There is good scientific evidence that suggest that much of the cognition and memory taking place in our brains uses metaphors and stories to connect new information to our memories. When optimizing for the experience of humans consuming your content, storytelling can be your most valuable optimization skill. Is storytelling good SEO? Semantically algorithms understand the nuance of natural...

Relax. Despite recent and upcoming Google Penguin Updates, Google hasn’t (yet) removed hyperlinks from their ranking algorithm. However, in the SEO community, the buzz seems to have shifted quite a bit from the importance of links to the value of brand authority and user search behavior signals, two focal points often neglected by most SEOs. So, what would happen if Google were to remove links...

C3 hosted some awesome speakers, but more importantly gave the Searchlight user community the opportunity to share thoughts and strategies. Also, Searchlight users had the opportunity to meet with their customer success managers and support teams. 3 New Releases for Conductor Searchlight Competitive Intelliscope supplies the marketer with an analysis of competitors on one clean display....

This is a guest post by Jeff Siebach of Anchor Metrics. Follow them on Twitter at @AnchorMetrics. We all know the feeling. You log in to Google Analytics to see how your website has performed this week, and lo and behold, you’ve got more traffic than before. Much more! Then you get to the source/medium report and see that the increase came almost entirely from referral traffic. Did you get a...

Evil Jeeves Ask.com Easter egg of what appeared when you searched does Jeeves have an evil twin. Wiideman Consulting Group During the early days of search engines, Ask.com had a mascot known as "Jeeves", whose role was to play a virtual butler helping you find answers to your questions. Easter eggs were not uncommon, and a favorite of ours from around 2004 that has...

Earning higher placement within Google search engine results can be an exhausting endeavor for many local businesses that serve a specific area or region. A business can dominate search results with a well-planned out strategy that includes: Claiming business data, Optimizing several focal points on your website, Earning a few smart business listings, And continuously improving online...

On July 24th, 2014, Google released an update the industry has code named "Pigeon", which affects search engine results with a regional or local intent. Examples of queries might be "oil change York PA" or "auto repair" alone where the search engine recognizes the location of user and returns local businesses in the results. Pre-Pigeon Update, results where highly data driven, where today...

Businesses around the world are paying more and more attention to Yelp, arguably the Internet's largest social-local platform, and with good reason. Touting it's average 135 million monthly users, dominance in local search engine results, and ability to shut down businesses over night, Yelp is force to be reckoned with. While I have more than enough evidence of the positive effect of Yelp...

The chance of a lifetime for an SEO practitioner to speak with a former Google Webspam employee happened this morning (March 17, 2015) resulting in pages of notes and insights. While we can't divulge the names of our contact, we will say they played a major role in the foundation of filters and rules still in place today. Hang on to your seats folks, a decent percentage of our notes from the...

Don't believe everything you read on the internet. Despite the web being a powerful communication tool and research platform, there's also a lot of internet junk floating around. Remember those internet memes about toilets flushing clockwise in Australia? Or how the Mayan calendar could predict the end of the world? Yep, it turns out these were just lies that appeared online (though ones that...