How to Learn SEO

Whether you're just getting started, figuring out how to fill in knowledge gaps, training your team on SEO fundamentals, this is the Whiteboard Friday episode for you! With over a decade of experience in the SEO space, Moz’s head of content, Jo Cameron, dives into her own learning journey and talks through everything from understanding your resources and your budget to strategies to keep you on track in real-world projects.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Hello, everyone, and welcome to this edition of Whiteboard Friday. I wanted to talk you through a topic that is close to my heart, which is how to learn SEO. I'm Jo. I'm the head of content here at Moz, and I feel like I've been learning SEO for the better part of a decade. So I feel like I can speak from experience, although I do know that everyone's methods for learning new information, whatever it is, is different.

To get started, I'll take you through how you might want to begin to learn SEO, whether you're getting started from scratch or you're already working in SEO and you're figuring out how to fill in knowledge gaps. Or maybe you have a team and you would like to train them up and get them ramped up on some fundamental SEO topics.

So I'll dive into my own learning journey when I was learning SEO and the fundamentals of SEO. I'll also talk through understanding your resources and your budget so that you can achieve your goals in the time and budget available to you. I'll also talk about a few additional strategies to keep you on track, including topic immersion and applying your learning knowledge to real-world projects.

Why learn SEO?

But first of all, I'll start with why. Why would you want to learn SEO and start to fill in the knowledge gaps with core, fundamental SEO topics? Learning SEO can help you to build your business. It can help you get more traffic to your website, and it can also help you advance your career. 

I began to learn SEO because I wanted to sell more jewelry that I was making on my own website. So my motivation was to get more traffic, and my focus was on what I could do to my website authority, understanding the fundamental knowledge of how search engines function so that I could create content that was exciting to my audience and was digestible for search engine bots at the same time. 

So ultimately driving more traffic to increase my revenue was what started me on this journey. You may as well want to grow your knowledge in order to advance your career, or you may already be working in SEO and want to fill in some of those gaps so that you can achieve your professional business goals.

So whether you are currently running your own business, whether you're working in-house, client-side, or building up a strong SEO team, developing tangible, fundamental, core SEO knowledge is a great way to help you achieve your goals.

Outline your learning journey

The thing I would recommend starting out with, whether it's for you or your team, is to outline your learning journey. 

The first thing to understand is what exactly you want to learn and within what time frame. So this can help you to set your own expectations and keep you on track.

Core SEO concepts

When I was discovering how to sell more jewelry, my learning pathway covered the following fundamental topics. I started out with the fundamental, core SEO concepts. So as part of this experience, I was searching a lot, I was reading a lot online, and I was just trying to digest the lingo. I wanted to understand how Google algorithms worked and what was changing with each update so that I could get a better understanding of how search engines function, how their bots function, and then building up that fundamental knowledge in that area.

Keyword research

That then led me into keyword research, exploring what exactly it involves and then trying to understand how I get in front of my audience, how do I create content that they're searching for, and how do I meet that need. I also wanted to do my keyword research in an organized way, so understanding the strategy behind that, building out a comprehensive strategy that made sense with the time that I had available. Ultimately, what I was trying to get here is to understand and get better insights into the different language that my audience was using, so what people were searching for in my industry.

Page optimization

This then led me into page optimization. So this is all about the different page elements, and I was trying to understand which of these elements I could actually affect in the CMS that I was using at the time. I was also trying to understand how to create the structure in my content so that it was optimized not just for the bots but also for my human visitors so I could give them that great experience when they landed on the page.

Link building

Then I also started to explore link building because building my website authority was really important to me and I didn't understand how to do that. This was quite a big learning curve. I did end up getting a little bit confused around the concept of building and how that worked, how you tread that line between creating content that people want to link to, creating good quality content, 10x content that's impactful and interesting, and then the difference between that and the different link building strategies, and generally how do you build your website authority and how do I do that so that I could achieve my goals and drive more traffic and generate more revenue. 

Digital PR

Then all tied in with that also is understanding that whole spectrum of PR and how it intersects with link building, also more core technical link building strategies and outreach along with broken link building and how you go about putting that into process in a way that makes sense with the time that I had available.

Then I also wanted to explore how to show the impact of my results, so understanding reporting, what to report on, how to track results. This is important whether it's for yourself or for your client and how do you know what you have achieved and whether it has achieved the desired effect.

SEO certification

So undoubtedly there is a vast amount of information available online that covers these topics. But if you do find that overwhelming and you would like a more clearly defined learning pathway outlined for you, there is the Moz Academy SEO Essentials Certification. We cover all of these fundamental topics, and they're all neatly wrapped up in a six-hour course. So if you're wanting to display your knowledge, you can also link up your certification badge with your LinkedIn profile to demonstrate your skills there. The course covers all of those topics. It starts with understanding how search engines determine a site's value, how you identify good keywords and map them to semantic topic groups, along with how SEO fits in with the sales funnel, how to prioritize SEO tasks which is really important when you're time-strapped, how to determine your most valuable content which is great for your website or if you're working with a client who currently already has a bit of content there, and then understanding how to evaluate links, and then, of course, that all-important reporting in order to measure the impact of SEO.

I would have been super excited to take this course when I was learning, and I know it would have saved me a ton of time so that I could have just ingested all of that fundamental information, covered the essential topics when I was getting started.

Understand your resources and budget

So now that you have outlined the topics that you're wanting to cover, I would then recommend getting started understanding your resources that you have available to you. The first one is obviously time. How much time do you have in a day, in a week, and when do you want to get this learning experience completed, whether it's a particular topic or more broadly speaking?

The second one is, of course, budget. So do you have any professional development budget available to you? Is this something that you can potentially build into your current role? Maybe there's a stretch assignment in there. Are there people available to you in your current network that can potentially assist you in understanding what you need to learn and then help you to figure out how you're going to learn it?

Resources

Now that you have outlined the topics you want to cover, let's explore the resources you have available to you. The first big one is obviously time, and the second one is your available budget. So how much time do you have available in a day, in a week, and then also how long do you have available for you to get this learning experience completed? Then also, can you build this into your current role, maybe as a stretch assignment, and how do you have that conversation with your peers? Then exploring whether you do have a professional development budget available to you.

Now the good news is that there is a learning pathway for everyone whatever your budget. If you're still exploring what exactly it is that you want to learn, then the best place to get started is the Beginner's Guide to SEO, which is available on the Moz Learn Center. This is a fantastic piece of content that has helped people learn SEO for nearly a decade now. It was refreshed quite recently by the wonderful Britney Muller. You can take yourself through and teach yourself the fundamentals at your own pace. Honestly, so many professional SEOs tell us that they learned SEO from Moz, and this is often the place they start out. So you'll be treading a path many have walked before you.

But, of course, if you do have a bit of budget and your timeline is kind of tight and you want to put some guardrails around it and you want to keep yourself on track or you want to keep your team accountable, then you would want to look at the courses available on the Moz Academy. The SEO Essentials Certification, which I have mentioned previously, is key for building up fundamental knowledge. We do also have the Technical SEO Certification. So if you want to just launch your knowledge into this next stratosphere, this is becoming more critical as topics like Core Web Vitals bring the world of SEOs and developers closer together. Then, of course, if you're wanting to better understand your industry's competitive landscape, we also have the Competitive Analysis Certification.

With each of these certifications, we have gathered together all of the core fundamentals of each of these topics, and we've supercharged them with unique learning methodologies and you'll be able to engage with on-demand educational videos, quizzes, and task lessons so you can also keep track of your progress as you learn. So if you're finding it a bit of a hard time keeping on track or if you want to speed up your learning or the learning of your team that you're training, then this is a really great place to start.

Long-term learning strategies

So once you've figured out what it is you want to learn, what resources you have available to you, your timeline, I think it's interesting to better understand and explore some long-term learning strategies. So something that we have found quite important, when we build out the SEO certification, is the concept of learning, digesting that theoretical information, confirming it with a quiz, and then being able to apply it, so whether that is within a toolset or in addition to with your own project, whether that's your own website or a client's website.

Apply your knowledge

So when I was starting to learn SEO fundamentals, with each of those topics that I learned about above, I explored how I could apply this to the work that I was doing. I wanted to keep on track with my primary goal, which was to drive more traffic and generate more revenue. By doing this, it helped me understand how much effort it took, and over time I got a better understanding of the impact and roughly how long it took to see results.

So this is a methodology that we apply as part of the Moz Academy certifications. With this combination of theoretical information, educational videos, being able to confirm it with the quizzes and task lessons, you'll be able to flex your recently acquired knowledge.

