitterverse - Funny SEO Jokes, Moments & Memes 

Getting your site to rank is tricky business. Just when you think you’ve multiplied your chances of ranking by using the right keyword in your content, you realize you haven’t been paying attention to off-page SEO.
 
Wasn’t on-site SEO enough? You sprinkled in keywords throughout your headings and content, added them to the Yoast SEO plugin, and wrote a tight meta description too. Now you’re hearing you’ve got to pay attention to off-page SEO too. What?
 
It’s simple, really. Off-page SEO means attempting to get backlinks from other, already-established sites so those links can signal Google your site is authoritative and get better ranking.
 
Now how do you get the links?
 
Let’s answer this in this post. We’ll talk about 5 off-page SEO techniques, which can help you get backlinks to your site. Before diving into these, however, let’s touch base with what off-page SEO is and some basics of link building.
 
Let’s start, shall we?
 
### What is off-page SEO?

Off-page SEO involves actions you take to improve your rankings in the search engine. The only thing is, you take these steps outside your website’s realm, much like dining out. On-page SEO is the exact opposite – steps you take on your website to improve your rankings. It’s the eat-at-home version.
 
Notice both off-page SEO, also known as off-site SEO, and on-page SEO share their goal – to get you to rank better on the search engine. A lower ranking reduces your odds of getting better traffic as your page is not very discoverable.
 
Webpages showing up in the first five organic results of Google search <a href="https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/seo-statistics" target="blank">take home 67.60% of the clicks</a>. Besides, people <a href="https://www.conversionguru.co.za/2017/05/29/90-people-dont-go-past-page-1-google-search-results-searching/" target="blank">rarely scroll past the first search results page</a>. So who wants to rank better?

### The basics of link building
It’s settled then – off-site SEO is your bat signal that tells Google you’re trustworthy, therefore, deserve a better positioning in the search results. But are all links created equal?
 
Certain links are trustworthy while others are spam (created through spammy off-page SEO practices). Since we’ll be covering only authentic off-site SEO tactics, you don’t need to worry about those.
 
For now, keep the following in mind:

- The links you’re attempting to get should come from a relevant site. 

If you’re a career coach, it doesn’t make sense to get a link from a food blogger. The link becomes irrelevant. 

- The linking domain and page should have good authority. 

Google’s page authority metric is called PageRank. Unfortunately there is no way to see that metric anymore, but some SEO tools have their own authority metrics, which can give us a good idea. For instance, keep tabs on Moz’s DA (domain authority) and PA (page authority) metrics. Alternatively, Ahrefs’ metrics of DR (Domain Rating) and UR (URL Rating) are also good indicators. A site with low DA or DR doesn’t have the I’ve-stood-the-test-of-time authority to tell Google you deserve better ranking. In short, it doesn’t bring much value to the table.

In a nutshell, you need links from high authority, trustworthy sites that are relevant to your niche. 

What’s next? Getting your hands dirty with off-page SEO. Here we go:


## 1. Build links by guest blogging

Guest blogging involves you writing content for another site in your niche as a “guest” on their page. You either add a link to your page in the content or get one in the author bio that credits you for writing the piece.

![Links in Guest Post Author Bio on GetResponse](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/6pJrw2nhIjEhPsGyWGNNt/66f10015cf9fba5e9a693be13dedcc10/Links_in_Guest_Post_Author_Bio_on_GetResponse.png)

<center><a href="https://www.getresponse.com/blog/emojis-email-subject-line-best-practices" target="blank">Guest post for GetResponse</a></center>

<p>Some say guest blogging has lost its charm. Others, like <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=guest%20blogging%20(from%3AAaronOrendorff)&src=typed_query" target="blank">Aaron Orendorff</a>, promise it works, having guest posted for over <a href="https://copyhackers.com/2019/11/guest-posting/" target="blank">40 leading publications and gotten a job</a> as the editor in chief at Shopify Plus. The correct answer?
 
Done correctly, guest blogging can be a good source of solid backlinks and referral traffic to your site. Just as in the case of any other off-site SEO strategy, there are two ways to build links with guest posting:

❌ __The wrong way__: Writing meh content on every site that can link back to you, never caring if the site is relevant to yours or if its readers are interested in what you have to say.
 
✔ __The right way__: Contributing valuable content to a guest site in your niche on a topic that genuinely interests readers.
 
So how do you go about doing things the right way?

❌ The wrong way: Writing meh content on every site that can link back to you, never caring if the site is relevant to yours or if its readers are interested in what you have to say.
 
✔ The right way: Contributing valuable content to a guest site in your niche on a topic that genuinely interests readers.
 
So how do you go about doing things the right way?

### How to guest post the right way?

The best (and most effective) way to guest post starts with building relationships in your industry. Discover potential target sites by googling:
 
[Your niche] + [write for us] or [guest post] or [contribute to] or [guest writer]
 
For instance:

![SERPs Query - marketing write for us](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/dSMkXT5nvWiSrzO1bXob6/d4df25466c4b3f0c9b73f88fa8a91a2b/SERPs_Query_-_marketing_write_for_us.png)

(On a side note, find several dozen more search operators to use <a href="https://www.iqseo.org/search-operators-for-seo/" target="blank">here</a>.)
 
Next, start networking with editors of publications that are on your to-guest-post list. Eventually, <a href="https://bloggingwizard.com/the-best-guest-post-pitch/" target="blank">pitch</a> your topics.
 
I like to think you need to interact with someone at least 6-7 times before you pitch, it’s something I’ve picked from the <a href="https://www.krusecontrolinc.com/rule-of-7-how-social-media-crushes-old-school-marketing/" target="blank">marketing rule of 7</a>.
 
Pitching this way increases your chances of getting a reply from busy editors. But what confirms your chances of getting your pitch approved? Studying the target site to pitch topics that their audience will enjoy.
 
<a href="https://twitter.com/jennals" target="blank">Jenna Scaglione</a>, the Managing Editor for Foundr magazine <a href="https://foundr.com/how-to-pitch-a-blog" target="blank">shares</a>, “The goal is to show the editor that you did your homework and you understand the blog’s style and audience. You don’t have to even tell editors that you did this research. They will know right away from your pitch email.”

Alternatively, cold pitch editors of your target site. Use a tool like <a href="https://respona.com/" target="blank">Respona</a> to schedule an outreach campaign. However, warm your pitches by personalizing your emails to editors. How? Read about the person who you’ll be emailing to develop a personal connection or share what you liked in one of the pieces you read on the target site.
 
