17 10, 2013

Hummingbird, Penguin 2.1 – The Guidelines Are Still The Same

By |2016-12-05T10:55:29+00:00October 17th, 2013|Categories: , , , |Tags: |0 Comments

While there is still a lot of buzz going on about the Hummingbird and Penguin 2.1 algorithm updates, and how it affects ranking. On October 3rd, Barry Schwartz posted a blog about specific dates where there were noticeable ranking changes and conducted a survey asking how SEOs and webmasters were affected. He discusses the results of the change in the video below.       Barry Schwartz Discusses a Poll On How Rankings Were Affected By Penguin 2.1 There were over 1600 responses to the poll. These were the results: 63% of the respondents said that their site was hurt bad. 21% said that their site had no change at all. 8% said that their website recovered from the previous penguin update. 6.2% that their rank gained with more traffic. This shouldn't be surprising to most of us. When we look at historical SEO tactics, it's easy to see that yesterday's white-hat is today's grey-hat/black-hat. Guest posting used to be one of the most effective ways of manually building links, but even that has become more challenging. So with these new updates, what do [...]

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16 10, 2013

Game Changing API for Big SEO Data

By |2016-12-05T10:55:29+00:00October 16th, 2013|Categories: , , |Tags: |0 Comments

Part of our jobs as SEOs includes gather data for campaigns we're conducting research on. Most of us have a collection of sources bookmarked or we subscribe to a service to speed up the process. One way of gathering data is by submitting queries to Google to get keyword ranking data, collect information on competitors and collect historical data to help us understand Google's algorithm changes at a deeper level. With some knowledge of web development, there is an API solution that up until now hasn't been heard of. It is currently in beta testing and requires you to apply for an API key, but is free to use for the time being if your application is approved. If you are a big data geek like me, you are going to want to check this out. To give you an example of how this API can be used, I'll tell you about an application I'm working on. It basically allows you to match multiple keyword queries (up to 10,000 queries per hour) with certain advanced search operators to pull in bulk data. I won't [...]

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11 10, 2013

8 Ways to Use Search Operators for Link Building Relationships

By |2019-12-17T23:25:13+00:00October 11th, 2013|Categories: , , |Tags: |2 Comments

In 2019, backlinks are still the most important ranking factor. Today, there are many different flavors of "links", however. The biggest difference to consider is the quality of the backlinks. Google algorithm changes have made link acquisition more difficult with every update. At one point in time, article directories, directories, web 2.0, and even paid links were link building tactics that actually worked; however those days are long gone now. With social metrics and Google even cracking down on guest posting, link acquisition  has become more about the quality of the content and relationship building. The first step to building a relationship is understanding how to find the right people to build a relationship with. With that in mind, here are 8 ways to use search operators for link building building relationships. 'keyword' + inurl:write for us While guest posting seems to be a dying breed, there are still effective ways to go about it. One way is by leaving out your author byline and submitting it as an article. Many publishers are more than happy to do this for you in exchange [...]

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