Now, obviously, the pro tip here that I don't want to skip over is that no matter which pathway you take, you're really looking to apply this to your real-life projects. Whether it's your own website that you have set up on WordPress or you're working with a client, applying this knowledge is key to better understanding how it works, the time it takes to implement, and also better understand the potential outcomes for your site.

Of course, if you are new to Moz, I would also recommend starting the Moz Pro free trial so that you can get stuck into building keyword lists, track your site's performance or your client's site's performance, better understand your site's authority as well as your competitors, and much, much more.

Top up regularly

The other thing that's interesting to understand is that you may be involved in learning something intensely as part of a certification or engaging in free content, and as you go, you'll find that you'll just be topping up on that information. You may not be as focused on a learning pathway. You'll just be topping up. This is something that people will be doing long term. Even if you are working professionally in SEO, you may find that there are changes in the industry or there's a gap in your knowledge that you want to fill. This is a different experience for everyone. So there's nothing new here that I can offer you that hasn't been said before, but spending a little bit of time engaging with blogs, the latest news, following folks on Twitter, and so on is a great way to help you top up on your knowledge and keep on top of any changes going on in the industry.

Connect and engage

The next level to that is turning that social connection and finding a way to engage, so whether that's virtually or in real life. So following industry folks and influencers on Twitter is a really great starting place. But if, like me, you're finding it can become a little bit unruly and you're easily distracted, then it can help to use the social media connections to identify events, whether they're virtual or real life meetups or conferences, so that you can find a way to turn that connection into an opportunity to network and gather more information. Some of the biggest advances in my knowledge have come from engaging in events. I've been fortunate enough to go to a few of those in my time, and I always come away feeling very inspired and have a renewed drive to try new things. Don't forget that we do have MozCon coming up this year in Seattle, and we have some incredible speakers joining us, which I know are going to be very inspirational.

Topic immersion

Then the other thing to consider is topic immersion. Of course, learning does not happen in isolation. So you may find that you spend a dedicated amount of time actually learning, understanding the fundamentals, ramping up on the lingo, and then that is a great way for you to immerse yourself. Then, ongoing, find a strategy or a way that you can continue to be engaged in that topic. 

So whether you are following a more free-flow approach by digesting content that's available online or you want to follow a structured learning track with the Moz Academy, I would advise finding a way that works for you to immerse yourself in the topic regularly. For you, it may look like a couple of minutes a week reading the Moz blog, what we published lately. You could visit the Learn Center and dive into a particular topic. Or you can jump on Twitter and catch up with the latest from Dr. Pete on his featured snippets research.

Whatever that looks like, look back at your goals and what you're hoping to achieve and then identify a way that you can continually immerse yourself in this topic and familiarize yourself with it in a long-term way that is sustainable for you. Remember to check back in and see how you're performing and keep yourself on track.

Best of luck with your learning journey. Whether you are topping up knowledge or learning something new, I hope this has been helpful. Bye for now.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

How to Learn SEO

Whether you're just getting started, figuring out how to fill in knowledge gaps, training your team on SEO fundamentals, this is the Whiteboard Friday episode for you! With over a decade of experience in the SEO space, Moz’s head of content, Jo Cameron, dives into her own learning journey and talks through everything from understanding your resources and your budget to strategies to keep you on track in real-world projects.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Hello, everyone, and welcome to this edition of Whiteboard Friday. I wanted to talk you through a topic that is close to my heart, which is how to learn SEO. I'm Jo. I'm the head of content here at Moz, and I feel like I've been learning SEO for the better part of a decade. So I feel like I can speak from experience, although I do know that everyone's methods for learning new information, whatever it is, is different.

To get started, I'll take you through how you might want to begin to learn SEO, whether you're getting started from scratch or you're already working in SEO and you're figuring out how to fill in knowledge gaps. Or maybe you have a team and you would like to train them up and get them ramped up on some fundamental SEO topics.

So I'll dive into my own learning journey when I was learning SEO and the fundamentals of SEO. I'll also talk through understanding your resources and your budget so that you can achieve your goals in the time and budget available to you. I'll also talk about a few additional strategies to keep you on track, including topic immersion and applying your learning knowledge to real-world projects.

Why learn SEO?

But first of all, I'll start with why. Why would you want to learn SEO and start to fill in the knowledge gaps with core, fundamental SEO topics? Learning SEO can help you to build your business. It can help you get more traffic to your website, and it can also help you advance your career. 

I began to learn SEO because I wanted to sell more jewelry that I was making on my own website. So my motivation was to get more traffic, and my focus was on what I could do to my website authority, understanding the fundamental knowledge of how search engines function so that I could create content that was exciting to my audience and was digestible for search engine bots at the same time. 

So ultimately driving more traffic to increase my revenue was what started me on this journey. You may as well want to grow your knowledge in order to advance your career, or you may already be working in SEO and want to fill in some of those gaps so that you can achieve your professional business goals.

So whether you are currently running your own business, whether you're working in-house, client-side, or building up a strong SEO team, developing tangible, fundamental, core SEO knowledge is a great way to help you achieve your goals.

Outline your learning journey

The thing I would recommend starting out with, whether it's for you or your team, is to outline your learning journey. 

The first thing to understand is what exactly you want to learn and within what time frame. So this can help you to set your own expectations and keep you on track.

Core SEO concepts

When I was discovering how to sell more jewelry, my learning pathway covered the following fundamental topics. I started out with the fundamental, core SEO concepts. So as part of this experience, I was searching a lot, I was reading a lot online, and I was just trying to digest the lingo. I wanted to understand how Google algorithms worked and what was changing with each update so that I could get a better understanding of how search engines function, how their bots function, and then building up that fundamental knowledge in that area.

Keyword research

That then led me into keyword research, exploring what exactly it involves and then trying to understand how I get in front of my audience, how do I create content that they're searching for, and how do I meet that need. I also wanted to do my keyword research in an organized way, so understanding the strategy behind that, building out a comprehensive strategy that made sense with the time that I had available. Ultimately, what I was trying to get here is to understand and get better insights into the different language that my audience was using, so what people were searching for in my industry.

Page optimization

This then led me into page optimization. So this is all about the different page elements, and I was trying to understand which of these elements I could actually affect in the CMS that I was using at the time. I was also trying to understand how to create the structure in my content so that it was optimized not just for the bots but also for my human visitors so I could give them that great experience when they landed on the page.

Link building

Then I also started to explore link building because building my website authority was really important to me and I didn't understand how to do that. This was quite a big learning curve. I did end up getting a little bit confused around the concept of building and how that worked, how you tread that line between creating content that people want to link to, creating good quality content, 10x content that's impactful and interesting, and then the difference between that and the different link building strategies, and generally how do you build your website authority and how do I do that so that I could achieve my goals and drive more traffic and generate more revenue. 

Digital PR

Then all tied in with that also is understanding that whole spectrum of PR and how it intersects with link building, also more core technical link building strategies and outreach along with broken link building and how you go about putting that into process in a way that makes sense with the time that I had available.

Then I also wanted to explore how to show the impact of my results, so understanding reporting, what to report on, how to track results. This is important whether it's for yourself or for your client and how do you know what you have achieved and whether it has achieved the desired effect.

SEO certification

So undoubtedly there is a vast amount of information available online that covers these topics. But if you do find that overwhelming and you would like a more clearly defined learning pathway outlined for you, there is the Moz Academy SEO Essentials Certification. We cover all of these fundamental topics, and they're all neatly wrapped up in a six-hour course. So if you're wanting to display your knowledge, you can also link up your certification badge with your LinkedIn profile to demonstrate your skills there. The course covers all of those topics. It starts with understanding how search engines determine a site's value, how you identify good keywords and map them to semantic topic groups, along with how SEO fits in with the sales funnel, how to prioritize SEO tasks which is really important when you're time-strapped, how to determine your most valuable content which is great for your website or if you're working with a client who currently already has a bit of content there, and then understanding how to evaluate links, and then, of course, that all-important reporting in order to measure the impact of SEO.

I would have been super excited to take this course when I was learning, and I know it would have saved me a ton of time so that I could have just ingested all of that fundamental information, covered the essential topics when I was getting started.

Understand your resources and budget

So now that you have outlined the topics that you're wanting to cover, I would then recommend getting started understanding your resources that you have available to you. The first one is obviously time. How much time do you have in a day, in a week, and when do you want to get this learning experience completed, whether it's a particular topic or more broadly speaking?