### Where should you guest post?

Go for sites with:

- High DA and PA
- Active presence on social
- Engaged audience (hint: look at the comments or, at least, the social shares)

### Best practices:

- Never pitch a site before first studying it.
- Pitch 3-5 topics to give the editor a choice.
- Don’t just pitch a topic. Pitch a short outline to show the angle the piece will take.
- Establish your credibility in your pitch, for instance, by sharing links to what you’ve written.


## 2. Tap into off-page SEO with HARO

<a href="https://www.helpareporter.com/" target="blank">HARO or Help A Reporter Out</a> is a platform where journalists get sources (aka quotes) from experts for their content. You can benefit by signing up as a source that offers valuable insights to pitches shared. For instance, Nozzle <a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/haro-link-building-success-story" target="blank">acquired a link from a DA 53 (DR 75) site via HARO</a>.
 
Two ways to go about using HARO:
 
❌ __The wrong way__: Replying to every pitch with poor quality answers that lack depth and clarity.
 
✔ __The right way__: Replying to selected but highly relevant pitches where your expertise matters. Moreover, giving an in-depth answer that is clear, focused, and meets all requirements listed in a pitch.


### How to build backlinks with HARO?

Every pitch that accepts you as a source links back to your site. That’s a backlink. Bingo! So you need to kick things off by signing up for HARO and keeping an eye on the pitches pouring into your inbox. Once you spot a relevant pitch, hit reply.
 
### Where and how should you respond on HARO?

Respond to relevant pitches where you understand you can add value. For instance, I can best offer my opinion on writing, blogging, and content marketing. I can never offer advice on pet matters.

### Best practices:

- Take your time to craft your response. Journalists reject thin responses right away.
- Provide unique insights, an answer that you think others wouldn’t have covered.
- Read through the pitch to see if you meet the journalist’s requirements and answer everything they ask for.
- Wait. Don’t expect backlinks to roll in with your first reply to a HARO request itself.


## 3. Use Quora to build links

<a href="https://www.quora.com/" target="blank">Quora</a> is a Q&A platform where people connect to ask and answer questions in areas where they’re experts in.
 
But here’s the catch – Quora doesn’t offer do-follow links. Instead, it offers no-follow links which don’t pass on link juice..
 
So why should you chase Quora in the first place? Because you need no-follow links too. A link portfolio that includes no follow links looks more natural. Moreover, your answers on Quora increase your content’s exposure to niche-specific audiences, who can link back to you. That’s mission accomplished, except, indirectly.
 
So, what’s wrong, what’s right here?
 
❌ __The wrong way__: Responding to whatever questions you see in your stream with half-baked answers immediately linking to your content.
 
✔ __The right way__: Engaging with community members by adding to others’ answers and pairing this with answering relevant questions that link to your page.

![Imran Esmail on Quora](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/6dnbvqp1XVxxqUF8mC18XE/75b68dce292799ea969bf46010922571/Imran_Esmail_on_Quora.png)
<center><a href="https://www.quora.com/profile/Imran-Esmail" target="blank">Imran Esmail on Quora</a></center>

### How to build backlinks with Quora?

You need to start with engaging on the platform just like you do on social media. Read responses and add your take to them. Eventually, start answering questions yourself. But the trick is in making your answer valuable enough for the viewer to click your link.
 
You have two options for this:
 
One, write a solid introduction that hooks the reader and gets him to click on your link.
Two, share pointers answering the question, but tell readers to get more details on your page.
 
### Which questions should you answer on Quora?

Answer questions with good followers. This shows several people are interested in the answer. You’ll also need to pick a question with as few answers as possible, so your response has a better chance of getting the exposure it deserves. Lastly, answer recently asked questions. Check the last asked date to learn how fresh or stale a question is.

### Best practices:

- Use a friendly, professional tone.
- Add visuals that supplement your answer. Not many people include visuals so it’s a good way to standout in the crowd.
- Don’t just write an answer, humanize it – share your experience, what you’ve learned, and so on.


## 4. Build backlinks on social media

Sure social media is a good place to promote your content, but it’s an equally good place for building backlinks. You only need to be good at making useful connections and become part of active communities.
 
Check out the wrong and right ways in this case:
 
❌ __The wrong way__: Spamming social media, for instance, joining Facebook groups and sharing your links there without context.
 
✔ __The right way__: Engaging with people, offering value, making meaningful connections, and building links when the opportunity arises.


### How to build backlinks on social?

Ready to get backlinks from social media? Let’s dig into networks individually. But remember, it all starts with engagement.
 
<a href="https://twitter.com/boydnorwood/status/1222956358535761920?s=20" target="blank">https://twitter.com/boydnorwood/status/1222956358535761920?s=20</a>
 
<h4>Facebook</h4>
Join niche-relevant groups. Certain groups offer PR opportunities. Others, put up collaboration threads where you can connect with people to guest post or exchange links. Still others, ask for contributions like in the example below:

![Contribution links Via Quuu Promote Facebook Group](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/3LVVzf6HdKYZcj78mfb7tM/898231a8c412e3048cfd0ad8274f198d/Contribution_links_Via_Quuu_Promote_Facebook_Group.png)
<center><a href="https://www.facebook.com/quuuco/" target="blank">Via Quuu Promote Facebook Group</a></center>

<p><h4>Twitter</h4>
Connect with journalists and writers who are always on the lookout for contributors. Looking for a shortcut? Track the #journorequest #PRrequest #bloggerrequest hashtags. These are dedicated to connecting experts and writers.
 
<a href="https://twitter.com/inkandcopy/status/1207406658344882176" target="blank">https://twitter.com/inkandcopy/status/1207406658344882176</a>
 
<h4>Pinterest</h4>
<a href="https://venngage.com/blog/visual-content-marketing-statistics/" target="blank">42% of marketers</a> confirm infographics and original graphics are the most engaging. Naturally, putting them on a visual platform like Pinterest opens doors for backlinks for these infographics and images.
 
What’s more, you can also get links if your visual content ends up in a “best from Pinterest” article such as “<a href="https://www.translationroyale.com/top-content-marketing-pinterest-accounts/" target="blank">8 pinterest accounts every content marketer should follow</a>”.

### Best practices:

- Offer free value to establish yourself as a subject matter authority.
- Solve people’s problems by answering questions they have on social.
- Use hashtag tracking tools to keep tabs on important hashtags.


