Ann Smarty - Practical Ecommerce

Articles by: Ann Smarty

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Ann Smarty

Ann Smarty is the brand and community manager at Internet Marketing Ninjas and the founder of Viral Content Bee. Ann's search engine optimization career began in 2010. She is the former editor-in-chief of Search Engine Journal and contributor to prominent search and social blogs, including Small Business Trends and Mashable.

Ann is also a frequent speaker at Pubcon and host of the Twitter chat #vcbuzz.

Keyword Research
SEO: How to Assess Keyword Difficulty

August 18, 2022 • Ann Smarty

Optimizing for keywords can improve a page's organic rankings. But the competition for keywords varies. Here's how to tell which ones are worth the effort.
Technical SEO
SEO for Animated GIFs

August 11, 2022 • Ann Smarty

Animated GIFs can provide unique, crawlable page content, boosting organic search rankings. But GIFs can also harm rankings if poorly executed. We explain.
SEO Tools
6 Keyword Tools for Video SEO

August 4, 2022 • Ann Smarty

The intent of consumers searching for videos often differs from searches of other content types. Ecommerce merchants should optimize for both. We explain.
Technical SEO
SEO for Featured Snippets

July 28, 2022 • Ann Smarty

Featured snippets appear at the top of Google's organic search results. Optimizing for snippets is different than for standard listings. Here's how.
On-page SEO
SEO: 4 Ways to Surface Shopify Pages

July 21, 2022 • Ann Smarty

Product pages on ecommerce sites can get buried in the navigation, making them difficult for search engines to access. Here's how to surface deep pages on Shopify.
SEO Tools
SEO: WordPress Plugins to Surface Older Posts

July 14, 2022 • Ann Smarty

Posts in an active blog fade into the archives. The result is no internal links from new content — and less visibility. Here's how WordPress owners can keep older content prominent.
SEO Tools
5 Tools to Monitor Your SEO Competitors

July 7, 2022 • Ann Smarty

Looking to monitor your organic search competitors? Here are five handy (and affordable) tools to track rankings, content updates, links, and more.
SEO Tools
7 Free Chrome Extensions for SEO

June 30, 2022 • Ann Smarty

Chrome extensions can streamline keyword research, analytics tracking, competitor analysis, and more. Contributor Ann Smarty lists her seven favorite Chrome extensions for SEO.
Amazon & Marketplaces
SEO: Amazon Keyword Research Tools

June 23, 2022 • Ann Smarty

Consumers conduct more product searches on Amazon than on any other site, including Google. Hence understanding those search terms on Amazon informs merchants not just on that platform, but for Google optimization, too.
SEO Tools
5 Rank Tracking Tools for Organic Search

June 16, 2022 • Ann Smarty

Monitoring rankings remains the best way to track organic search performance. In this piece, we list five helpful tools to track your site's positions and your competitors'.
SEO Tools
My 5 Favorite SEO Newsletters

June 9, 2022 • Ann Smarty

Staying informed on the latest search engine optimization tactics doesn't have to take a lot of time. Here are five newsletters that will keep you updated quickly and succinctly.
SEO Tools
Local SEO: 9 Free Tools

June 2, 2022 • Ann Smarty

Consumers increasingly use the internet to locate and scrutinize local businesses before visiting. Thus SEO for brick-and-mortar retailers is critical for walk-in traffic.
Technical SEO
SEO: 2 Good Ways to Remove Duplicate Content, and 8 Bad Ones

May 26, 2022 • Ann Smarty

Duplicate content is not subject to a Google penalty, but it does split link equity and thus impact rankings. We explain in this all-new update to a 2019 post.
Keyword Research
How Keyword Clustering Powers SEO

May 19, 2022 • Ann Smarty

Keyword lists for SEO are often cluttered and seemingly endless. "Clustering" can help by grouping keywords by a common modifier.
SEO Tools
3 Keyword Tools for Search Intent

May 12, 2022 • Ann Smarty

Optimizing content for organic rankings requires knowing how Google will interpret searchers' intent — informational, commercial, or navigational.
SEO Tools
Free SEO Tools for Do-it-yourself Analysis

May 5, 2022 • Ann Smarty

The ability to fix basic SEO glitches can save time and money. Here are five free tools to help.
Link Building
3 Tools to Connect with Journalists

April 28, 2022 • Ann Smarty

Generating inbound links remains a cornerstone of search engine optimization. But link-building is difficult and becoming more so. Developing relationships with journalists can help.
SEO Tools
SEO: How to Super Search with Advanced Operators

April 21, 2022 • Ann Smarty

Specialized search queries can help identify missing keywords, specific content, competitors, and much more. Here are 18 essential "operators" with examples.
SEO Tools
SEO: Using Wayback Machine, Google Cache

April 14, 2022 • Ann Smarty

Wayback Machine and Google's cache have important SEO benefits. The former helps monitor changes to competitors' pages. The latter confirms Google's assessment of a page. We explain.
SEO
SEO Impact of Google’s ‘Deduplicate’ Algorithm

April 7, 2022 • Ann Smarty

Google's policy to not duplicate URLs on page one of search results is likely bad news for publishers. Here's our primer on "deduplication" and tactics (if any) to overcome.
SEO
10 Do-it-yourself SEO Tips to Save Money

March 31, 2022 • Ann Smarty

A basic understanding of search engine optimization is essential for online merchants. These 10 DIY tips address keyword research, internal links, educational resources, more.
Keyword Research
Keyword Gaps Are SEO Opportunities

March 24, 2022 • Ann Smarty

Keyword gap analysis can identify search queries to target for organic rankings. Contributor Ann Smarty explains the concept and two tools that make the analysis easy.
SEO Tools
How to Diagnose Organic Traffic Losses Using Search Console

March 17, 2022 • Ann Smarty

Diagnosing a loss in organic search traffic starts with identifying the affected queries and pages. Search Console can do that and more. We explain in this terrific tutorial.
On-page SEO
What Bounce Rates Mean for SEO

March 10, 2022 • Ann Smarty

Bounce rates only indirectly impact organic rankings. High bounces could indicate slow page loads, poor content, and other flaws — all of which do affect SEO.
SEO Tools
How Google Trends Improves SEO

March 3, 2022 • Ann Smarty

Google Trends and autocomplete both use data from actual searches. But unlike autocomplete, Trends is not personalized or filtered. It's a valuable source of keyword optimization opportunities.
Technical SEO
How Domain Names Impact SEO

February 24, 2022 • Ann Smarty

SEO myths surrounding domain names include age, registration length, embedded keywords, and more. Contributor Ann Smarty debunks those while addressing a name's importance in this helpful piece.
SEO Tools
SEO Tools from Google and Bing

February 17, 2022 • Ann Smarty

Many independent tools emulate the behavior of search engine crawlers. But the best tools come from the search engines themselves: Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
Link Building
Stop Using Domain Authority for SEO Backlinks

February 10, 2022 • Ann Smarty

SEOs have devised metrics, such as "domain authority," to assess a site for backlink solicitations. Those metrics have nothing to do with Google, however. That's the problem.
SEO Tools
My Favorite SEO Keyword Tools

February 3, 2022 • Ann Smarty

Keyword research is knowing what consumers are searching for and their words to describe those items. Contributor Ann Smarty lists her go-to tools, with explanations.
Technical SEO
How to Use Google Autocomplete for SEO

January 27, 2022 • Ann Smarty

Google autocomplete is a staple for identifying keywords to optimize organic rankings. The tool's functionality has expanded to include refinements and entities.