The second one is, of course, budget. So do you have any professional development budget available to you? Is this something that you can potentially build into your current role? Maybe there's a stretch assignment in there. Are there people available to you in your current network that can potentially assist you in understanding what you need to learn and then help you to figure out how you're going to learn it?

Resources

Now that you have outlined the topics you want to cover, let's explore the resources you have available to you. The first big one is obviously time, and the second one is your available budget. So how much time do you have available in a day, in a week, and then also how long do you have available for you to get this learning experience completed? Then also, can you build this into your current role, maybe as a stretch assignment, and how do you have that conversation with your peers? Then exploring whether you do have a professional development budget available to you.

Now the good news is that there is a learning pathway for everyone whatever your budget. If you're still exploring what exactly it is that you want to learn, then the best place to get started is the Beginner's Guide to SEO, which is available on the Moz Learn Center. This is a fantastic piece of content that has helped people learn SEO for nearly a decade now. It was refreshed quite recently by the wonderful Britney Muller. You can take yourself through and teach yourself the fundamentals at your own pace. Honestly, so many professional SEOs tell us that they learned SEO from Moz, and this is often the place they start out. So you'll be treading a path many have walked before you.

But, of course, if you do have a bit of budget and your timeline is kind of tight and you want to put some guardrails around it and you want to keep yourself on track or you want to keep your team accountable, then you would want to look at the courses available on the Moz Academy. The SEO Essentials Certification, which I have mentioned previously, is key for building up fundamental knowledge. We do also have the Technical SEO Certification. So if you want to just launch your knowledge into this next stratosphere, this is becoming more critical as topics like Core Web Vitals bring the world of SEOs and developers closer together. Then, of course, if you're wanting to better understand your industry's competitive landscape, we also have the Competitive Analysis Certification.

With each of these certifications, we have gathered together all of the core fundamentals of each of these topics, and we've supercharged them with unique learning methodologies and you'll be able to engage with on-demand educational videos, quizzes, and task lessons so you can also keep track of your progress as you learn. So if you're finding it a bit of a hard time keeping on track or if you want to speed up your learning or the learning of your team that you're training, then this is a really great place to start.

Long-term learning strategies

So once you've figured out what it is you want to learn, what resources you have available to you, your timeline, I think it's interesting to better understand and explore some long-term learning strategies. So something that we have found quite important, when we build out the SEO certification, is the concept of learning, digesting that theoretical information, confirming it with a quiz, and then being able to apply it, so whether that is within a toolset or in addition to with your own project, whether that's your own website or a client's website.

Apply your knowledge

So when I was starting to learn SEO fundamentals, with each of those topics that I learned about above, I explored how I could apply this to the work that I was doing. I wanted to keep on track with my primary goal, which was to drive more traffic and generate more revenue. By doing this, it helped me understand how much effort it took, and over time I got a better understanding of the impact and roughly how long it took to see results.

So this is a methodology that we apply as part of the Moz Academy certifications. With this combination of theoretical information, educational videos, being able to confirm it with the quizzes and task lessons, you'll be able to flex your recently acquired knowledge.

Now, obviously, the pro tip here that I don't want to skip over is that no matter which pathway you take, you're really looking to apply this to your real-life projects. Whether it's your own website that you have set up on WordPress or you're working with a client, applying this knowledge is key to better understanding how it works, the time it takes to implement, and also better understand the potential outcomes for your site.

Of course, if you are new to Moz, I would also recommend starting the Moz Pro free trial so that you can get stuck into building keyword lists, track your site's performance or your client's site's performance, better understand your site's authority as well as your competitors, and much, much more.

Top up regularly

The other thing that's interesting to understand is that you may be involved in learning something intensely as part of a certification or engaging in free content, and as you go, you'll find that you'll just be topping up on that information. You may not be as focused on a learning pathway. You'll just be topping up. This is something that people will be doing long term. Even if you are working professionally in SEO, you may find that there are changes in the industry or there's a gap in your knowledge that you want to fill. This is a different experience for everyone. So there's nothing new here that I can offer you that hasn't been said before, but spending a little bit of time engaging with blogs, the latest news, following folks on Twitter, and so on is a great way to help you top up on your knowledge and keep on top of any changes going on in the industry.

Connect and engage

The next level to that is turning that social connection and finding a way to engage, so whether that's virtually or in real life. So following industry folks and influencers on Twitter is a really great starting place. But if, like me, you're finding it can become a little bit unruly and you're easily distracted, then it can help to use the social media connections to identify events, whether they're virtual or real life meetups or conferences, so that you can find a way to turn that connection into an opportunity to network and gather more information. Some of the biggest advances in my knowledge have come from engaging in events. I've been fortunate enough to go to a few of those in my time, and I always come away feeling very inspired and have a renewed drive to try new things. Don't forget that we do have MozCon coming up this year in Seattle, and we have some incredible speakers joining us, which I know are going to be very inspirational.

Topic immersion

Then the other thing to consider is topic immersion. Of course, learning does not happen in isolation. So you may find that you spend a dedicated amount of time actually learning, understanding the fundamentals, ramping up on the lingo, and then that is a great way for you to immerse yourself. Then, ongoing, find a strategy or a way that you can continue to be engaged in that topic. 

So whether you are following a more free-flow approach by digesting content that's available online or you want to follow a structured learning track with the Moz Academy, I would advise finding a way that works for you to immerse yourself in the topic regularly. For you, it may look like a couple of minutes a week reading the Moz blog, what we published lately. You could visit the Learn Center and dive into a particular topic. Or you can jump on Twitter and catch up with the latest from Dr. Pete on his featured snippets research.

Whatever that looks like, look back at your goals and what you're hoping to achieve and then identify a way that you can continually immerse yourself in this topic and familiarize yourself with it in a long-term way that is sustainable for you. Remember to check back in and see how you're performing and keep yourself on track.

Best of luck with your learning journey. Whether you are topping up knowledge or learning something new, I hope this has been helpful. Bye for now.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

MozCon 2022: The Initial Agenda

We’re just about three months out from the big event (can you believe it?)! Today, we’re excited to give you a preview of everything our speakers have in store when they take to the stage this year.

With a healthy mix of fresh faces joining us for the first time and fan favorites making a return appearance, our speaker lineup this year is bound to make waves. While a few details are still being pulled together, topics range from technical SEO, content marketing, and local search to link building, machine learning, and way more — all with an emphasis on practitioners sharing tactical advice and real-world stories of how they’ve moved the needle (and how you can, too).

And in case you hadn’t heard, you’ve got two incredible ways to join us this year, a fully immersive in-person experience in Seattle, or through our livestream only pass which will be broadcast live from the Seattle stage. Can’t join us in person or for the livestream? We’ve got you covered with an option to pre-purchase access to the post-event video recording bundle so you can catch the sessions when your schedule permits.

Grab your MozCon ticket today and get ready for all the fun!

Register for MozCon

The Emcees

We have two incredibly entertaining MozCon Emcees this year to guide you through each day and keep the show rolling along:

Ola King

User Researcher | Moz

Rob Ousbey

SEO Consultant

The Speakers

Take a gander at who you'll see on stage this year, along with some of the topics we've already worked out:

Amalia Fowler

Founder | Good AF Consulting

Leadership and Community in Search Marketing: Strong Teams, Better Results

As search marketers, we spend a lot of time optimizing our campaigns, but don't have the same time to put into nurturing our teams. This is especially true when faced with things like a global pandemic, the great resignation, increased competition and the whims of Google. It's easy to forget that taking purposeful action in our working relationships can help lead us to better results. In this practical and actionable talk, we'll bust the myth that you have to be a manager to have influence, discuss the importance of leadership and community, identify three key characteristics strong teams have in common, get tips on fostering those characteristics regardless of your role, and discuss how taking the time to do this serves all of us, clients included.

Amanda Milligan

Head of Marketing | Stacker

The Untapped Power of Content Syndication

Many marketers have long wondered whether syndicated content has SEO value. To help provide an answer, Amanda walks through case studies that illustrate the significant impact syndicated content strategies can have on your site's authority, rankings, and traffic.

Amanda Jordan

Director of Digital Strategy | RicketyRoo

The Future of Local Landing Pages

Location landing pages are extremely important for local business but are often repetitive and uninteresting. This presentation will focus on strategies that can make your location landing pages useful and interesting to search engines and site visitors. We'll discuss ways to incorporate first party data, third party data, and user generated content to create local landing pages that don't fall short.