## 5. Get links by blog commenting

Although blog commenting became notorious some time back, Google’s former head of search spam, <a href="https://twitter.com/mattcutts" target="blank">Matt Cutts</a>, disclosed that even he built links with blog commenting in a video explaining the right way to do it:
 
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNDRlVSWTRY&feature=youtu.be" target="blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNDRlVSWTRY&feature=youtu.be</a>
 
Here’s a summary of the wrong and right way of blog commenting:
 
❌ __The wrong way__: Leaving a large number of meaningless comments with your link.
 
✔ __The right way__: Making comments that add value on relevant sites with high engagement.



### How to build backlinks by blog commenting?
 
The first rule is to always comment on niche-relevant sites. And the second is to read the post before commenting. Take a point and expand on it by adding your experience to it.
 
Make sure your <a href="https://smartblogger.com/blog-comments/" target="blank">comment is offering value</a> and isn’t a mere “great post” or “excellent article.” See that you comment on an engaged, high-DA site where comments are common. For instance, this site:

![Example of blog with regular commenters](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/zlzWoBXwf2VMGWPXSBoqZ/301bfb4bde37d26c3ad0ed6ff71753b3/Example_of_blog_with_regular_commenters.png)

<center><a href="https://dispatch.m.io/" target="blank">source</a></center>

<p>
Don’t overdo comments though. If all the links to your site come from comments without any natural links, Google will sniff that as a link scheme.
 
Anna Crowe, Content Strategy Lead at Leadfeeder <a href="https://www.searchenginejournal.com/link-building-guide/blog-comments/" target="blank">shares a solution</a> to this end, “If you take the time to comment on two blog posts per day, with a backlink back to your website (even if the links are nofollowed), the end result will be roughly 60 backlinks per month, or 720 per year.”

### Best practices:
 
Make highly relevant comments on posts that are relevant to your niche.
Comment with your profile and image rather than a keyword or anchor text.
Avoid sending spam signals to Google by limiting the number of blog comments.

## Ready to make some backlinks?
  
Off-page SEO takes time, but reaps sweet fruit. Get to building links with these five proven strategies. But remember – in all instances, building relationships and basing those relationships on offering free value takes home the trophy. Now, go crush those off-site SEO goals. 🙌




5 Proven Off-page SEO Tactics to Help You Build Powerful Links in No Time

# A New Player Enters the Game: 

<a href=https://explodingtopics.com/topic/rankmath/?period=24 target=”_blank”>
![Rank Math SEO Plugin](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/7qgaCHTnuIY4uiXlVadRIo/dd01975a210ed8b37955da0110e75274/rank_math.jpg)
      </a>

## 9 Features to Love About the Rank Math SEO Plugin

Released in November 2018, the Rank Math wordpress SEO plugin is fast becoming the favorite among SEOs. It was created by Suraj Vibhute and Bhanu Ahluwalia, who developed the plugin for their personal websites because they weren’t getting everything they needed from any of the SEO plugins for wordpess that were already available. 

The best part about this new plugin is that it does everything that Yoast Pro, Yoast Local, and WooCommerce does but for free. There is no pro version of the plugin and though one may be available in the future, the developers have promised that the current free version will continue to include all of the features it does now. Vibhute and Ahluwalia have offered this powerful free SEO tool as a way to compete with the heavyweight titleholder, Yoast SEO, which boasts more than five million active installations -- and it’s working. As of January 2020, Rank Math SEO has 100,000+ installs and counting. 

SEOs like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzN1qMagTEw" target="blank">Matthew Woodward</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/rankmathseo/status/1138288141947695104" target="blank">Cyrus Shepard</a> are singing its praises for being faster, easier, and more intuitive than Yoast. It’s also 66% lighter than Yoast, which means it’s more efficient with fewer PHP requests. When you’re ready to convert, Rank Math SEO will walk you through an easy to follow setup wizard and will import existing data from your site’s current SEO plugin before deactivating it. 

![Rank math vs yaost overview](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/1eKQlKi1k3EUdmHkvikHOK/1f32cfd67486a05c90391092d3b15a4e/Yoast-SEO-Rank-Math-Comparison.jpg)

#### Key features that set it apart from other plugins:

__Better Rich Snippets & Schema Markup Support__
Rank Math SEO plugin allows users to easily add the right metadata for Schema markup so that search engine bots can get an accurate read of the content. It allows you to choose the Rich Snippet Type, such as article, recipe, product, service, etc., and then add relevant information such as title, description, and post robots meta. Users can also select a default category and taxonomies. The layout is very straightforward and examples are provided to help with clarity.

![Rank Math Rich Snippet Image](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/4vffOaZg1Tb9D7IB3RLkK6/8e28d652c4433e923a9e127f3aa0d4b8/09-Rank-Math-Rich-Snippet-Support.jpg)


__404 Error Monitor & Broken Link Checker__
Rank Math SEO has a 404 checker with two modes, simple and advanced. The simple mode captures wordpress 404 error while the advanced mode tracks the error page, the referring page, the time of the error, and the user agent. Yoast doesn’t offer 404 support with the current free version of their plugin. Rank Math allows you to sort and redirect or fix the errors.

![404 Error Monitor and Broken Link Checker Image](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/2OHfWy9fPmVowJ2g0h6gG3/a250b0374d5c7f64e6da1136295a49f4/404_Detection_Rank_Math_SEO.PNG)

![Rank Math SEO 404 Monitor](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/5Ctsxc6eS4P3bKCIk6I71u/6a1a8b940a207b4a2c1eeac5a954aa46/all-options-in-the-404-monitor.jpg)
__Redirections__
Users can set up custom 302 , 301 , 307, 410, or 451 redirections and create automatic behaviors like a default 404 redirect to the Homepage. The plugin also allows for choice of redirection type, like a 301 redirect (permanent) or 302 redirect (temporary). 

![Rank Math SEO Plugin Redirections](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/4tyOpfUc2NEvBFldZCJnvE/701a768f119b6cccf27928542c4d393f/Rank_Math_SEO_Plugin_Redirections_Screen.PNG)

__1-Click SEO Audit__
Accessed from the the SEO Analysis menu, it provides a fast and comprehensive analysis and tells you how to fix the issues. 

