
AMP: Above and beyond
Since the announcement of the project in October 2015, a lot has been said about Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) — what they are, how to...

Why Google is mining local business attributes
When checking into places on Google Maps, you may have noticed that Google prompts you to volunteer information about the place you’re...

Beware of shady link schemes from black-hat SEOs
Recently, one of my clients received an unsolicited email from a person named “Nicholas Salmons” offering to feature their business on...

Bridging the gaps in the Google My Business API
Last month, Google released version 3.0 of its Google My Business API, which for those of us managing locations at scale felt like...

Five insights your paid search team should be stealing from organic
Getting clicks is great, but it’s way more important to know what happens after you get those clicks. That’s why I was so excited last...

Google Analytics adds hacked spam webmaster notifications alerts
Google Analytics announced that they’ve added hacked spam notifications to their alerts bar. These alerts are similar to the same...

Brief change suggests local SEO ranking factors are different for branded queries
Before I explain what happened, I need to first clarify that there are currently two different kinds of local 3-packs (branded vs....

The importance of micro-moments: The mobile customer journey
According to eMarketer, global mobile ad spend is expected to double from $100 billion in 2016 to nearly $200 billion in...

What is quality content?
We’ve all heard that content is king and that you need to write high-quality content, or now “10x content,” as coined by Rand Fishkin....

Google has a new tool for small businesses to check how well their websites score
Google launched a new small business-friendly tool at testmysite.thinkwithgoogle.com that will show how mobile-friendly and fast a site...

Competitive threats to Google, and what they mean for you
Google market share in the US currently stands at 63.8 percent, with Bing (including Yahoo’s search volume) coming in at 33.5 percent,...

Google Analytics replaces Search Engine Optimization report with Search Console report
Google Analytics has updated their integration with the Google Search Console Search Analytics report. Soon your “Search Engine...

The #1 reason why position #1 doesn’t matter
That’s right — position #1, the elusive goal for so many SEOs, may not matter so much anymore. Crazy statement, right? Trust me… follow...

Why “near me” is critically important for multi-location businesses
Local search can be time-consuming and complicated for a single location; local search marketing for franchises can be downright...

Top 9 reasons Google suspends local listings
I see threads over at the Google My Business forum all the time from panicked business owners or SEOs who have logged into Google My...

HTTP to HTTPS: An SEO’s guide to securing a website
Back when I wrote the article, “Why Everyone Should Be Moving To HTTP/2,” it was meant to bring awareness to an awesome protocol upgrade...

How to adjust SEO strategy to Google’s new SERP ad layout
Removing the ads from the right rail of Google search results pages was a long time coming (well, a long time for digital). An...

Don’t trust Google to structure your local data
I have been noticing a lot of Google Answer Boxes showing up for queries with local intent these days. My recent post, Are You Doing...

3 practical local link building ideas that will cure your Penguinitis
I have a confession to make: Penguin scared the daylights out of me. I hope those of you who have been around the industry for as many...
























