Google’s got some big updates rolling out, and already, webmasters are seeing noticeable impacts on their sites, both positive and negative. Since it could take up to a month for the dust to settle, you don’t necessarily need to panic quite yet, but you do need to take a hard look at what these updates are intended to do and whether your site might be at risk. Part 1: The March 2024 Core Update This is a content-focused update that comes on the heels of the September 2023 Helpful Content Update. Google says that there actually won’t be any more “helpful content updates” as such: They’ve been r ..read more

The advent of generative AI has made it easy to create content for websites, but creating good content is another matter. Webmasters and self-described SEO experts have unleashed a flood of what’s basically website spam, using AI to churn out mountains of quick, machine-written pages in the hopes that some of them might rank well. It’s a lot like how email spam works: If they put enough junk out there, occasionally, one of their messages will convince someone that there really is a Nigerian prince looking to give them a million dollars. But just because so many people are using AI to create lo ..read more

In the world of SEO, artificial intelligence is coming at us from both sides. On one side, we have Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) and the new AI-powered Bing, both of which can generate answers to user queries that often don’t require a click: People can get the information they want without ever leaving Google or Bing. On the other side, we have ChatGPT and all of its generative AI cousins. These tools have made it easier than ever to create content, and so we’ve seen a growing deluge of AI-generated pages being posted online in the hopes of scoring easy SEO wins. This approach i ..read more

Artificial Intelligence is taking the SEO industry by storm, and as it often happens in our community, there have been lots of discussions about how to use AI to manipulate ranking signals scale, especially content. AI tools can write original content, and, from the reader’s point of view, good content. In fact, some AI-written content is scary good. In fact, well-written copy could save SEOs much trouble by helping them add meaningful text content to database-driven pages, like product categories, city-driven pages and more. So can AI be an SEO solution? Not quite. John Mueller has been sayin ..read more

How should we be doing link building in late 2022 and into 2023? Jim Boykin, CEO of Internet Marketing Ninjas, and Ann Smarty, IMN’s analyst, discuss how link building should work (and how we don’t recommend it working). Link building starts with creating something linkworthy. This could be a very useful tutorial, a niche report, a free tool or a visual asset (like an infographic). If you own a big brand with a solid following, that linkable asset will likely attract some backlinks on its own. However, more often than not, you will need to invest some time into bringing that asset in front of ..read more

Every site we’ve ever looked at has content that is buried so deep into the architecture of the site that it has 0 chance to rank. And the reason for important content getting buried is usually the inherent way blogs work: As you add new and new content, older content goes down its archive and provides less and less value to the site. And that content can make an effective part of a conversion funnel driving sales and leads. Jim Boykin, CEO of Internet Marketing Ninjas, and Ann Smarty, IMN’s analyst, are bringing up an important question: How to create a well-planned content strategy that neve ..read more

If you are running a website, there are most likely going to be plenty of images there. While image-specific SEO is very-well explained in a few detailed guides, let’s try to create a very simple and easily-organized guide to using images properly: 1. Free Images You *Can* Use First things first: let’s see where you can find free-to-use images online. That’s a popular misconception that you can actually use any image you find online as long as you credit the source. Mind that you can only re-use images with a certain license: License Icon You Can Re-use For Commercial Use? You Can Modify Cr ..read more

The majority of business sites have blogs that are updated on a semi-regular basis. But very few of those blogs have a well-defined buying journey a reader could take should they land on a blog post with a buying intent. In most cases, blogs have very little planning behind them. Businesses have blogs because they have heard they should regularly updated content being published on their sites. But what should content be? What could make a blog part of a sales funnel? Jim Boykin, CEO of Internet Marketing Ninjas, and Ann Smarty, IMN’s analyst, are discussing an effective blogging and content cr ..read more

Location is the strongest local ranking factor, so is there any way to rank for multiple locations? To discuss local rankings, Jim Boykin, founder and CEO of Internet Marketing Ninjas, and Ann Smarty, IMN’s analyst, were joined by Ben Fisher, Google’s trusted Business Profile Product Expert. Ben Fisher is Co-Founder of Steady Demand and Diamond Google Product Expert with over 25 years of experience in Internet Marketing.  The fundamental rule remains the same: One business One address One phone number If you do open a physical location that is staffed in every city, you can have multiple Go ..read more

Google Business Profile (formerly known as “Google My Business” and still referred to by many marketers as “Google Local”) provides local businesses with a unique opportunity to be found on Google and Google Maps. How does it work and how to optimize your Google Business Profile? To discuss Google Business Profile, Jim Boykin, founder and CEO of Internet Marketing Ninjas, and Ann Smarty, IMN’s analyst, were joined by Ben Fisher, Google’s trusted Business Profile Product Expert. Ben Fisher is Co-Founder of Steady Demand and Diamond Google Product Expert with over 25 years of experience in Inter ..read more