![Rank Math SEO Site-Wide Analysis](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/4TNz4bVD31VKgVQ2uTiPjX/816ed61a8c379fb9616a69bf173d2e2a/Rank_Math_SEO_Plugin_Site-Wide_Analysis.PNG)

__Robots.txt Editing__

Rank Math SEO allows you to edit the virtual wordpress robots.txt file. It's automatically added to help a site index better.

![Rank Math SEO Robots Edit](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/4RoeFlurE95n1sCH9rwZg9/e8fb2a1f95d40908c0bb28d0d7d0c7c2/Robots_Editing.png)

__Automatic SEO image optimizer__
Rank Math SEO allows users to choose whether to automatically add missing image alt text and missing TITLE attributes. If a screen reader is used, the site visitors may experience accessibility issues, but it’s ideal for when a post has only one image. Though WordPress does add an image name by default, this feature gives people the option to add title attributes for all images without a title.   

![Rank Math SEO Images](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/66ZCqhtBOgddNlncR8bQcQ/56bb63f1a9674b5cb568f2c7e19f120f/general-settings-images-corrected.png)

__Google Keyword Suggestions, Keyword Integration, and Click-Through Rank Tracking__
With Rank Math, you can choose up to five focus keywords for each post and rank multiple keywords. It tracks how they are ranking in SERPs. The plugin also integrates Google keyword suggestions and provides rank tracking info within the Google Search Console in the WordPress admin dashboard. 

![Rank Math SEO Rank and CTR Tracking](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/1bFlDqgwF781dLc7tU1yNi/81bd23133604da9a0a987d38271136d4/Rank_Math_SEO_CTR_Tracking.PNG)

Though the keyword tracker is still in beta, when its launched, it will integrate with the Google Trends Tool to help users check keyword search trends. Currently, Rank Math provides an overview and detailed information about keyword search analytics including clicks, impressions, and click-through-rates for your site’s top-performing keywords. The Search Analytics tab in the Search Console provides an overview of data sets, search analytics for keywords, sitemaps, crawl errors, and the keyword tracker. 

![Rank Math SEO Keyword Search Analytics](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/GOUz68ZWsevKICAqKHkJM/ee08b912008f49ff0d0743c46448c946/Rank-Math-Search-Console-Full.jpg)

Shameless plug: While Rank Math SEO lets you track hundreds of keywords, if you want to track tens of thousands of phrases, you should start a [free trial with Nozzle](https://nozzle.io/trial). 

__WordPress Breadcrumbs__
If your WordPress theme doesn’t already include Breadcrumbs, this tool is very helpful not only for making your site easily navigable, but also for helping search engine bots read your content classifications. Once you’ve enabled the Breadcrumbs function, you can dial in the settings, like separator characters and homepage links. 

![Rank Math SEO Breadcrumbs](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/6kh7jWtQRNCAyXQqL5FF9S/2d8daf8df7ed8981971e8fcee8be44ae/Rank_Math_SEO_Breadcrumbs.PNG)

So far, Rank Math is a free seo plugin for wordpress that not only passes muster but crushes Yoast SEO plugin in offerings and performance and it does so at the very good price of free. Rank Math SEO provides features that even Yoast SEO premium plan does not. This wordpress seo plugin also makes website data easily digestible and more accessible to amateurs and pros alike.  



Rank Math SEO Featured Image

The Rank Math SEO plugin for WordPress offers the same functionality of Yoast Pro, Yoast Local, and WooCommerce for FREE.

9 Features to Love About the Rank Math SEO Plugin

2020 has finally arrived and since hindsight is 20/20 lets take a look back with perfect vision (still totally subjective, I know) over the last decade and discover what the most impactful change was to the SEO industry.

First of all let me list several big changes that made an impact on me in my career:

- EMD update
- Panda updates
- Penguin updates
- Disavow tools created
- People Also Ask feature in SERPs
- Knowledge Graph - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmQl6VGvX-c
- Mobilegeddon
- RankBrain
- Mobile-First indexing
- SSL became a ranking factor
- Pigeon update
- Pandas and penguins become animals that I have a love/hate relationship with now

Then I started wondering what were some of the big milestones hit or changes made by well known companies and communities in the SEO space. I discovered the following:
- <a href="https://www.bing.com/" target="blank">Bing</a> turned 10
- <a href="https://ahrefs.com/about" target="blank">ahrefs</a> was founded and became a powerhouse
- <a href="https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/our-story/" target="blank">Screaming Frog</a> was founded and is the go-to crawler for SEOs
- <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/SEO/" target="blank">The SEO subreddit</a> passed the 100k member mark
- <a href="https://moz.com/blog/new-domain-authority" target="blank">Moz</a> launched Domain Authority 2.0
- <a href="https://www.semrush.com/blog/1-year-100-updates-1-000-000-users-what-was-2016-like-for-semrush/" target="blank">SEMRush</a> reached 1,000,000 users in 2016 
- <a href="https://blog.majestic.com/index-updates/majestic-historic-index-update/" target="blank">Majestic</a> crawls over 7 billion URL's

Now to answer the main question, which change to the SEO industry had the biggest impact in the last decade?

Drumroll please...

Hands down, the winner is...__<a href="https://search.googleblog.com/2012/04/another-step-to-reward-high-quality.html" target="blank">The Penguin update of April 24th, 2012.</a>__

![Emperor Penguin with Crown](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/56hIArgwGTiF0VFVnle8J6/b70e4cbac6099ae74e087ac2427555ba/Emperor_Penguin_with_Crown.jpg)

## Why was the Penguin update the most impactful change of the 2010's?

It forever changed how all SEOs thought about and worked on link building. SEOs to this day have differing opinions on which types of links are acceptable but Penguin moved the bar along the acceptable spectrum for all of us.

It changed how we thought about anchor text and if, and how often, keywords should be used as the anchor text.

It brought about the disavow tools from Bing and Google. (Sidenote: <a href="https://www.seroundtable.com/bing-disavow-links-tool-15370.html" target="blank">Bing launched their disavow tool before Google.</a>)

Many blogging link networks were killed. I know some people still use them to this day but it's not even close to how it was before Penguin.

This was a time of massive SEO cleanup efforts and it scared some SEOs from doing any link building for years to come.

Penguin truly caused a huge paradigm shift about link building that you can only fully grasp if you built links before and after April 24th, 2012.

## What are your thoughts?

Let me know if you agree or disagree in the comments below.

Also, let me know which impactful changes you think I should add to the lists above in the comments section.

