Written by Anna Crowe - I’ve spent more hours than I care to admit searching for the best Mexican food, thumbing through Instagram posts, and picking the brain of local bloggers. In pursuit of my Pride Rock moment holding the king of tacos, I always return to Google. When I’m perusing through Google, I’m served Google Business Profile, Google Map, [...]

Think about the last time you uploaded an image to your website. Chances are you downloaded it from a stock photography site, uploaded it to the backend of your site, and then inserted it to the page.This makes a shining example of image optimization, right? Not quite.You’ve added a giant bowling ball weight to your site that’s slowing down the [...]

“Nofollow” isn’t just a funny-sounding term SEO professionals use to sound more mysterious. Nofollow is an HTML attribute that’s been around for 14 years.At its most basic, nofollow is a hyperlink attribute that tells Google to not pass PageRank so Google doesn’t even crawl nofollowed links.You can control the nofollowing of any links on your site (whether those are to [...]

Age-old stories and advice like the below from Brian Dean would have us believe that your server’s IP address will affect your rankings.Screenshot by author, July 2021I mean, why not? If your server is all porn, gambling, or Viagra, it would make sense to blacklist the server, right?AdvertisementContinue Reading BelowBut is it a myth?One might imagine it wouldn’t be much [...]

For years, SEO professionals have lived inside Google Search Console (previously known as Google Webmaster Tools) almost as if we’re building our own Sims world for SEO.If you’ve mastered the art of optimizing your website with the help of Google Search Console, you most likely have your site on lock.But does Google Search Console play a role in Google’s ranking [...]

Raise your hand if a client or your boss has ever asked you to put Google Analytics on their website to help improve rankings?🙌Google Analytics isn’t just for website data, oh no – this is to boost our keyword rankings, they say.But is there any legit research to support these claims?As it turns out, a lot of SEO experts have [...]

Let’s just say it: Exact match domains should be buried in a garbage bag right next to people who talk on their speakerphone in public.Remember when every domain used to look like www.caraccidentattorney.com or www.buydogcollars.com?That’s what we’re referring to when we talk about an exact match domain (EMD).EMDs are domain names that include the exact keyword phrases you want to [...]

E-A-T means Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.E-A-T is part of Google’s algorithm and baked into Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines.Even Google says that E-A-T is “very important.”E-A-T should not be confused with “eat” and the foods we put into our mouths. Although I have to admit, I’m suddenly craving a burrito. 🌯If you’re an SEO professional, you’ve probably heard a lot [...]

Ah, ranking factors. The ancient art of ranking in search engines is a lesson in balance and patience.Yet some people read an article like the example below that talks about the most important ranking factors and think, “Yep, I’ll follow that advice.”Screenshot from Backlinko.com, September 2021You’ll read some bizarre stuff — like that Easter Eggs are ranking factors.Screenshot from Backlinko.com, [...]

You can’t talk about SEO without mentioning keyword research. It’s like eating a grilled cheese sandwich without the cheese.Most SEO marketing campaigns start with keyword research. (Or at least they should 👀).To be honest, keyword research is stuck in the early 2000s, right next to Britney and Justin’s matching denim outfits.With 92.42% of keywords only getting 10 monthly searches or [...]