Reading Time: 2 minWhen Google reveals a bit of information about how their search algorithm works, the words they use are very important. For example, last year Google’s Gary Illyes mentioned that website speed is a “teeny tiny factor” in ranking, which came as a surprise to many people. It’s very important for user experience, but isn’t a […]
Content
You won’t be discovered, and that’s ok
Reading Time: < 1 minYears ago, many people desired to be “discovered”, particularly in industries like music. Make some great stuff, and then hope that the right person hears it and can vault you to stardom. Those days are long gone, but it’s ok. These days, with sharing so painfully easy, any great talent will quickly be shared and […]
More content doesn’t mean more traffic, except when it does
Reading Time: 2 minIf you’re striving to get your site to rank higher in Google, you often hear two big things: Google loves more content and Google loves fresh content. Neither are necessarily true, though they’re not necessarily false either. For the sake of simplicity, let’s consider “more content” and “fresh content” to be the same thing. If […]
15% of all searches on Google are still brand new
Reading Time: < 1 minOver the years, Google has frequently shared that a large percentage of the searches on their site are for phrases they’ve never seen before. This is heavily related to search queries getting longer, which I first talked about 13 years ago and continues to progress to this day. As of right now, 15% of all […]
We remember what we create
Reading Time: < 1 minOver the years, I’ve discovered that one of the best ways to learn something is to try to teach it to others. In preparing to share a concept, I’m forced to learn more about it and break it down in a way that can be understood by others. The process of doing that has incredible […]
The right way to forward URLs
Reading Time: < 1 minWhen it comes to forwarding addresses on your website, there are a few different scenarios to consider. First you have the “always forwarded” pieces like I shared a few years ago, to catch special URLs or typo domains. The other scenario is when you build a new website to replace your old one, and want […]
Own your content and join the POSSE
Reading Time: 2 minI’ve talked many times on here about how I believe we should all work to own our content. Having content in a system that you control is absolutely the way to go, and then you can use other channels (like social media) as a means to share it. Along those very lines is a great […]
Making content that lasts
Reading Time: 2 minThe odds are high that you’ll create some kind of content today, with the majority of it likely being on social media. Will it last? Seth Godin recently shared about the “cultural half-life” of ideas, and how our world is moving increasingly toward vaporous ideas that come and go as the social media algorithms move […]
Quick looks at great books
Reading Time: < 1 minJust over a year ago I told you about how I used Blinkist to “read” popular books in about 20 minutes. It’s certainly no replacement for a proper reading of the book, but it’s a great way to get an idea of what it’s about and then perhaps dig into the full book later. If […]
Marketing automation isn’t always the answer
Reading Time: < 1 minMarketing automation can be a great thing. If a user is interested in your service or product, creating a series of messages to go out to them can be a very beneficial for both parties. Too often, though, companies think that marketing automation is something magical that can solve all of their problems, and that’s […]