### Enjoy these articles as well:

- [How Google Engineers Decide What Changes to Make to the Algorithm](https://nozzle.io/blog/how-google-engineers-decide-what-changes-to-make-to-the-algorithm/)
- [Is SEO Dead?](https://nozzle.io/blog/is-seo-dead/)
- [Nozzle's Keyword Tracking Tool Features](https://nozzle.io/features)


Emperor Penguin with Crown

There have been many changes to the SEO industry in the last 10 years but there can only be one change that created the biggest impact.

The Most Impactful Change to the SEO Industry in the Last Decade

In 2018, Google launched 3,234 improvements to Search. That is an average of 8.86 changes a day. Yowza! Google engineers are busy.

For the curious, I've compiled some videos and quotes from Google engineers that explain very well how an update goes from new idea, to approved, to launched.

If you're short on time and just want a quick summary, watch Video 1 below. It's just under 4 minutes.

But for those of you who are SEO geeks like me and have more time, I present to you a few more videos. Below the videos, I have pulled out snippets from the videos and an article from Google, where I attempt to come up with a more in depth flow of the process behind how SERP and algorithm changes get approved at Google.
<br />

__Video 1: *How Google makes improvements to its search algorithm*__
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/J5RZOU6vK4Q" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<br />

__Video 2: *SMX West 2016 - How Google Works: A Google Ranking Engineer's Story*__
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iJPu4vHETXw" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<br />

__Video 3: *The Evolution of Search*__
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mTBShTwCnD4" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<br />

__Video 4: *Search Quality Meeting: Spelling for Long Queries*__
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JtRJXnXgE-A" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

## Goal
Video 3 at 00:08-00:26 —
> "Our goal is actually to make improvements to Search that just answer the user's information need. Get them to their answer faster and faster. So that there's almost a seamless connection between their thoughts and their information needs and the search results that they find."

## Ideas

Video 1 at 00:34-00:37 —
> "The first step in improving Google Search is coming up with an idea."

Video 1 at 00:43-00:50 —
> "Ranking engineers then come up with a hypothesis about what signal, what data, could we integrate into our algorithm."

Video 2 at 25:30-25:42 —
> "[Google has] a team of a few hundred software engineers. They are focused on [the] metrics and signals. They run lots and lots of experiments and they make a lot of changes." And they come up with a lot of ideas.

## Search Quality Tests

Video 1 at 00:50-00:58 —
> "We test all these reasonable ideas through rigorous scientific testing. The first is with raters."

Rigorous Testing Article —
> "We work with external Search Quality Raters to measure the quality of search results on an ongoing basis. Raters assess how well a website gives people who click on it what they are looking for, and evaluate the quality of results based on the expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness of the content."

Video 2 at 16:34-16:56 —
> "We published our human rater guidelines last year (in 2015). There are about 160 pages (168 pages in 2019) of great detail about how we think about what's good for users. If you're wondering why Google is doing something, often the answer is to make it look more like what the rater guidelines say.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;[You can find the rater guidelines <a href="https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/guidelines.raterhub.com/en//searchqualityevaluatorguidelines.pdf" target=blank>here</a>.]

Rigorous Testing Article —
> 595,429 Search quality tests with raters (2018)

## Side-by-Side Experiments

![Panda Comparison Side by Side](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/4G0YAbhna2iBZBTMACSLjG/02518f0e695bf8b85cf4420e0e6b21cb/Panda_Comparison_Side_by_Side.jpg)

Video 1 at 01:01-01:07 —
> "We [show] these raters side-by-side [experiments] for queries that the engineer's experiment might be affecting.

Rigorous Testing Article —
> In a side-by-side experiment, we show Raters two different sets of search results: one with the proposed change already implemented and one without.

Rigorous Testing Article —
> 44,155 Side-by-side experiments (2018)

## Live Traffic Experiments

Video 1 at 01:11-1:25 —
> "We also confirm these changes with live experiments on real users. And we do this in something that's called a Sandbox. We send a very small fraction of actual Google traffic to the Sandbox. We compute lots of different metrics."

Rigorous Testing Article —
> "We enable the feature in question to just a small percentage of people, usually starting at 0.1%."

Video 2 at 12:48-13:26 —
> "We do A/B experiments on real traffic. And then we look for changes in click patterns. And I should just mention that we run a lot of experiments. It is very rare, if you do a search on Google and you're not in at least one experiment. Now not all of these are ranking experiments. [Famously](https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/business/01marissa.html) Google tested the color blue that we use for links and other blue highlighting with 41 different blues and came to the conclusion what was the perfect blue."

Video 2 at 28:36-28:48 —
> "By and large, [Google engineers] try to move results with good human ratings and live experiment ratings up. And move results with bad ratings down."

Rigorous Testing Article —
> 15,096 Live traffic experiments (2018)

## Launch Reports by Quantitative Analysts
Video 2 at 26:31-26:42 —
> "A launch report is written by a quantitative analyst who is basically a statistician and someone who's an expert at analyzing our experiments."

Video 1 at 01:34-01:41 —
> "For each project, it's usually one analyst assigned from the moment that we're talking to the engineers trying to learn about their change.

Video 1 at 01:51-01:58 —
> "Ultimately, the goal of the search eval analyst team is just to provide an informed, data-driven decision and present an unbiased view."

## Launch Reviews

Video 2 at 27:54-28:00 —
> He mentions a video Google created of one of their weekly Search Quality meetings. I'm pretty sure Video 4 above is the one he is referencing.

Video 4 in video description —
> "We hold the meeting almost every Thursday to discuss possible algorithmic improvements and make decisions about what to launch."

Just look how many people are at that meeting. After looking at all the angles, I count at least 37 people crammed into that conference room but I think I'm missing a few more that are behind the cameras angle of vision. That is one expensive meeting!

Video 2 at 27:29-27:41 —
> "We try to debate ... is this good for the users, is this good for the system architecture, are we going to be able to keep improving the system after one of the these changes is made."

Rigorous Testing Article —
> "Of the proposed changes this past year (2018), many never went live, because unless we can show a change actually makes things better for people, we don’t launch it."

## Launch

Video 1 at 2:03-2:10 —
> "If our scientific testing says this is a good idea for Google users, we will launch it on Google."

Video 5 at 0:31-0:48 —
> "We might batch [algorithm changes] up and go to a meeting once a week where we talk about 8 or 10 or 12 or 6 different things that we would want to launch, but then after those get approved ... those will roll out as we can get them into production."