Andy Crestodina

Co-founder / CMO | Orbit Media Studios

SERP Strategies

Every keyphrase is a competition. But the best competitor for that competition depends on what you see in the SERP. Getting your page to rank organically is only one of the many possible strategies. In this talk, Andy will explain big picture strategies in the context of ever-more crowded search results pages.

Areej AbuAli

Head of SEO | Papier

Unlocking the Hidden Potential of Product Listing Pages

E-commerce website product listing pages contain hidden potential. This talk is all about unlocking the magic of your listing pages by making the most out of filters and internal linking. Instead of being fixated on those landing page head terms, let’s turn our attention to the indexability of long-tail pages with high conversion. Whether you work in e-commerce or not, we’ll also cover how to embed yourself within tech teams and analyze impactful changes.

Chris Long

VP of Marketing | Go Fish Digital

Advanced On-Page Optimization

Take your on-page optimizations to the next-level using advanced tactics for one of the most common SEO tasks. This presentation goes beyond simply adding keywords. Chris will show you how to utilize tools such as IBM's Natural Language Understanding to find semantic entities of competitor pages, how Google's EAT guidelines apply to content, and what actionable steps you can take to improve content, perform on-page content experiments, and measure the impact of those tests.

Crystal Carter

Head of SEO Communications | Wix

Search What You See: Visual Search Tactics, Tools, and Optimizations

Visual search has been at the forefront of Google’s search and product innovations in the last year. Join this talk for “search what you see” optimizations via Google Lens and more.

Dana DiTomaso

President & Partner | Kickpoint

More Than Pageviews: Evaluating Content Success & Correcting Content Failure

Throw that tired pageview-and-bounce-rate-heavy report right out the (virtual) window — we can do better than that! Dana will peel back the layers on measuring content success. You'll learn which metrics will actually tell you if your content is doing what it's supposed to be doing, and how to link these metrics to your SEO strategies and tactics.

Debbie Chew

SEO Manager | Dialpad

How to Capitalize on the Link Potential of a Research Report

There are many types of link magnets, but there's one that'll never go out of style: data-backed research reports. When done well, you're creating a piece of content that helps your E-A-T, drives backlinks, and is genuinely interesting content for your target audience. This talk will cover the different steps needed not just to create a research report, but to create one that can get links.

Emily Brady

SEO Consultant

Get Your Local SEO Recipe Right with Content & Schema

Local SEO can be so much more than off-site listings, so let’s talk about it! By using content and schema on local landing pages, businesses can create unique value that satisfies customers and search engines.

Hanna Smith

Founder | Worderist

Myths, Misconceptions, & Mistakes (Lessons Learned from a Decade in Digital PR)

For more than 11 years, Hannah’s been tasked with coming up with content ideas that people will share and journalists will write about. In this session, she’ll be sharing some of the most important lessons she’s learned along the way.

Jackie Chu

SEO Lead, Intelligence | Uber

SEO In the Enterprise: Tips and Tricks for Growing Organic Traffic at Scale

In this talk, Jackie will show us how to identify, prioritize, and get buy-in on large-scale SEO campaigns to drive traffic and revenue.

Joe Hall

SEO Consultant & Principal Analyst | Hall Analysis

Understanding Key Performance Factors: Using Data to Make Smart Decisions for Organic Search

What KPIs are actually key? In this talk, Joe shows how organizations can use their own data to ascertain what’s relevant for actionable insights, in the hopes of helping you to develop smart SEO strategies.

Karen Hopper

Performance Marketing Strategist | Razorfish

Beyond the Button: Tests that Actually Move the Needle

In a world that has a million different options for every creative element... where do you start? How do you know this or that element is where you'll see an impact big enough to make a difference for your bottom line? This is the number one question CRO strategists get asked, and the answer every time is: it depends! This session will walk through how to understand your testing opportunities, generate test ideas, and measure your results with scientific accuracy.

Lidia Infante

Senior SEO Manager | Big Commerce

SEO Gap Analysis: Leverage Your Competitor's Performance

Ranking is as easy or as hard as doing better than your competitors. For that, you have to benchmark the sites on your search landscape, meet them where they are, and gain an edge. In this talk, Lidia will share how she built SEO strategies off the back of a gap analysis, along with her templates and success stories.

Lily Ray

Senior Director, SEO & Head of Organic Research | Amsive Digital

Why Real Expertise is the Most Important Ranking Factor of Them All

In this presentation, Lily will use real data to demonstrate how the rise of E-A-T has led to Google prioritizing expertise and authority above all else.

Miracle Inameti-Archibong

SEO Lead (Insurance) | MoneySuperMarket Group

Achieve Accessibility Goals with Machine Learning

3.8 million US adults aged 21-64 have a visual impairment, but 98% of the world’s top one million websites don’t offer full accessibility. One of the top issues is image alt text. This session walks you through easy, scalable alt text generation — an intuitive and easy to understand tutorial, with most of the heavy lifting already done for you.

Noah Learner

Product Director | Two Octobers

Breaking into New Areas with Topic Maps

In this talk, we'll go beyond keyword research to explore how to build topic maps and internal linking maps (that align with Google's understanding) to help you conquer new SERPS — and win more budget from stakeholders along the way.

Paddy Moogan

Co-founder | Aira

The Future of Link Building: What Got Us Here, Won’t Bet Us There

Ten years ago, Paddy stood on stage at MozCon and shared 35 ways to build links in 35 minutes. This year, he is going to talk about lessons he has learned during the last 10 years, some reflections on what he got right and wrong, along with what the future holds for link building.

Paxton Gray

CEO | 97th Floor

How True Leaders Transform a Marketing Department into a Dream Team

There are hidden, structural factors holding stellar marketers (and their teams) back‚ and it's not their fault. Discover what these factors are, how to root them out, and how to help your existing team members reach their potential.

Dr. Pete Meyers

Marketing Scientist | Moz

Rabbit Holes: How Google Pushes Us Down The Funnel

As an SEO, you've probably fallen down the rabbit hole of "organic" results that lead to more Google SERPs. If you map that rabbit hole, you'll see a systematic effort to push searchers down the funnel to commercial results. Why is Google doing this, what does it mean for SEO, and what can we learn about our own customers' journeys?

Petra Kis-Herczegh

Solutions Engineer | Yext

Things I Learned from Sales Teams that Every SEO Should Know

Whether you're trying to build a business case or get buy-in for your SEO project, some of the core challenges will come down to the same thing: How well can you sell it? As SEOs, we often forget that, even though we spend our day-to-day analyzing data and optimizing content and websites for bots, at the end of the day, we are working with human beings — and some of those people have decision-making power over what we can and can't achieve in our roles. This is where learning a good set of sales skills becomes crucial. In this talk, Petra will explore some of the key skills and methods sales teams use, and how you can apply these to your SEO work.

Tina Fleming

Senior Brand Strategist | Designzillas

How Marketing Data Intelligence Skyrocketed Our B2B Conversions

If you want to geek out on data, you've come to the right session. And we're not talking about Google Analytics or your plain old CRM data. We're talking about de-anonymizing your website traffic, providing one-on-one personalized user experiences, shortening your lead forms without missing out on valuable information, and doing everything you can to get to that SQL. In this presentation, Tina will demystify the basics of marketing data intelligence, reveal actionable strategies for your day-to-day conversion marketing, and share real examples of how her agency has skyrocketed B2B conversions with the addition of marketing intelligence.

Tom Capper

Senior Search Scientist | Moz

Trash In, Garbage Out: A Guide to Non-Catastrophic Keyword Research

Keyword research is one of the first and most basic tasks that SEOs learn. And yet, it's strewn with pitfalls and ubiquitous errors, even for experienced practitioners. In this talk, Tom will walk you through the various ways the wrong data can lead you astray, and how to leverage the right techniques for the right tasks.

Wil Reynolds

Founder & VP of Innovation | Seer Interactive

Keyword Research for Thanks Instead of Ranks

Seer Interactive has used keyword research methods to uncover ways to help clients understand their customers better. From diversity and inclusion, to hopes and fears, customers are leaving clues in their long tail searches. Wil demonstrates why you should spend the time to find them.

Will Critchlow

CEO | SearchPilot

Moneyball is the Future of SEO

Advanced statistical analysis has changed the face of professional sports, and similar insights are changing the way we do SEO. In this talk, Will is going to share the approaches he's seeing from the most forward-looking SEO teams, as well as the lessons learned from their analysis of what's working and what's not.

