NEW! Raven by TapClicks - SEO + SEM Tools with Deeper Competitive Insights
NEW! Raven by TapClicks - SEO + SEM Tools with Deeper Competitive Insights
We write tips for digital marketers and we create beginner through advanced guides for search engine optimization. Improve your SEO and Content Marketing game.
One of the greatest things about WordPress is the ability to find a plugin for just about anything. In fact, their developer community is second to none when it comes to CMS add-ons. Since plugins are a big draw to the WordPress platform, it’s common for many site admins to add a lot of plugins […]
It’s live! No more waiting for Raven to update our Google Analytics reports with the data you want most. Based on customer feedback, we reorganized and added more than a dozen new metrics and views to make your reports really sing. Two key new menus make it much easier to find the data you need: Table Content chooser (a.k.a […]
There’s a lot of new top level domains (TLDs) coming our way – almost 2,000 in all. The hope is that people and companies that couldn’t get the domain name they wanted with a .com or other common TLD will not only be able to get the one they want, but will also get one […]
When Raven first integrated Google Analytics (GA) data several years ago, we solved three problems online marketers had with GA. Marketers couldn’t find their way around a complex GA navigation. Raven created a simpler navigation. Marketers couldn’t find or create the metric views they wanted in GA. Raven integrated only those metric views — no confusing noise. […]
It’s doesn’t matter whether you have 100, 1,000 or 11,000 issues after you audit your website for technical SEO issues. Fixing all the problems on the list can seem as impossible a task as putting a broken egg back together. That’s why people often ask me what to tackle first, especially after Raven released its […]
Bill Slawski and I share a path that’s very familiar for many SEOs. We both started out pursuing a completely different profession, but through happenstance found ourselves building, optimizing and marketing sites. I’ve always been drawn towards Bill’s writings, because he’s one of the only people who patiently monitors and studies Google patents. He’s also […]
If you’re younger than 30, what you’re about to read next may shock you. In the mid-’90s, AOL was the Internet for most people. AOL provided dial-up access that connected you to its walled garden. It had one goal: keep the user on AOL‘s Desktop. Yes, it eventually provided an in-app browser, but that was […]
This article is adapted from the Animal-Proof Your Website webinar. I remember when Google algorithm updates were named Bourbon, Vince and Florida. However, since 2011 we’ve been on an animal roll. While I would have picked more ferocious animals – like mosquito, hippo and Brazilian wandering spider – instead we’ve been subjected to the cuddly-looking […]
Google Search Console (GSC) – formerly known as Google Webmaster Tools (GWT) – requires that you verify ownership of every site you add to it. If you don’t verify the site, you won’t see any data related to it. Even worse, if you don’t verify your site, Raven won’t be able to display your ranking […]
There’s been a lot of debate lately about the necessity of ranking data and the validity of where that ranking data comes from. I wanted to write a balanced and honest look at the usefulness of rankings and compare the data that comes from Google Webmaster Tools (GWT) and scraped data that comes from providers […]
SEO has always had a rough ride when it comes to client services. Unlike paid advertising, search engine optimization can take time before any significant results can be reported. This can make SEO a difficult sell, especially when compared to PPC’s instant gratification. Some of its difficulty has also been self-inflicted. Too many SEOs made […]
The No. 1 rule in SEO is to check your site for on-site search engine optimization problems. The reality is that no matter how amazing your webmaster is, there’s a 99.9% chance your site will still have some problems. Visibility is usually at the top of the list, followed by missing, incomplete or broken copy, […]
AJ Kohn is a brilliant marketing who probably knows a lot more about Google+ than you do. Jon Henshaw interviewed AJ to find out what Google is really up to with G+ and to also get a glimpse of what lies ahead for social media. Some of his answers may surprise you.
When HubSpot introduced the term inbound marketing, its founders promoted the concept as the evolution of online marketing. We were told that outbound techniques like email, advertising and sponsorships were ineffective and expensive, and inbound techniques like on-site SEO, content creation and social sharing were the most cost-effective way to reach new customers. The reality is that inbound marketing is incomplete marketing – and HubSpot doesn’t even play by their own rules.
Raven’s recently launched Site Auditor continues to get lots of great feedback while it’s in beta. We’ve even had several customers tell us that Site Auditor alone is worth the price of admission. Our developers have been busy tweaking and updating Site Auditor based on all of the great suggestions we’re getting. Two new features […]
Here’s the sort of thing SEOs used to sell to clients: “We’ll get you on Page 1 in Google for your keyword.” Here’s the sort of thing SEOs used to report to clients: “You’re ranking 2 on Page 1 in Google for your keyword.” Things have changed since then. Clients are now demanding SEO performance […]
A lot of SEOs are still leaving structured data out of their onsite optimization. If you’re one of them, you may be missing out on better rankings, and subsequently forfeiting targeted traffic to your competitors. Structured data has been around for a few years, with the dominant formats being RDFa and microformats. When the concept […]
Update: October 8, 2018 – Google has announce it will be shutting down it’s G+ social platform. What I’ll call the “Great Google Convergence” continued yesterday as Google announced that they would be merging their Google+ (G+) data into personalized search results (aka Search, Plus Your World). On the surface, this appears to be a […]
In case you missed it, Forbes published an article this morning entitled “Stick Google Plus Buttons On Your Pages, Or Your Search Traffic Dies.” I saw the story mentioned on a tweet, but the link was broken. The title of the article was too enticing for me to forget about it, so I looked around […]
I’ve been using Google+ (G+) for a couple days now, and I really like it, a lot! It’s obvious to me that Google has invested a significant amount of time and energy into this initiative. Unlike Google’s past social projects, G+ is packed full of features that users want. With the help of some of […]