Video 2 at 28:07-28:36 —
> "[Once] approved, getting into production can be an easy thing. Some teams will ship it the same week. Sometimes you have to rewrite your code to actually make it suitable for our production architecture. Making things fast enough, making things clean enough. That can take awhile. I've known it to take months. In the worst case I know about, it took just shy of two years between approval and actually launching."

Rigorous Testing Article —
> 3,234 Launches (2018)

## Issues With The Process and How Google Engineers Fix It

Video 2 at 28:51-32:35 —
This is a great 4 minute segment showing two cases that illustrate where the raters and the metrics weren't cutting it and how the engineers fixed the problem.

Two kinds of problems at the core of everything engineers see:

- Systematically bad ratings
- Metrics don't capture things they care about

Video 2 at 32:28-32:35 —
> "[W]hen the metrics miss something, what ranking engineers need to do is fix the guidelines or develop new metrics."

## Summary

Video 3 at 04:24-04:40 —
> "Our goal is to make it so that the improvement we make is so much what you wanted and fits so cleanly into the flow of what you are looking for that you almost don't notice that it's happened. And looking back at it, it seems obvious that that's the way it should have always been in the first place."

Video 1 at 03:24-03:29 —
> "We've put a huge investment into understanding what works for users."

Video 1 at 03:36-03:41 —
> "I think we get excited when we feel like we've hit on an idea that really helps a lot of users."

As you can see, Google engineers are modern day superheroes. They work very hard to improve Search for all of us. And it's obviously working since Google has been the number one search engine for just under two decades now.

### Appendix A: Videos and Content Quoted
Video 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5RZOU6vK4Q
Video 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJPu4vHETXw
Video 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTBShTwCnD4
Video 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtRJXnXgE-A
Video 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_jm_isupFY
Rigorous Testing Article: https://www.google.com/search/howsearchworks/mission/users/

Other interesting and related articles you'll enjoy:

- [How Often Does Google Update Its Algorithm?](https://moz.com/blog/how-often-does-google-update-its-algorithm)
- [Complex Search-Results Pages Change Search Behavior: The Pinball Pattern](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/pinball-pattern-search-behavior/)


Panda Comparison Side by Side

Google engineers have an important and difficult job. Learn how they work to improve the search algorithm.

How Google Engineers Decide What Changes to Make to the Algorithm

Is SEO dead trend on Google coinciding with major updates

Google Trends history for Is SEO Dead 2

A long and a short answer to the question, "Is SEO dead?"

Is SEO Dead?

We decided to join in on the fun of this time of year and make an SEO christmas song.

We came up with "The 12 Years of Google Updates" which is sung to the tune of the popular (and slightly annoying, I might add) 12 Days of Christmas.

Some Nozzlers were reluctant to participate but in the end everyone did great and we had a lot of fun putting it together. We did practice singing several times to work out some bugs but we decided to only do one video take to keep it a little bit more raw.

Enjoy!

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XeIUKSgiZQU" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

## Lyrics:
For the last 12 years of updates, Google gave to us,
{2008} - Google Suggest 
{2009} - Rel Canonical Tags and Vince
{2010} - May Day and Caffeine Rollout
{2011} - Hordes and hordes of Pandas
{2012} - Penguins with more Pandas
{2013} - Hummingbird, Penguins and Pandas
{2014} - SSL is a ranking factor--and another Penguin and some Pandas
{2015} - Mobilegeddon and Rank Brain (with a sign adding "And the last of the Pandas")
{2016} - Penguin 4.0
{2017} - Fred
{2018} - A Broad Core Algo update (with a sign stating "boring")
{2019} - And a BERT... for everyone

I'm realizing now that the lyrics for 2018 would have been better as "Core Updates Unnamed" since there were a handful of them.

## Quick Algo History Lesson:
As all SEO's know, Google updates their algorithm hundreds, even thousands of times a year. In 2018, for example, Google announced that they made [launched 3,234 changes.](https://www.google.com/search/howsearchworks/mission/users/)

In May, 2019, Dr. Pete from Moz, wrote in depth about [how often Google updates its algorithm](https://moz.com/blog/how-often-does-google-update-its-algorithm). It's interesting to see the increase in changes over the last decade.

## Monitoring the SERPs
With the constant changes happening in the SERPs everyday you need [keyword rank tracker](https://nozzle.io/) to monitor your website rankings. [Sign up for a Nozzle trial today.](https://nozzle.io/trial)



The last 12 years of updates Christmas SEO Song Performers

An SEO version of The 12 Days of Christmas Song.

The 12 Years of Google Updates Christmas Song

TechSEO Boost was the place to be on the 4th and 5th of December if you love SEO. Let me tell you about it. But if you'd rather just watch it, you can find videos of each session [over here](https://www.catalystdigital.com/techseoboost-2019-session-recordings/).

![Meghan, Paul and Derek](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/3nQiHc0loQie5nMx7BcVjQ/7d0f87389ea5b1f3f42c41a0cc0df088/Meghan__Paul_and_Derek.JPG)

## NHL Refs. Who us?

The fun began when we arrived late at night at our hotel located just across from the Boston Garden when a happy drunk man asked if we were NHL refs. The Boston Bruins had apparently just won their game 2-0 across the street and this stranger was convinced we looked just like NHL referees. It took us 10-15 minutes to convince him otherwise.

## Perfectly Organized Event
Anywho, we were happy to sponsor such a great conference. It's a super organized and well run conference. The two day event went very well and never felt rushed. There were great speakers and great food. We truly appreciate all the hard work by all the event coordinators. Meghan Lavin, Paul Shapiro and the rest of the [Catalyst Digital](https://www.catalystdigital.com/) team deserve all the credit.


## The Venue and Fun
The venue was perfect. It was held at the [City Winery](https://citywinery.com/boston/). 

![Welcom to City Winery Mat](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/5q0DxDjsg6oSF3X93P2NgL/2f7bc7a68f69e66140231484ac324509/Welcom_to_City_Winery_Mat.JPG)
![TechSEO city winery venue](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/2XpywlLX9umfWWhNCRgA1D/23fdbc7312177b4718f40bf62e39ab38/IMG_3476__1_.JPG) 

Here is a quick video showing the main areas where us SEO nerds hung out for two days.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/w-Mn5wOzE6E" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>


There were also some fun props to use for taking pictures with old and new friends alike.

