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SEO How-to, Part 3: Staffing and Planning
February 10, 2017 • Jill Kocher Brown
Businesses put off search engine optimization because, frequently, they don’t know where to start. The planning phase — figuring out whom to trust your natural search performance with, and how... Read More »
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SEO How-to, Part 2: Understanding Search Engines
February 3, 2017 • Jill Kocher Brown
Before you can optimize your site to earn more natural search traffic and drive additional sales, you should understand the underlying principles of search engines. Search engines are a gating... Read More »
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SEO How-to, Part 1: Why Do You Need It?
January 27, 2017 • Jill Kocher Brown
Search engine optimization is part science and part art. But the foundational principles of SEO are straightforward. Still, before I can address how to practice SEO, I should explain what... Read More »
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SEO: Be Community-centric to Earn Links
January 20, 2017 • Jill Kocher Brown
Search engine optimization requires a unique blend of relevance and authority. Relevance is more easily mastered, but authority requires the community of people that is interested in the things you... Read More »
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SEO: Google Rolls Out Mobile Popup Penalty
January 13, 2017 • Jill Kocher Brown
Right on schedule, this week Google began rolling out its intrusive mobile popup penalty, aimed at reducing the number of results that take mobile searchers to pages that use large... Read More »
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Embedding SEO into Your Organization
January 6, 2017 • Jill Kocher Brown
Achieving even the simplest improvements to an ecommerce site can feel like a Herculean effort. Effective search engine optimization requires buy in and participation from your entire organization, from the top down... Read More »
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7 Signs Your SEO Agency Isn’t Working for You
December 23, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown
Do you wonder whether you’re really getting your money’s worth from your search engine optimization agency? It’s one of the biggest concerns with contracting any agency. These seven signs will... Read More »
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SEO Study: Backlinks Decline as Ranking Factor
December 16, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown
In a practice as complex and seemingly indecipherable as search engine optimization, the clues gleaned from large ranking factor studies can shine some light. To this end, Searchmetrics, a search... Read More »
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SEO in 10 Minutes a Day
December 2, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown
“I’m too busy for search engine optimization. It’s one of many things on my plate, and frankly it’s not my highest priority. Management wants higher rankings, but I just don’t... Read More »
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SEO: What Google’s Mobile-first Index Means for Ecommerce
November 18, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown
Google started experimenting with a mobile-first index two weeks ago, making the mobile ecommerce experience even more critical to natural search performance. Shopping is a core behavior for mobile users. Last... Read More »
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SEO: To Drive Shoppers, Let the Bots In
November 6, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown
We rely on search engines to drive shoppers to our sites to purchase our products. Before the shoppers can come, however, you have to let the bots in. It sounds more... Read More »
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SEO Checklist: 16 Monthly Tasks to Manage Performance
October 28, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown
Search engine optimization is not a one-time project. If you’re not managing SEO performance and improvements continually, your site won’t remain competitive in natural search — you’ll lose rankings, clicks,... Read More »
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SEO: Rethinking Mobile Search, for Ecommerce
October 21, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown
Smartphones are fast becoming a search marketer’s best friend — or biggest concern. More than half of all searches on Google are conducted on a smartphone. In this critical holiday... Read More »
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SEO: Accelerated Mobile Pages for Ecommerce
October 14, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown
Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages protocol makes mobile sites faster. Faster sites typically see lower bounce rates, higher time-on-site numbers, and higher conversion rates. AMP also benefits natural search performance. Smartphone users want speed.... Read More »
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10 SEO Rules for Ecommerce Content Marketing
October 7, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown
Content marketing and search engine optimization are interdependent. When planned and executed properly, content can greatly improve your natural search performance. Follow these 10 rules to successfully blend SEO needs... Read More »
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SEO: Reclaiming Links to Deleted Pages
October 2, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown
When pages on your site go away, their link authority is wasted. But you can harvest that precious link authority and redirect it to other pages on your site, those... Read More »
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SEO: Google’s Algorithm Hasn’t Changed, or Has It?
September 23, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown
September has been a big month for unofficial Google algorithm changes. Business owners are seeing significant movement in both Google’s core search results and “local pack” search results, though Google... Read More »
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SEO: Google Limits Keyword Data to Advertisers Only
September 16, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown
Keywords and topics are central to contextual relevance, a primary ranking factor for search engines. In the wake of the changes to Google’s Keyword Planner, the natural search industry’s go-to... Read More »
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SEO: Simplifying Navigation Cuts Performance
September 9, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown
The trend toward simplicity in web design is affecting navigation. The impact on search engine optimization of navigation changes can be staggering. Navigation isn’t just a way for shoppers to navigate.... Read More »
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SEO: Google’s Mobile Update to Impact Interstitials, Pop-ups
September 2, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown
Google will update its mobile-friendly search algorithm in January 2017 to make smartphone content visibility a ranking signal. Sites that display “intrusive interstitials” — pop-up boxes, mainly — that impact... Read More »
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SEO: Measuring Performance of the Long Tail
August 26, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown
The long tail should drive most of the natural search performance for ecommerce companies. But whether it actually does is another matter. Don’t assume that the long tail is working for you... Read More »
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SEO: Why Your Long Tail Isn’t Long
August 19, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown
The long tail of natural search should drive more traffic and sales than the head. Unfortunately, a site’s strategy, architecture, and implementation often cut the long tail short of its full... Read More »
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SEO: How to Maximize the Long Tail
August 12, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown
Ecommerce sites are naturally suited to target the long tail of organic search performance. How you optimize your site determines how long its tail could be. The long tail of search... Read More »
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SEO: Every Page Is an Entry Page
August 5, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown
Every page of your site is an entry page for natural search. Are all of your pages ready to welcome searchers? All shoppers want something. They may not want to buy... Read More »
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SEO: Creating Great Content for Ecommerce
July 29, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown
Creating great content is hard. Creating it so that it also benefits search engine optimization isn’t that much more difficult. My last two articles, “To Improve SEO, Understand How It... Read More »
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SEO: Content Is King but Links Are Gold
July 22, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown
Creating compelling, customer-centric content isn’t enough to win rankings and shoppers. Without a strong internal linking structure, even the best content will still fail to perform in natural search. The three... Read More »
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To Improve SEO, Understand How It Works
July 15, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown
Search engine optimization isn’t a mystical dark art. It boils down to signals of relevance and authority. Understanding the signals that search engines interpret as relevance and authority is key... Read More »
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3 Server Errors That Drain SEO
July 8, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown
Servers are the foundation of the web, but their archaic status codes have a big impact on search engine optimization that few marketers understand well enough. Three types of server... Read More »
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SEO: Most Online Shoppers Start at Amazon and Google, Study Says
July 1, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown
When searching for products online, Amazon and Google are the leading places to start, according to a study released this week. Thirty-eight percent of shoppers polled reported starting their shopping... Read More »
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SEO: How to Combat Google’s Ad Increase
April 1, 2016 • Jill Kocher Brown
In the wake of Google’s move to increase ads at the top of the search results pages while removing side-rail ads, many are focusing on the impact on paid advertising... Read More »