TRENDING: The All-In-One Digital Marketing Software
Dr. Marie Haynes is recognized as a leader in the SEO industry and has 10+ years of experience helping businesses of all sizes improve their site quality. She is a frequent contributor to Moz.com and Search Engine Watch and a regular speaker at Pubcon and SMX. Marie was named one of the top five industry influencers by Rand Fishkin, founder of Moz, and constantly stays up to date with changes to Google’s algorithms to the benefit of her clients.
“The old belief that ‘any link is a good link’ is no longer a good one!”
“Many people feel that Google gives preference to brands when deciding upon a ranking. The truth is that people prefer brands and Google wants to rank what people prefer.”
“The phrase ‘link building’ is a tough one, because really, a truly natural link is one that comes about because someone wants to recommend your content.”
“While it’s not against Google’s guidelines to ask for a link, if the majority of your links are there as a result of you trading content, guest posts, etc. for links, those likely are not going to help.”
“Links are likely always going to be important in Google’s algorithms. But, Google is getting much better at determining which are true recommendations.”
“If an eCommerce store does not publish their refund policy, or does not have clear contact information on their site, this can likely contribute to a lower assessment of trust.”
“It will be harder and harder to rank a site well unless they truly are the best option for searchers. In the past, a good SEO could take a mediocre site and with enough links and on-page tweaks, it could often outrank the big players.”
“Be constantly thinking about how you can help a site improve in terms of quality, rather than trying to figure out how to trick Google into thinking they are better.”
“The key to recovery for a site that has seen an E-A-T related hit is to determine where the issues are, and then find ways to improve upon them. If people are distrusting your site because perhaps it is too ad-heavy, removing some ads could potentially help. If your nearest competitor has thousands of authoritative mentions, where you have tens of them, this is an area to work on.”
“Most sites we analyze are ‘Your Money or Your Life’ sites. If people make important decisions by reading your site, or if you are spending money on this site, no matter how small the amount, then it is likely YMYL.”
Geoff Breitling: If you want to build or scale a 7 figure SEO agency, you should watch this short video.