Have you ever noticed that some URLs start with “http://” while others start with “https://”? Perhaps you noticed that extra “s” when you were browsing websites that require giving over sensitive information, like when you were paying bills online.Continue Reading
According to Internet Live Stats, there are over one billion websites in the entire world. And by the time you finish reading this post, there will be even more. With so many websites in existence, what makes the good ones stand out?
As inbound marketers, we often jump to SEO, social media, or the quality of content published. But there are actually quite a few other things to consider when judging the success of a website.
The truth is tackling these long-tail keywords feels hard when you know you’re up against the giants. I know. I worked with many startups before I joined HubSpot, and scouring Google Keyword Planner every day for keywords to fuel my blog posts drove me close to insanity.Continue Reading
Google has many different sources of revenue, but one of their most noticeable is the ads that appear next to search results for specific keywords. How much that keyword costs depends, in part, on how often people search for it — the more people search for a certain keyword, the more expensive it is.
If you’ve ever wondered what the most expensive keywords on Google are, then look no further than the infographic below from WebpageFX.
You wouldn’t design a new kitchen without creating a blueprint first, would you? Similarly, you’d never want to design a website without creating a sitemap.
A sitemap is a file of code that lives on your web server and lists all of the relevant URLs that are in the structure of your website. It helps search engine web crawlers determine the structure of the site so they can crawl it more intelligently.
This past spring, the web was abuzz as Google released the much-feared algorithm update that severely punished websites that were not optimized for mobile. Marketers were anxious. Fear mongering abounded. But now that “Mobilegeddon” is actually upon us, some are saying that the reports of doom and destruction have been greatly exaggerated.
Many marketers have asked the HubSpot team just how worried they should be, so we sifted through the post-apocalyptic dust to review the damage for ourselves.
There’s nothing quite like a sudden Google algorithm update to leave marketers feeling equal parts confused and concerned. It’s like they wait for you to get all of your ducks in a row and then unleash an update that changes everything.
Sure, they’re pretty open about that fact that they’re doing this for everyone’s own good — each algorithm tweak brings us one step closer to more relevant search results, after all.
Back in 2007, we launched a tool called Website Grader. Since then, it’s evaluated 4 million websites, helping many businesses identify website optimization opportunities.
But a lot has changed since 2007. Websites have changed significantly in terms of design, functionality, and purpose. So, to continue to be helpful, Website Grader needed to change, too.
So, you’ve read dozens — if not hundreds — of SEO articles on the web. You’ve digested countless tips and tricks for improving your website’s SEO. You’ve even (over)paid that self-proclaimed “expert” to help you develop an SEO strategy that aligns with your business’ goals.
But after all of the reading and learning and strategizing, it dawns on you: You haven’t actually done anything yet.
We all know that optimizing your website — both for searchers and search engines — can do wonders for your organic traffic and lead generation efforts. The tricky part, of course, is figuring out how to actually optimize your website’s pages.
After all, reading about SEO best practices in blog posts and ebooks will only help you up to a certain point. Inevitably, you’ll have to take the plunge: You’ll have to develop and implement your SEO strategy, and keep tabs on how your optimized pages are performing.
Most articles with titles like these are usually designed to educate people with little understanding of the inbound to redesign their website with the said methodology in mind. While good for people who don’t know anything about Inbound, they’re rather redundant to those who have already made the switch and designed their site with conversions in mind. This article is for the latter.
Crafting a clear, relevant, and click-worthy title is the most important thing you can do to ensure that the article you spent hours and hours researching and writing performs well. It is the filter people use to determine if your post is worth their limited time. You can’t treatContinue Reading
It’s 2015 and SEO hasn’t gotten any easier for digital marketers. With Google’s Panda and Penguin algorithm updates that have happened in the past few years, it’s no surprise that the search engine optimization aspect of digital marketing is constantly changing.
This volatility requires digital marketers to be agile with their tactics, frequently adapting to the latest guidelines that search engines implement into their algorithms. Throughout this post, I will help you understand which tactics you should not be using, because, let’s face it– they just don’t work anymore!
Nine months ago, I analyzed a report that would transform not only my role on the HubSpot blogging team, but also the whole blog’s editorial strategy. The results have been nothing short of eye-opening. And I’m not just talking about the findings from the report — I’m also talking about the business results we’ve generated from the shift we made in our blogging strategy because of those findings.
That shift is an ongoing internal project we call “historical optimization.” The goal? Update old blog content and generate more traffic and leads from it in the process.
