Search Engines
Understanding how search engines work, Google in particular, is important when working in SEO. The basics of crawling and indexing are amazingly useful to understand if you want to rank your own content.
Additionally, Google updates its algorithm several times a year. Understanding the more significant updates, and how they work, can help you to craft content and SEO strategies that are up-to-date.
We've written extensively about how search engines work, and included some of the top resources here. You can also browse the latest posts on search engines from the Moz blog below.
How Search Engines Work : New to SEO? Start with the basics of how search engines operate with our free beginner's guide.
Search Engine Ranking and Visibility : Learn the fundamentals of how search engines rank content on search engine result pages.
Google Algorithm Update History : A complete history of Google algorithm updates since 2000. This includes important links and references for understanding how Google works.
How Search Engines Value Links : Search engines work off a number of signals, but two of the most important are content and links. In this video, Rand Fishkin explains the basics of link evaluation.
MozCast : Is Google updating it's algorithm as we speak? MozCast is the Google algorithm weather report, so you can see how much Google results are changing each day.
Wake Up SEOs, the New Google is Here
I must admit that lately Google is the cause of my headaches. No, not just because it decided I was not going to be not provided with useful information about my sites. And neither because it is changing practically every tool I got used since my first days as an SEO (Google Analytics, Webmaster Tools, Gmail…). And, honestly, not only because it released a ravenous Panda. No, the real question that is causing my headaches is: What the hell does Google want to go with all these changes?
Social Network Spam and Author/Agent Rank
As search engines develop and ranking signals change, it can be helpful to look at patents and try to pull out and explain what factors may go into their algorithms. Not every social share will affect rankings, so how can we build our authority? In this post, we explore the ideas of Author Rank and Agent Rank and how search engines may view social signals. We also provide some actionable tools that you can use to create your identity online as social signals become more of a ranking factors.
SEO Marketing Is Dead, Is Dead! Long Live SSOM
Link bait title? Perhaps. Yet, after much thought, research and consideration of our day to day client processes, we've come to the realization of a simple fact: SEO marketing really is dead. It's been in the death throes for a while and optimizers have just been too busy to see it.
The Responsibilities of SEO Have Been Upgraded
When I started in the SEO field (circa 2003), the job responsibilities weren't easy, but the list was relatively small: Over the next 5 years, those responsibilities increased, but it was primarily in tactical and knowledge sorts of ways. A 2008 rundown might look something like: The last 2.5 years, however, have made for some fairly substantive changes. We...
The Tweet Effect: How Twitter Affects Rankings
The advent of social media has brought a host of changes to the SEO industry, and online marketing as a whole. You would be hard-pressed to find a business with a decent online presence that does n...Level Up Your SEO Skills With Our Free Training
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More "Panda" Update Information Starting to Come Out
On Friday, Google posted an update on its Webmaster Central blog entitled "Providing More Guidance on Building High-Quality Sites". The piece expands on much of what Google has said about the Panda update since its original release on February 24th.
Facebook + Twitter's Influence on Google's Search Rankings
Since last December's admission from Google + Bing's search teams regarding the direct impact of Twitter + Facebook on search rankings, marketers have been asking two questions: What signals are Google + Bing counting? How much influence do these social signals have...
One Year Later: Changes in SEO
It's been a year, one calendar year since I joined Distilled. My first task was to write the post for SEOmoz as the rest of the office was going to be out on holiday. (Hi guys, bye guys ...) So I geared up to write my first blog post on SEOmoz, as my others were always YOUmoz posts. ...
Traffic Source Diversity is Essential for Successful SEO
I recently created some custom filters in Google Analytics to illustrate SEOmoz's traffic over the past 12 months: SEOmoz's Traffic Sources Distribution...
Google's Farmer/Panda Update: Analysis of Winners vs. Losers
By now, everyone in the SEO world is aware of the algorithmic update Google launched last Wednesday, February 23rd. Several posts on the topic are worth reading, including Danny Sullivan's take, Aaron Wall's assesment...