---

We hope you’re as jazzed as we are for July 11th–13th to hurry up and get here. And again, if you haven’t grabbed your ticket yet, we’ve got your back.

MozCon 2022: The Initial Agenda

We’re just about three months out from the big event (can you believe it?)! Today, we’re excited to give you a preview of everything our speakers have in store when they take to the stage this year.

With a healthy mix of fresh faces joining us for the first time and fan favorites making a return appearance, our speaker lineup this year is bound to make waves. While a few details are still being pulled together, topics range from technical SEO, content marketing, and local search to link building, machine learning, and way more — all with an emphasis on practitioners sharing tactical advice and real-world stories of how they’ve moved the needle (and how you can, too).

And in case you hadn’t heard, you’ve got two incredible ways to join us this year, a fully immersive in-person experience in Seattle, or through our livestream only pass which will be broadcast live from the Seattle stage. Can’t join us in person or for the livestream? We’ve got you covered with an option to pre-purchase access to the post-event video recording bundle so you can catch the sessions when your schedule permits.

Grab your MozCon ticket today and get ready for all the fun!

Register for MozCon

The Emcees

We have two incredibly entertaining MozCon Emcees this year to guide you through each day and keep the show rolling along:

Ola King

User Researcher | Moz

Rob Ousbey

SEO Consultant

The Speakers

Take a gander at who you'll see on stage this year, along with some of the topics we've already worked out:

Amalia Fowler

Founder | Good AF Consulting

Leadership and Community in Search Marketing: Strong Teams, Better Results

As search marketers, we spend a lot of time optimizing our campaigns, but don't have the same time to put into nurturing our teams. This is especially true when faced with things like a global pandemic, the great resignation, increased competition and the whims of Google. It's easy to forget that taking purposeful action in our working relationships can help lead us to better results. In this practical and actionable talk, we'll bust the myth that you have to be a manager to have influence, discuss the importance of leadership and community, identify three key characteristics strong teams have in common, get tips on fostering those characteristics regardless of your role, and discuss how taking the time to do this serves all of us, clients included.

Amanda Milligan

Head of Marketing | Stacker

The Untapped Power of Content Syndication

Many marketers have long wondered whether syndicated content has SEO value. To help provide an answer, Amanda walks through case studies that illustrate the significant impact syndicated content strategies can have on your site's authority, rankings, and traffic.

Amanda Jordan

Director of Digital Strategy | RicketyRoo

The Future of Local Landing Pages

Location landing pages are extremely important for local business but are often repetitive and uninteresting. This presentation will focus on strategies that can make your location landing pages useful and interesting to search engines and site visitors. We'll discuss ways to incorporate first party data, third party data, and user generated content to create local landing pages that don't fall short.

Andy Crestodina

Co-founder / CMO | Orbit Media Studios

SERP Strategies

Every keyphrase is a competition. But the best competitor for that competition depends on what you see in the SERP. Getting your page to rank organically is only one of the many possible strategies. In this talk, Andy will explain big picture strategies in the context of ever-more crowded search results pages.

Areej AbuAli

Head of SEO | Papier

Unlocking the Hidden Potential of Product Listing Pages

E-commerce website product listing pages contain hidden potential. This talk is all about unlocking the magic of your listing pages by making the most out of filters and internal linking. Instead of being fixated on those landing page head terms, let’s turn our attention to the indexability of long-tail pages with high conversion. Whether you work in e-commerce or not, we’ll also cover how to embed yourself within tech teams and analyze impactful changes.

Chris Long

VP of Marketing | Go Fish Digital

Advanced On-Page Optimization

Take your on-page optimizations to the next-level using advanced tactics for one of the most common SEO tasks. This presentation goes beyond simply adding keywords. Chris will show you how to utilize tools such as IBM's Natural Language Understanding to find semantic entities of competitor pages, how Google's EAT guidelines apply to content, and what actionable steps you can take to improve content, perform on-page content experiments, and measure the impact of those tests.

Crystal Carter

Head of SEO Communications | Wix

Search What You See: Visual Search Tactics, Tools, and Optimizations

Visual search has been at the forefront of Google’s search and product innovations in the last year. Join this talk for “search what you see” optimizations via Google Lens and more.

Dana DiTomaso

President & Partner | Kickpoint

More Than Pageviews: Evaluating Content Success & Correcting Content Failure

Throw that tired pageview-and-bounce-rate-heavy report right out the (virtual) window — we can do better than that! Dana will peel back the layers on measuring content success. You'll learn which metrics will actually tell you if your content is doing what it's supposed to be doing, and how to link these metrics to your SEO strategies and tactics.

Debbie Chew

SEO Manager | Dialpad

How to Capitalize on the Link Potential of a Research Report

There are many types of link magnets, but there's one that'll never go out of style: data-backed research reports. When done well, you're creating a piece of content that helps your E-A-T, drives backlinks, and is genuinely interesting content for your target audience. This talk will cover the different steps needed not just to create a research report, but to create one that can get links.

Emily Brady

SEO Consultant

Get Your Local SEO Recipe Right with Content & Schema

Local SEO can be so much more than off-site listings, so let’s talk about it! By using content and schema on local landing pages, businesses can create unique value that satisfies customers and search engines.

Hanna Smith

Founder | Worderist

Myths, Misconceptions, & Mistakes (Lessons Learned from a Decade in Digital PR)

For more than 11 years, Hannah’s been tasked with coming up with content ideas that people will share and journalists will write about. In this session, she’ll be sharing some of the most important lessons she’s learned along the way.

Jackie Chu

SEO Lead, Intelligence | Uber

SEO In the Enterprise: Tips and Tricks for Growing Organic Traffic at Scale

In this talk, Jackie will show us how to identify, prioritize, and get buy-in on large-scale SEO campaigns to drive traffic and revenue.

Joe Hall

SEO Consultant & Principal Analyst | Hall Analysis

Understanding Key Performance Factors: Using Data to Make Smart Decisions for Organic Search

What KPIs are actually key? In this talk, Joe shows how organizations can use their own data to ascertain what’s relevant for actionable insights, in the hopes of helping you to develop smart SEO strategies.

Karen Hopper

Performance Marketing Strategist | Razorfish

Beyond the Button: Tests that Actually Move the Needle

In a world that has a million different options for every creative element... where do you start? How do you know this or that element is where you'll see an impact big enough to make a difference for your bottom line? This is the number one question CRO strategists get asked, and the answer every time is: it depends! This session will walk through how to understand your testing opportunities, generate test ideas, and measure your results with scientific accuracy.

Lidia Infante

Senior SEO Manager | Big Commerce

SEO Gap Analysis: Leverage Your Competitor's Performance

Ranking is as easy or as hard as doing better than your competitors. For that, you have to benchmark the sites on your search landscape, meet them where they are, and gain an edge. In this talk, Lidia will share how she built SEO strategies off the back of a gap analysis, along with her templates and success stories.

Lily Ray

Senior Director, SEO & Head of Organic Research | Amsive Digital

Why Real Expertise is the Most Important Ranking Factor of Them All

In this presentation, Lily will use real data to demonstrate how the rise of E-A-T has led to Google prioritizing expertise and authority above all else.

Miracle Inameti-Archibong

SEO Lead (Insurance) | MoneySuperMarket Group

Achieve Accessibility Goals with Machine Learning

3.8 million US adults aged 21-64 have a visual impairment, but 98% of the world’s top one million websites don’t offer full accessibility. One of the top issues is image alt text. This session walks you through easy, scalable alt text generation — an intuitive and easy to understand tutorial, with most of the heavy lifting already done for you.

Noah Learner

Product Director | Two Octobers

Breaking into New Areas with Topic Maps

In this talk, we'll go beyond keyword research to explore how to build topic maps and internal linking maps (that align with Google's understanding) to help you conquer new SERPS — and win more budget from stakeholders along the way.

Paddy Moogan

Co-founder | Aira

The Future of Link Building: What Got Us Here, Won’t Bet Us There

Ten years ago, Paddy stood on stage at MozCon and shared 35 ways to build links in 35 minutes. This year, he is going to talk about lessons he has learned during the last 10 years, some reflections on what he got right and wrong, along with what the future holds for link building.

Paxton Gray

CEO | 97th Floor

How True Leaders Transform a Marketing Department into a Dream Team

There are hidden, structural factors holding stellar marketers (and their teams) back‚ and it's not their fault. Discover what these factors are, how to root them out, and how to help your existing team members reach their potential.