![TechSEO Boost Props for photo shoots](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/6K6qlMJJujz8pGLcjpn4ZA/28e2d47cdf16da8570556eb28debfeb4/TechSEO_Boost_Props_for_photo_shoots.JPG)


## The Knowledge Disbursed
TechSEO Boost is such a great SEO conference because there is only one track and it's all about technical SEO. There were sessions about a whole bunch of cool topics including:

  - Technical Link Building
  - Crawl Budget
  - Google Apps Script
  - NLP for SEO
  - Googlebot & Javascript
  - Crawling & Rendering
  - Faceted Nav
  - Pagination for SEO

Below is a quick twitter recap of my favorite moments and takeaways from the event:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Nice! <a href="https://twitter.com/SeekerDigital?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SeekerDigital</a> is running titles of contacts that <a href="https://twitter.com/PitchboxApp?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PitchboxApp</a> is pulling back through <a href="https://twitter.com/monkeylearn?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@monkeylearn</a> and helping to automate the choosing of contacts to reach out to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/techseoboost?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#techseoboost</a></p>&mdash; MyCool King (@iPullRank) <a href="https://twitter.com/iPullRank/status/1202709546625568769?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 5, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

    
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/SimpsonGareth?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@simpsongareth</a> is automatically classifying email responses in <a href="https://twitter.com/monkeylearn?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@monkeylearn</a> by intent, sentiment and urgency and custom tagging them in <a href="https://twitter.com/PitchboxApp?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PitchboxApp</a> to help them quickly filter their emails so the team can focus emails that are worth responding to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/techseoboost?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#techseoboost</a></p>&mdash; MyCool King (@iPullRank) <a href="https://twitter.com/iPullRank/status/1202710104690307076?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 5, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Am I the only one who looks at Googlers in the audience to see their reactions when a speaker says Google does X? In this case I am looking at <a href="https://twitter.com/g33konaut?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@g33konaut</a> during <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TechSEOBoost?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TechSEOBoost</a></p>&mdash; Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) <a href="https://twitter.com/rustybrick/status/1202633907981758466?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 5, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">&quot;It&#39;s not that we have short attention spans, we are good at filter things that aren&#39;t important. It&#39;s about moderating cognitive load.&quot; -<a href="https://twitter.com/dawnieando?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@dawnieando</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TechSEOBoost?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TechSEOBoost</a></p>&mdash; Jairus Mitchell (@AnInternetRobot) <a href="https://twitter.com/AnInternetRobot/status/1202632199759118337?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 5, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Humans are informavores. -<a href="https://twitter.com/dawnieando?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@dawnieando</a> at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TechSEOBoost?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TechSEOBoost</a> (Totally putting that one in my pocket for later.) <a href="https://t.co/Ksuv35m5Sj">pic.twitter.com/Ksuv35m5Sj</a></p>&mdash; Jessica Levenson (@guerillagirl) <a href="https://twitter.com/guerillagirl/status/1202632041810079746?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 5, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">BERT needs stop words because if you take out the stop words you remove a lot of contextual information -<a href="https://twitter.com/jroakes?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jroakes</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TechSEOBoost?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TechSEOBoost</a></p>&mdash; Tyler Reardon (@TylerReardon) <a href="https://twitter.com/TylerReardon/status/1202602988969365504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 5, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">If you think ‘Self, there is no way <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TechSEOBoost?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TechSEOBoost</a> could be as good as the hype.’<br><br>Let me tell you, as a majorly curmudgeonly person, it’s better then that!<br><br>The presentations are top tier, but the networking is s-tier. Any question can get answered. Congrats &amp; thanks <a href="https://twitter.com/fighto?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@fighto</a></p>&mdash; Dan Leibson (@DanLeibson) <a href="https://twitter.com/DanLeibson/status/1202383839949152257?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 5, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">&quot;25% of queries can be answered with less than 1% of URL&#39;s.&quot; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/techseoboost?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#techseoboost</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/PolarBearby?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PolarBearby</a><br><br>This stat is both interesting and depressing at the same time.</p>&mdash; Boyd Norwood  (@boydnorwood) <a href="https://twitter.com/boydnorwood/status/1202339394725789697?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 4, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/techSEOBoost?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#techSEOBoost</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/ClaudiaFaceoff?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ClaudiaFaceoff</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/Derek_Perkins?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Derek_Perkins</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/jsilton?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jsilton</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/jroakes?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@jroakes</a> /5<br><br>key takeaways /2: 🗝️<br> - build things, don&#39;t stress about your self image😅<br> - when you want to build something &gt;&gt; wait!🛑<br> - sometimes the best solution is simple 🔵<br> - understand the problem scope 🧮</p>&mdash; Alexis Sanders (@AlexisKSanders) <a href="https://twitter.com/AlexisKSanders/status/1202330714752126976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 4, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" tw-align-center><p lang="en" dir="ltr">SEO + Google Sheets + JavaScript + Free Code Examples<br><br>Endorsed 💯💯💯<br><br>Thank you <a href="https://twitter.com/dsottimano?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@dsottimano</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/techSEOboost?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#techSEOboost</a> <a href="https://t.co/E12gtvzVjY">https://t.co/E12gtvzVjY</a></p>&mdash; Cyrus (@CyrusShepard) <a href="https://twitter.com/CyrusShepard/status/1202457804226740224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 5, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The slides by [David Sottimano](https://davidsottimano.com/) that are mentioned in the last tweet and that were a huge favorite [can be found here.](https://www.slideshare.net/dsottimano/techseo-boost-apps-script-for-seos) 

Can't wait for next year's event!


Meghan, Paul and Derek

TechSEO Boost 2019 was full of great speakers, people and food.

We Sponsored TechSEO Boost and Loved Every Minute

On March 28, 2019, [Kevin Indig](https://twitter.com/Kevin_Indig), VP of SEO & Content at [G2.com](https://www.g2.com/), tweeted a question that sparked some good discussion on how to find the best SEO tools to use.

![How do you choose which SEO tool to use and buy from Kevin Indig's tweet](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/7ocntSw64U4MFmrlZiRJ0g/b6813e89d8256486c9dbc856871ace98/How_do_you_choose_which_SEO_tool_to_use_and_buy_from_Kevin_Indig_s_tweet.JPG)

With 45 replies and dozens of sub replies, we were able to compile a great list from a host of digital marketers and SEOs. 

