Mediaboss Marketing

More than likely you first heard of me from my blog, Backlinko, one of the most popular marketing blogs on the planet (in fact, Ahrefs recently listed Backlinko as the worlds best SEO blog).

As youll see in a minute, I recently developed an SEO system that actually works.

But you might be surprised to hear that, before I figured out the secret to first page Google rankings, I struggled with SEO.

I launched my first website almost 10 years ago.

And like most people, I knew that search engine optimization was going to be HUGE.

So I read everything I could about SEO from forums and blog posts.

You know the kind of stuff Im talking about:

But nothing worked.

I quickly realized that the just publish great content and the traffic will come approach worked GREAT for big brands.

But what about someone like me who was a one man show? How could I crack the first page?

Thats when I decided to hop off the just publish great content train. Instead, Id hunker down andtest everything.

And I discovered something surprising

After years of trial and error I FINALLY found something that actually worked.

It was one of those light bulb moments you see in cartoons.

I realized that:

Most people believe the secret to first page rankings and targeted traffic is to publish great content. Instead, Ive discovered that there are certain TYPES of great content that actually get results.

And most important of all, you need to strategically promote every piece of content that you publish.

I turned this light bulb moment into a system that grew one of my sites from a blank WordPress installation into a $10k/month earnerin only 4 months.

A few months later, I launched Backlinko.

When I started Backlinko, I knew that I was entering one of the most brutally competitive industries on the planet (digital marketing).

(Think about it: Im literally going toe-to-toe with SEO experts on every single keyword).

And I knew that if my system could work in the cutthroat SEO industry,it could work anywhere.

Spoiler alert: it worked GREAT.

And thanks to the proven system I developed, I quickly hit Googles first page for some of the most competitive keywords in the marketing field, like on page SEO:

Link building:

Keyword research:

And Mobile SEO:

As you might expect, these first page rankings generate hundreds of thousands of targeted visitors every single month. In fact, here are last months traffic stats from Google Analytics:

And I should point out that these visitors that come from Google arent tire kickers. Because a good chunk of my site visitors invest in my SEO training products, Ive quickly grown Backlinko from a brand new blog to a 7-figure business.

I was 2 for 2 with my unique SEO system.

But I wanted to see if my system could help other people too.

So I turned my new approach into a step-by-step SEO training course. And I called it SEO That Works.

(Not the most creative name. But it gets the job done )

Then, I invited a small group of people to join the program and test out my SEO strategies for themselves.

Visit link:
SEO Training That Gets Results (In 2020) - Backlinko

TLDR: The Ultimate Google Ads and SEO Certification Bundle offer all web business owners insight into how to take control of their digital marketing fate.

Theres a reason why Googles parent company is the fifth richest company in the world. Because when you virtually control huge swathes of internet commerce, youre bound to end up with some stunningly large coffers.

Google accounts for 75 percent of all desktop search traffic and 95 percent of all mobile search traffic on the web. Search engine optimization (SEO) drives over 1,000 percent more traffic than organic social media. And over 80 percent of all customers say they use a search engine as part of their shopping process.

Which means if you arent taking advantage of SEO and Google advertising to put your business front and center, youre not taking digital marketing seriously. The training in The Ultimate Google Ads and SEO Certification Bundle ($49.99, over 90 percent off from TNW Deals) can set you on the right path.

With nine courses featuring nearly 30 hours of instruction, new digital entrepreneurs and old hands alike will get the complete 4-1-1 on everything from how to land at the top of Google search rankings to how to ensure the most effective reach for their Google ads.

The Complete SEO Course For Beginners 2020: Zero to Hero and Google Ads For Beginners 2020: Step-by-Step Process offer newcomers a comprehensive look at what users need to know to understand both SEO and the Google Ads network.

With SEO occupying such a huge place in digital business success, this pack also includes four other courses dedicated to structuring and optimizing your website as well as finding just the right keywords to target for your best results. That includes added emphasis on steps like how SEO is conducted on WordPress-based sites and how it impacts local businesses.

In addition to instruction on how to use Google Ads to promote your business, theres also training here in how to optimize your Google My Business listing, how to launch a successful cold email campaign that actually generates legitimate leads, and how to build backlinks that will translate into more website traffic.

Each of these courses is a $199 value, but you can get the entire collection now for just $49.99 while this offer lasts.

Prices are subject to change.

Read next: The 4 most promising worlds for alien life in the solar system

See the rest here:
SEO and Google Ads arent just web magic. Businesses need to know them. This training can make them all clear - The Next Web

As developers, we use our browsers every day for all sorts of things, from googling, finding solutions to our problems on stack overflow, to wasting time on Reddit.But we also browsers to test and run the applications were developing. This is whyits crucial to have the right tools for the right job.