Dr. Pete Meyers

Marketing Scientist | Moz

Rabbit Holes: How Google Pushes Us Down The Funnel

As an SEO, you've probably fallen down the rabbit hole of "organic" results that lead to more Google SERPs. If you map that rabbit hole, you'll see a systematic effort to push searchers down the funnel to commercial results. Why is Google doing this, what does it mean for SEO, and what can we learn about our own customers' journeys?

Petra Kis-Herczegh

Solutions Engineer | Yext

Things I Learned from Sales Teams that Every SEO Should Know

Whether you're trying to build a business case or get buy-in for your SEO project, some of the core challenges will come down to the same thing: How well can you sell it? As SEOs, we often forget that, even though we spend our day-to-day analyzing data and optimizing content and websites for bots, at the end of the day, we are working with human beings — and some of those people have decision-making power over what we can and can't achieve in our roles. This is where learning a good set of sales skills becomes crucial. In this talk, Petra will explore some of the key skills and methods sales teams use, and how you can apply these to your SEO work.

Tina Fleming

Senior Brand Strategist | Designzillas

How Marketing Data Intelligence Skyrocketed Our B2B Conversions

If you want to geek out on data, you've come to the right session. And we're not talking about Google Analytics or your plain old CRM data. We're talking about de-anonymizing your website traffic, providing one-on-one personalized user experiences, shortening your lead forms without missing out on valuable information, and doing everything you can to get to that SQL. In this presentation, Tina will demystify the basics of marketing data intelligence, reveal actionable strategies for your day-to-day conversion marketing, and share real examples of how her agency has skyrocketed B2B conversions with the addition of marketing intelligence.

Tom Capper

Senior Search Scientist | Moz

Trash In, Garbage Out: A Guide to Non-Catastrophic Keyword Research

Keyword research is one of the first and most basic tasks that SEOs learn. And yet, it's strewn with pitfalls and ubiquitous errors, even for experienced practitioners. In this talk, Tom will walk you through the various ways the wrong data can lead you astray, and how to leverage the right techniques for the right tasks.

Wil Reynolds

Founder & VP of Innovation | Seer Interactive

Keyword Research for Thanks Instead of Ranks

Seer Interactive has used keyword research methods to uncover ways to help clients understand their customers better. From diversity and inclusion, to hopes and fears, customers are leaving clues in their long tail searches. Wil demonstrates why you should spend the time to find them.

Will Critchlow

CEO | SearchPilot

Moneyball is the Future of SEO

Advanced statistical analysis has changed the face of professional sports, and similar insights are changing the way we do SEO. In this talk, Will is going to share the approaches he's seeing from the most forward-looking SEO teams, as well as the lessons learned from their analysis of what's working and what's not.

---

We hope you’re as jazzed as we are for July 11th–13th to hurry up and get here. And again, if you haven’t grabbed your ticket yet, we’ve got your back.

New Competitive Research Suite: Actionable Data to Drive Real Results

I once compared keyword research to an avalanche – it’s loud, exciting, and you’re likely to end up buried alive. Over the years, as I’ve tested new product ideas (even with enterprise SEOs), I’ve found that people don’t really want all the data. They want the right data.

I’m thrilled to announce Moz’s Competitive Research Suite, built from the ground up to drive targeted data and actionable insights about your competitors, your competitive keyword gap, and your content gap. Instead of telling you, though, let us show you.

Your keyword gap, reinvented

I recently bought some sunglasses from Goodr. Let’s pretend I’m analyzing their competitive SEO landscape, and I’ve picked three targeted competitors in the online sunglasses market that specialize in active customers and sports sunglasses. I’d first enter the sites in the mini-wizard:

You can choose your market and either Domain or Subdomain for the target site and each competitor. After some summary statistics about the sites, you’ll see the “Keywords to Improve” section, which looks something like this:

Scroll horizontally to see our all-new Traffic Lift metric, Keyword Volume, Keyword Difficulty, your current ranking, and the ranking of each of your chosen competitors.

More signal = actionable results

If you did a traditional keyword gap analysis, you might look at each competitor individually and manually dig through the intersections. Let’s say we put SportEyes.com into our own Keyword Explorer. The first few results look something like this:

This is perfectly useful data about one competitor’s rankings, except for one problem — Goodr doesn’t sell swim goggles or ski goggles. Even intersecting a couple of competitors could easily produce irrelevant results, competitors’ branded terms, or keywords where your site already outranks competitors and has very little to gain. Put simply, there’s a lot of noise.

Keywords to Improve is a new way of thinking about the competitive keyword gap. We focus on keywords where your site ranks in the top 20 (you can easily expand this in the filters), but is outranked by one or more competitors. We also attempt — by analyzing on-SERP signals — to filter out branded and brand-like terms.

We cut through the noise, boost your SEO signal, and surface actionable results.

Lift your traffic, lift your ROI

We SEOs love big keyword volume numbers, but here’s the hard truth — even if we could perfectly accurately estimate volume, it’s a bit of a fantasy. If you create a competitive keyword research spreadsheet with 10,000 keywords with an average volume of 1,000, are you going to guarantee your boss those 10 Million visitors? Of course not.

What if you have no capacity to rank for that keyword? What if sites like yours (including your competitors) have a realistic ranking cap? SEO isn’t a process of going from no ranking to #1 on every keyword imaginable, and even #1 doesn’t get all the clicks.

All of this is why we’re introducing Traffic Lift. The Traffic Lift column looks at what we think you could gain by moving from your current ranking to your competitors’ best current ranking. In part, it’s tough love. Living in a fantasy isn’t good for business. More importantly, it’s a way to prioritize. See the sample results below:

Unlike swimming goggles, a product Goodr doesn’t even sell, cycling and running sunglasses are product categories that are very relevant and where they’re outranked by similar competitors. There is ample room for improvement here and real ROI. Traffic Lift finds the wins.

Your competitors’ top content

A little more tough love — keywords aren’t action. Keywords are potential. A mountain of keywords is more likely to bury you than benefit you. We can help you find the best keywords, but ultimately, we want to understand how those keywords are shaped into content.

Our first-generation (and there’s much more to come) Top Competing Content report shows you how your keyword gap is being served by your competitors. Let’s look at the Goodr data:

The “Top Ranking Keywords” are just a sampling, but here we can see, for example, how one competitor’s page is capturing multiple keywords related to “cycling sunglasses”. Now, you can start to see how those keywords function as a concept and you’ve got specific competitor pages to target.

This is the next step of competitive keyword research — going beyond a pile of individual, unrelated, and even irrelevant keywords to a plan of action that includes targeted, high-lift keywords, targeted content, and a top-level view of the competitive landscape.

If you want broader data or a different viewpoint, there’s a full range of filters and sorts to let you adjust our default settings. Of course, you can also export both Keywords to Improve and Top Content Competitors to carve through the pile as you please.

True competitors, truer results

In September of 2021, we launched True Competitor, and I promised that it was a first step in Moz’s new approach to competitive analysis. True Competitor is now more than a stand-alone tool — it’s a starting point to understanding your keyword and content gaps:

From True Competitor, you can now easily select up to three competitors and run your Keyword Gap analysis. As you can see, this is how I kicked off my Goodr example, even though I had almost no knowledge of their competitive landscape. Imagine what you could do with your actual knowledge of your site, your customers, and even your prospects.

Even for Goodr, this journey I took is just one possible journey. I chose to focus on sports sunglasses, but there are dozens of niches that they could explore, even as a relatively small site. Competitive analysis isn’t one and done — it’s a process of surfacing opportunities, acting on those opportunities, and re-evaluating as your competitors evolve.

The Competitive Analysis Suite is now available to all Moz Pro customers, and we’d love to hear your feedback via the ‘Make a Suggestion’ button in the app.

Sign up for a free trial to access the Competitive Research Suite!

Already a Moz Pro customer? Log in now for instant access!

New Competitive Research Suite: Actionable Data to Drive Real Results

I once compared keyword research to an avalanche – it’s loud, exciting, and you’re likely to end up buried alive. Over the years, as I’ve tested new product ideas (even with enterprise SEOs), I’ve found that people don’t really want all the data. They want the right data.

I’m thrilled to announce Moz’s Competitive Research Suite, built from the ground up to drive targeted data and actionable insights about your competitors, your competitive keyword gap, and your content gap. Instead of telling you, though, let us show you.

