The Moz Blog

URL Rewrites and 301 Redirects - How Does It All Work?

URL rewrites and 301 redirects... you talk about them, you recommend them, but do you truly understand how they work? Sure, you know that rewriting a URL means that the URL displayed in the browser changes to be more SEO (and user) friendly. And you know that a 301 redirect is a permanent redirect. But let's dig a little deeper, and explain how they work together.

Headsmacking Tip #13: Don't Accidentally Block Link Juice with Robots.txt

A very simple return to the headsmacking series this week (as it's late here in London and I've been up my usual 40+ hours traveling). We've been noticing that a number of websites seeking to block bot access to pages on their domain have been employing robots.txt to do so. While this is certainly a fine practice, the questions we've been getting show that there's a few misunderstanding...

Weekend Roundup for the Week of 5/10/09

Stories, news, and other notable items from the past week: Google crashed between 8:40 and 9:55 ET yesterday, preventing people from Googling to find out why Google wasn't working. Oh noes! Speaking of Google, they recently overhauled Google News as well as updated their blog search algorithm, and they're allowing trademarks to be used in US Adwords copy. Geez, no wonder there was downtime. Methinks Google needs a little R&R.

Whiteboard Friday - Link Farming

"Old McSpammer had a farm, e-i-e-i-oh, And on that farm he built some links, e-i-e-i-oh With a backlink here, and a backlink there, Here a link, there a link, Everywhere a link, link..." You get the idea. Back in the day, building your own network of sites designed to link to each other and build link popularity was an easy way to help b...

You Won't Get Away That Easy, Critchlow

(Intro: For those who aren't aware, last week I challenged Will Critchlow to a presentation-off during SMX London). I see how it is, Will. Don't try to deny it. You can't win on points, so y...

Upcoming Spring 2009 Search Conferences

The weather's getting nicer, the days are getting longer and Rand's barely in the office. You know what that means: it's conference season! Since there are so many conferences right around the corner, I thought I'd list some upcoming events in case you're thinking of attending a show but aren't sure which one to book. SMX London in London, UK: May 18-19, 2009...

Blog Launch Check List

Although a lot of a blog's success comes from the ongoing effort you put into growing and nurturing it, there are a few things you can do to give it the best possible chance from day one. The checklist below varies from very simple actions through to big decisions and longer term strategies.

mozRank and PageRank for Metrics Driven SEO

Judging by our analytics and the volume of Q+A regarding mozRank and PageRank in the last couple of months, I'd say a lot of you are applying metrics to your SEO. Given the economy, it's great if you can lay out some hard numbers, connect that to results and make a strong argument for the work that you do. I know we're seeing our SEO business continue to grow, not shrink, even in this ...

Roundup Thursday for the Week of 5/3/09

Stories, news, and other notable items from the past week: Compete has rolled out a bunch of changes, adding user generated tags, a new interface, dynamic graphs, and more. Pete Meyers has hired a new intern, Yoozer, and he's here to answer your toughest questions about usability.

Link Building from A to Z

Although you can easily find lists with 21, 66, 69, 75, 101 or even 131 link building strategies, numbered (link building) tip lists remain very popular. Not because these articles provide shocking new insights - most of the aforementioned mentioned lists mention pretty much the same tactics - but because they remind people of how work intensive the ongoing process of link building can be, and because they make people think due to their in-depth nature. "How can I use these tactics for our website?" "Which of the listed tactics are relevant for our company?" Or, even better, "What strategies would I have added to this list?"

SEOmoz Best of April 2009

At the beginning of every month I'll be highlighting the best content from the previous month. I'll still be doing the weekly roundups (I owe you guys a big one tomorrow), but here's a monthly recap of the best blogs, YOUmoz entries, tools and more. Best Blog Posts in April 2009 Fear and Forg...

Is Social Media Marketing Illegal?

The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has some rules about online marketing that may surprise you - they certainly surprised me. Recently, SEOmoz's own Sarah Bird was interviewed by Eric Enge on a wide variety of contract and legal topics. As I was proudly browsing th...