__These are the sources people said they use to find SEO tools:__
- Peers/Network/Co-workers/Mentors (17 mentions) 
- SEO articles, blog reviews and case studies mentioning SEO Tools (13 mentions)
- Twitter (9 mentions)
- Event/Conference speakers and sponsors (5 mentions)
- Google (4 mentions)
- Webinars, youtube videos (3 mentions)
- [@G2CrowdReviews](https://twitter.com/G2CrowdReviews) (2 mentions)
- [Product Hunt](https://www.producthunt.com/) (2 mentions)
- Linkedin
- [AppSumo](https://appsumo.com/)
- [Detailed.com](https://detailed.com/)
- [Ahrefs blog](https://ahrefs.com/blog/)
- [Backlinko blog](https://backlinko.com/blog)
- [Moz blog](https://moz.com/blog)
- Google trends
- Forums
- [Search Engine Journal](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/)
- Magazine articles
- Reddit
- Github

__And then this is how they determine whether or not to use/buy the tool they find:__

[David Iwanow (@davidiwanow)](https://twitter.com/davidiwanow) suggested the following:
- CS support and post sales service
- Willingness to improve the product and fix issues/bugs (not shrug them off)
- Aggressively adding to and improving the product
- Proactive support

[Alexandra Tachalova (@AlexTachalova)](https://twitter.com/AlexTachalova) looks to the source:
- Try to understand the {SEO Tools} data source. There are a HUGE number of tools simply reselling someone else's data.

[Arnoldo Cabrera (@spanskseo)](https://twitter.com/spanskseo) looks for the following:
- It is scalable multilingual, geographies, data set
- provides api connectivity not only to your data but to your toolbox
- time saving, e.g. reporting time
- it has good support and product managers listen to the user feedback
- enable cross collaboration outside seo team

[Matt Ramage (@ramagetime)](https://twitter.com/ramagetime)
- Cost and ease of use. And of Course the data.

[Hardik Oza (@Ozaemotion)](https://twitter.com/Ozaemotion) lists the following:
- Freshness of data
- Quality of data rather than quantity
- Number of users
- Support

[Kelly Stanze (@KellyStanze)](https://twitter.com/KellyStanze) offers:
- Similar clientele and their happiness
- The tool features itself, and how data for those tools is supplied/supported
- Support - do we get an account team? What’s included?
- Pricing structure (don’t nickel and dime me)
- Innovation

[Seb Adler (@seoseb)](https://twitter.com/seoseb) advises:
- Does it state to be the all-in-one solution → skip it
- Do a trial, test it on a real life project, check against existing workflows. Does it automate workflows oder provide additional insights? If so:
- Does it integrate well in our data warehousing.

[Damien Anderson (@echwa)](https://twitter.com/echwa) suggests you:
- Understand and document needs
- Ask select vendors to demonstrate to needs

[Willow Colios (@willowcolios)](https://twitter.com/willowcolios) puts forward these thoughts:
- Can you align the tool with team processes and workflow?
- Is it usable for those that use it every day/week?
- Is it a good fit for the organisation
- Right spec at the right price?

[Adam J. Humphreys (@Making8)](https://twitter.com/Making8) offers some great insight:
- Features, UX (time savings, compatibly with other platforms, easily exported reports, actionable data summaries), price compared to others (this really matters as some are 2500 a month per client)
- The best way to engage with us is letting influencers in search test it then blog about it on a main journal.
- One can’t really win over our industry without letting us test it out and given our time constraints we often don’t get to use it right away so capping amount of uses vs time is also best."

__Biggest Takeaway:__
Use your network to find tools that they love and would recommend. If at all possible, sign up for a trial run to find out if it can solve your needs and will be compatible with your processes and workflows. 

It may be cool but is it the right fit?
<div style="width:100%;height:0;padding-bottom:90%;position:relative;"><iframe src="https://giphy.com/embed/6klKY9ggNR744" width="100%" height="100%" style="position:absolute" frameBorder="0" class="giphy-embed" allowFullScreen></iframe></div>

Kevin Indig's tweet asking how do you choose which SEO tool to use/buy?

How do you choose which SEO tool to use and buy from Kevin Indig's tweet

Learn how dozens of marketers find SEO tools and decide which ones to use/buy.

Dozens of Marketers Share How They Choose Which SEO Tool to Use and Buy

A coworker stumbled upon a tweet yesterday from [@BrittanyZerr](https://twitter.com/BrittanyZerr) which showed a funny featured snippet mistake that the great Google machine made.

![Brittany Zerr Tweet Image of Featured Snippet Gone Wrong](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/6VEnaQ54z7a4keKYC8XfTJ/9631d42512feed28e4a06a6fe4fe1f97/Brittany_Zerr_Tweet_Image_of_Featured_Snippet_Gone_Wrong.JPG)

If you search for "How to make the best risotto", you'll see the featured snippet from the image above at the top of the SERPs. But if you head on over to the [bonappetit article](https://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/common-mistakes/article/how-to-make-the-best-risotto-and-avoid-these-8-common-mistakes), you'll see that it's subtitle is, "Here are the 8 most common mistakes people make when cooking the beloved Italian rice dish, so you can avoid them".

As you scroll down you'll see that each numbered item is crossed out as it is something you should avoid if you want to make the best risotto.

![crossed out numbered items as things to avoid-1](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/2Mf4JaPOKI6I93bBFCCuBZ/d24eeb23210a4b51e1e254dceeb22843/crossed_out_numbered_items_as_things_to_avoid-1.JPG)

To be fair, it is a useful list of things that can help you make the best risotto if you avoid doing them but the featured snippet doesn't point out that fact which is where the failure lies. Obviously a human being wouldn't feautre a list of things to avoid doing and present them as things to do. Even the great Google machine can make mistakes and isn't quite human--yet. ;)

__What we can learn from this:__

Google likes to display numbered list snippets when the query implies the searcher is looking for a list of steps to accomplish a specific task.

So if you rank for queries that have this intent, make sure to list the tasks to be performed in an html numbered list.

Furthermore, add a bulleted list to any post or article where it makes sense. People love them because they are skimmable and Google loves them too. 

Your numbered or bulleted lists may not become the featured snippet for a query but they absolutely will not if they do not exist. As they say, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take--so take them!




Google featured snippet showing opposite results than what was intended.

Brittany Zerr Tweet Image of Featured Snippet Gone Wrong

Funny featured snippet mistake that Google made that implies the exact opposite of what was intended.

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