Your keyword gap, reinvented

I recently bought some sunglasses from Goodr. Let’s pretend I’m analyzing their competitive SEO landscape, and I’ve picked three targeted competitors in the online sunglasses market that specialize in active customers and sports sunglasses. I’d first enter the sites in the mini-wizard:

You can choose your market and either Domain or Subdomain for the target site and each competitor. After some summary statistics about the sites, you’ll see the “Keywords to Improve” section, which looks something like this:

Scroll horizontally to see our all-new Traffic Lift metric, Keyword Volume, Keyword Difficulty, your current ranking, and the ranking of each of your chosen competitors.

More signal = actionable results

If you did a traditional keyword gap analysis, you might look at each competitor individually and manually dig through the intersections. Let’s say we put SportEyes.com into our own Keyword Explorer. The first few results look something like this:

This is perfectly useful data about one competitor’s rankings, except for one problem — Goodr doesn’t sell swim goggles or ski goggles. Even intersecting a couple of competitors could easily produce irrelevant results, competitors’ branded terms, or keywords where your site already outranks competitors and has very little to gain. Put simply, there’s a lot of noise.

Keywords to Improve is a new way of thinking about the competitive keyword gap. We focus on keywords where your site ranks in the top 20 (you can easily expand this in the filters), but is outranked by one or more competitors. We also attempt — by analyzing on-SERP signals — to filter out branded and brand-like terms.

We cut through the noise, boost your SEO signal, and surface actionable results.

Lift your traffic, lift your ROI

We SEOs love big keyword volume numbers, but here’s the hard truth — even if we could perfectly accurately estimate volume, it’s a bit of a fantasy. If you create a competitive keyword research spreadsheet with 10,000 keywords with an average volume of 1,000, are you going to guarantee your boss those 10 Million visitors? Of course not.

What if you have no capacity to rank for that keyword? What if sites like yours (including your competitors) have a realistic ranking cap? SEO isn’t a process of going from no ranking to #1 on every keyword imaginable, and even #1 doesn’t get all the clicks.

All of this is why we’re introducing Traffic Lift. The Traffic Lift column looks at what we think you could gain by moving from your current ranking to your competitors’ best current ranking. In part, it’s tough love. Living in a fantasy isn’t good for business. More importantly, it’s a way to prioritize. See the sample results below:

Unlike swimming goggles, a product Goodr doesn’t even sell, cycling and running sunglasses are product categories that are very relevant and where they’re outranked by similar competitors. There is ample room for improvement here and real ROI. Traffic Lift finds the wins.

Your competitors’ top content

A little more tough love — keywords aren’t action. Keywords are potential. A mountain of keywords is more likely to bury you than benefit you. We can help you find the best keywords, but ultimately, we want to understand how those keywords are shaped into content.

Our first-generation (and there’s much more to come) Top Competing Content report shows you how your keyword gap is being served by your competitors. Let’s look at the Goodr data:

The “Top Ranking Keywords” are just a sampling, but here we can see, for example, how one competitor’s page is capturing multiple keywords related to “cycling sunglasses”. Now, you can start to see how those keywords function as a concept and you’ve got specific competitor pages to target.

This is the next step of competitive keyword research — going beyond a pile of individual, unrelated, and even irrelevant keywords to a plan of action that includes targeted, high-lift keywords, targeted content, and a top-level view of the competitive landscape.

If you want broader data or a different viewpoint, there’s a full range of filters and sorts to let you adjust our default settings. Of course, you can also export both Keywords to Improve and Top Content Competitors to carve through the pile as you please.

True competitors, truer results

In September of 2021, we launched True Competitor, and I promised that it was a first step in Moz’s new approach to competitive analysis. True Competitor is now more than a stand-alone tool — it’s a starting point to understanding your keyword and content gaps:

From True Competitor, you can now easily select up to three competitors and run your Keyword Gap analysis. As you can see, this is how I kicked off my Goodr example, even though I had almost no knowledge of their competitive landscape. Imagine what you could do with your actual knowledge of your site, your customers, and even your prospects.

Even for Goodr, this journey I took is just one possible journey. I chose to focus on sports sunglasses, but there are dozens of niches that they could explore, even as a relatively small site. Competitive analysis isn’t one and done — it’s a process of surfacing opportunities, acting on those opportunities, and re-evaluating as your competitors evolve.

The Competitive Analysis Suite is now available to all Moz Pro customers, and we’d love to hear your feedback via the ‘Make a Suggestion’ button in the app.

Sign up for a free trial to access the Competitive Research Suite!

Already a Moz Pro customer? Log in now for instant access!

Your First Three SEO Tests

Emily Potter, Head of Customer Success at SearchPilot, is an SEO A/B testing expert. Today, she returns as a Whiteboard Friday host to share with you the first three SEO tests you should run to kick-start your SEO testing program.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz. I'm Emily Potter. I'm Head of Customer Success at SearchPilot. If you haven't heard of us before, SearchPilot is an A/B testing software that was built specifically for the SEO industry. We run large-scale SEO tests on enterprise websites.

Today I'm here to share with you the first three SEO tests ]that you should run to kick-start your SEO testing program. But before we get into that, there are some foundations that we need to cover first. That's how to write a strong SEO hypothesis and then how to prioritize your SEO tests.

Writing a strong hypothesis

Starting with your hypothesis, you might not think of it this way, but every SEO optimization that you're making is trying to impact one of three mechanisms, and these three mechanisms are the only way we can improve organic traffic. At SearchPilot, we call these our three core levers. 

CTRs

So that's improving your organic click-through rates independent of rankings. By that I mean, yes, you can improve your organic click-through rates by going from position two to position one, but there are other ways you can do that as well. That's ways that you enhance your search results so that you stand out against search competitors, like getting rich results or rich snippets.

Ranking for more keywords

Next there's ranking for more keywords. That's ranking for keywords that you didn't before. It's improving your organic reach. So if you're ranking for more keywords, you're in front of more people, that's probably going to drive more organic traffic to your website. So that's our second lever that we can pull.

Improving existing rankings

Our last lever is improving our existing rankings. So that's links, improving Core Web Vitals, adding more content. All of those big, known ranking factors that we can target with SEO tests, that's a big driver of organic traffic.

So the three core levers, we need to be pulling at least one of them to have a valid SEO hypothesis. If you come up with a test idea and you can't actually find a way that it clearly pulls one of these core levers, then it's probably not a true SEO hypothesis and you probably shouldn't run it. You might want to consider running it as a CRO only test instead, but it shouldn't be your SEO testing program.

Now we can pull more than one of these levers. Think of something like title tags. That improves our rankings and it changes our appearance in the SERP, so that improves our click-through rates and maybe independent rankings as well. But that's okay. We just want to capture that in our hypothesis that we're going to pull more than one lever.

Prioritizing test ideas

So now that you know how to write a strong SEO hypothesis, let's talk about how to prioritize your SEO test ideas. At SearchPilot to do this, we use two core metrics. We look at potential impact and then level of effort or LOE.

In this quadrant, I have, on the vertical axis, high level of effort to low level of effort, and on the horizontal axis, I have high impact to low impact. In the upper left-hand quadrant I put "Avoid." So those are high level of effort tests that are also low potential impact. These are tests that are going to have heavy uplift from your engineering team, but aren't likely to pull a core lever and therefore probably not a good test for you to run and probably not worth your time. Just rule these tests out. Make them not even a priority.

Upper right-hand quadrant, we have high impact tests that are also high level of effort. So those are things like internal links or anything that's going to involve a lot of engineering support, but you know is going to potentially be a big win. It strongly pulls one of these levers. So you really want to put these in, but they probably require project management. It involves multiple teams working together, that sort of thing. Plan those in later. They shouldn't be your first three tests.

In the lower left-hand quadrant, we have low impact tests that are also low level of effort. I put this in amber because you should have these in your testing program. You still want to run them. Again, they shouldn't be your top priority tests, but sometimes they produce surprising results. So these are things that maybe pull a lever but are easy to implement. Or they are low impact changes, like adding alt text, that we know don't cause big swings in organic traffic, but, again, you might get surprising results. Or they're just good practice to do anyway.

Lastly, we have what I call the sweet spot. Those are your high impact tests that are low level of effort. So these ones we want to prioritize. They pull the lever strongly but they actually don't require that much effort for us to put in, and those are your biggest return on investment tests and you should prioritize them.

So now that we know how to write a strong SEO hypothesis and we know how to think about prioritizing our test ideas, let's talk about the first three that you should run.

Test 1: Title tags

Test number one, title tag tests, and yes, even if Google is overwriting your title tags, definitely still be testing them. We've seen wins even since that rollout, and it's definitely low-hanging fruit that you can grab. Title tag tests impact both click-through rates independent of rankings and they also impact your rankings. So that's why there are such big swings that we get from them. So something like adding price to your titles, good test, probably just targeting click-through rates. Something like adding a really big, primary keyword might impact both your click-through rates and your rankings. Put these in. Low level of effort, high impact tests, they're in our sweet spot.

Test 2: On-page keyword targeting

Next we want to run on-page keyword targeting tests. So things that are changing the keyword targeting maybe to something like a higher search volume keyword. This can be adding content. This can be updating headings. H1 changes fall into this category. I put these as low to medium impact and low to medium level of effort. So generally still pretty easy to run. Not going to cause as big of swings as title tags, but we definitely want to prioritize those in early on, targeting our rankings.

Test 3: Structured data to win rich results

Third, I put structured data to win rich results. These are medium to high level of effort, but also medium to high impact. So this is things like adding schema, review schema to get review snippets. They tend to involve a little bit more effort because oftentimes you might need engineering resources to get that schema into your HTML, or you might need to get the data somehow that you want to include in the structured data. But they're important SEO tests, and they tend to have a little bit less lift than other higher impact tests that are also higher level of effort.

Bonus: Internal linking

For example, I've put a bonus on here — internal linking tests. These fall into that quadrant that are high impact, high level of effort. Internal linking tests are high level of effort not only because you need engineering resources oftentimes to implement them. It's also really difficult to figure out the measurement for these tests. That's because we're changing two different pages. We're going to expect to see an impact on the pages where we're adding the links. We're also going to expect to see an impact on the pages that are receiving a link. But these cause big wins for SEO, so we definitely want to plan these tests in, but not one of your first three tests. These are going to be targeting your rankings.

So that's what I have for you today. Again, your first three SEO tests to run — title tag tests, improving your keyword targeting on the page, and adding structured data to win rankings. As a bonus, plan in those internal linking tests, but it's going to involve a lot of different teams probably to get those done. And then, remember, if you're not coming back to one of these core levers, if you're not improving either click-through rates independent of rankings, ranking for more keywords, or improving your existing rankings, probably not an SEO test.

That's all I have for you today. Thanks, Moz.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Your First Three SEO Tests

Emily Potter, Head of Customer Success at SearchPilot, is an SEO A/B testing expert. Today, she returns as a Whiteboard Friday host to share with you the first three SEO tests you should run to kick-start your SEO testing program.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz. I'm Emily Potter. I'm Head of Customer Success at SearchPilot. If you haven't heard of us before, SearchPilot is an A/B testing software that was built specifically for the SEO industry. We run large-scale SEO tests on enterprise websites.

Today I'm here to share with you the first three SEO tests ]that you should run to kick-start your SEO testing program. But before we get into that, there are some foundations that we need to cover first. That's how to write a strong SEO hypothesis and then how to prioritize your SEO tests.

Writing a strong hypothesis

Starting with your hypothesis, you might not think of it this way, but every SEO optimization that you're making is trying to impact one of three mechanisms, and these three mechanisms are the only way we can improve organic traffic. At SearchPilot, we call these our three core levers. 

CTRs

So that's improving your organic click-through rates independent of rankings. By that I mean, yes, you can improve your organic click-through rates by going from position two to position one, but there are other ways you can do that as well. That's ways that you enhance your search results so that you stand out against search competitors, like getting rich results or rich snippets.

Ranking for more keywords

Next there's ranking for more keywords. That's ranking for keywords that you didn't before. It's improving your organic reach. So if you're ranking for more keywords, you're in front of more people, that's probably going to drive more organic traffic to your website. So that's our second lever that we can pull.

Improving existing rankings

Our last lever is improving our existing rankings. So that's links, improving Core Web Vitals, adding more content. All of those big, known ranking factors that we can target with SEO tests, that's a big driver of organic traffic.

So the three core levers, we need to be pulling at least one of them to have a valid SEO hypothesis. If you come up with a test idea and you can't actually find a way that it clearly pulls one of these core levers, then it's probably not a true SEO hypothesis and you probably shouldn't run it. You might want to consider running it as a CRO only test instead, but it shouldn't be your SEO testing program.

Now we can pull more than one of these levers. Think of something like title tags. That improves our rankings and it changes our appearance in the SERP, so that improves our click-through rates and maybe independent rankings as well. But that's okay. We just want to capture that in our hypothesis that we're going to pull more than one lever.

Prioritizing test ideas

So now that you know how to write a strong SEO hypothesis, let's talk about how to prioritize your SEO test ideas. At SearchPilot to do this, we use two core metrics. We look at potential impact and then level of effort or LOE.

In this quadrant, I have, on the vertical axis, high level of effort to low level of effort, and on the horizontal axis, I have high impact to low impact. In the upper left-hand quadrant I put "Avoid." So those are high level of effort tests that are also low potential impact. These are tests that are going to have heavy uplift from your engineering team, but aren't likely to pull a core lever and therefore probably not a good test for you to run and probably not worth your time. Just rule these tests out. Make them not even a priority.

Upper right-hand quadrant, we have high impact tests that are also high level of effort. So those are things like internal links or anything that's going to involve a lot of engineering support, but you know is going to potentially be a big win. It strongly pulls one of these levers. So you really want to put these in, but they probably require project management. It involves multiple teams working together, that sort of thing. Plan those in later. They shouldn't be your first three tests.

In the lower left-hand quadrant, we have low impact tests that are also low level of effort. I put this in amber because you should have these in your testing program. You still want to run them. Again, they shouldn't be your top priority tests, but sometimes they produce surprising results. So these are things that maybe pull a lever but are easy to implement. Or they are low impact changes, like adding alt text, that we know don't cause big swings in organic traffic, but, again, you might get surprising results. Or they're just good practice to do anyway.

Lastly, we have what I call the sweet spot. Those are your high impact tests that are low level of effort. So these ones we want to prioritize. They pull the lever strongly but they actually don't require that much effort for us to put in, and those are your biggest return on investment tests and you should prioritize them.

So now that we know how to write a strong SEO hypothesis and we know how to think about prioritizing our test ideas, let's talk about the first three that you should run.

Test 1: Title tags

Test number one, title tag tests, and yes, even if Google is overwriting your title tags, definitely still be testing them. We've seen wins even since that rollout, and it's definitely low-hanging fruit that you can grab. Title tag tests impact both click-through rates independent of rankings and they also impact your rankings. So that's why there are such big swings that we get from them. So something like adding price to your titles, good test, probably just targeting click-through rates. Something like adding a really big, primary keyword might impact both your click-through rates and your rankings. Put these in. Low level of effort, high impact tests, they're in our sweet spot.

Test 2: On-page keyword targeting

Next we want to run on-page keyword targeting tests. So things that are changing the keyword targeting maybe to something like a higher search volume keyword. This can be adding content. This can be updating headings. H1 changes fall into this category. I put these as low to medium impact and low to medium level of effort. So generally still pretty easy to run. Not going to cause as big of swings as title tags, but we definitely want to prioritize those in early on, targeting our rankings.

Test 3: Structured data to win rich results

Third, I put structured data to win rich results. These are medium to high level of effort, but also medium to high impact. So this is things like adding schema, review schema to get review snippets. They tend to involve a little bit more effort because oftentimes you might need engineering resources to get that schema into your HTML, or you might need to get the data somehow that you want to include in the structured data. But they're important SEO tests, and they tend to have a little bit less lift than other higher impact tests that are also higher level of effort.

Bonus: Internal linking

For example, I've put a bonus on here — internal linking tests. These fall into that quadrant that are high impact, high level of effort. Internal linking tests are high level of effort not only because you need engineering resources oftentimes to implement them. It's also really difficult to figure out the measurement for these tests. That's because we're changing two different pages. We're going to expect to see an impact on the pages where we're adding the links. We're also going to expect to see an impact on the pages that are receiving a link. But these cause big wins for SEO, so we definitely want to plan these tests in, but not one of your first three tests. These are going to be targeting your rankings.

So that's what I have for you today. Again, your first three SEO tests to run — title tag tests, improving your keyword targeting on the page, and adding structured data to win rankings. As a bonus, plan in those internal linking tests, but it's going to involve a lot of different teams probably to get those done. And then, remember, if you're not coming back to one of these core levers, if you're not improving either click-through rates independent of rankings, ranking for more keywords, or improving your existing rankings, probably not an SEO test.

That's all I have for you today. Thanks, Moz.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com