In this post, well be looking at some of my favorite browser extensions toboostproductivity as a web developer.

This simple yet effectiveextension does exactly what the name suggests. It allows you to change the size of your screen. Its simple but extremely useful if you need to validate your website among different resolutions and viewports. The extension comes with a predefined set of options, but you can modify them to fit your needs, this last option makes it better than simply using the Chrome Developer Tools.

Did you ever wonder which technologies are being used by a particular site? Wonder no more with Wappalyzer. This extension is more than a CMS detector or framework detector: it uncovers more than a thousand technologies in dozens of categories such as programming languages, analytics, marketing tools, payment processors, CRM, CDN, and others.

Dont let appearances fool you, this may not be the most beautiful toolbar ever but its certainly powerful. This extension adds a toolbar to your browser with options for many useful web development functions such us activating/de-activating scripts, popups, functions to control cookies or to look up for methods to build forms, images, styles, etc.

I personally dont use the extension anymore but it has been very useful in the past when I was still very unfamiliar with many of the HTML & CSS ways.

This extension allows you to easily inspect which fonts and font properties that are being applied to any text on a website. Fonts can make a huge difference when it comes to the design of your site, and you can use this tool to make sure theyre all as they should be, or perhaps to even get information about a font a particular website is using so you can also use it on yours.

Similarly to What Font, the ColorZilla extension allows you to get the color of any pixel on the website. But additionally comes with handy toolssuch as a palette browser and gradient generator.

Its a super interesting tool to have handy.

Disclaimer: This is a toolI dont regularly use. While its not widely used, and has a relatively low rating, it has been greatly recommended on twitter in the past.

This extension changes the CSS of all your elements so you can very visually see where are each element boundaries. This can be crucial when debugging CSS layout issues.

You dont need an extension for this, it can easily be achieved with some CSS, so if you dont want to use this extension (as myself), check out my articleCSS Tricks for Validating Layouts.

Extensions can make our lives easier, as is the case with the ones I listed today. Why not rely on a little extra help when developing?

This article was originally published on Live Code Stream by Juan Cruz Martinez (twitter: @bajcmartinez), founder and publisher of Live Code Stream, entrepreneur, developer, author, speaker, and doer of things.

Live Code Stream is also available as a free weekly newsletter. Sign up for updates on everything related to programming, AI, and computer science in general.

Read next: Google Photos' new AI-powered editor will retouch your images for you

See the original post here:
Here are the best Chrome extensions for web developers in 2020 - The Next Web

Partner content by Stack Commerce

As you may or may not already know, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results. It's one of many digital marketing practices that companies and individuals use to rank their websites higher on specific search engines, such as Google, when people type keywords, phrases, questions, and even sentences into the search engines.

Whether you operate a digital-only business, have a traditional brick and mortar store with an online presence, write a blog in your free time, or anything else imaginable on the web, you'll want to make the most of SEO and other digital marketing techniques to attract more visitors to your website. And that's precisely what this bundle of online courses helps you do.

The Ultimate Google Ads & SEO Certification Bundle helps you improve your site's ranking and get more leads with 29 hours of online video training on Google Ads, SEO, and other practical digital marketing strategies. You can pick it up on sale today for $49.99, reduced 97% from its regular price tag.

It's much easier to learn the ins and outs of effective digital marketing strategies with the help of this bundle. For starters, it covers various digital marketing techniques, such as Google Ads, SEO, cold emails, and backlink building. Today's most successful online businesses use these strategies regularly, which means learning how to apply them to your own website will make you more competitive in the digital arena. Besides that, the courses give you hands-on examples of applying these strategies to your own website. So, rather than talk about these concepts abstractly, the courses provide you with concrete examples of how you can improve your digital marketing efforts in just a few hours.

Just as valuable, you'll learn the ins and outs of effective digital marketing, as well as how to translate that to your web presence, with the guidance of two well-rated online instructors. Joshua George is an SEO consultant and expert who regularly attends SEO conferences across the world to ensure he's always on top of the latest Google algorithm updates and trends, while BlackBrick Training specializes in producing online learning materials for those who want to learn more about digital marketing and SEO.

In short, The Ultimate Google Ads & SEO Certification Bundle gives you the insight and skills needed to improve your site's ranking and get more leads. Grab this bundle of online courses today for $49.99.

Excerpt from:
Learn How to Get More Traffic to Your Website By Becoming An SEO Expert - IGN Nordic

If youre reading this, I dont particularly have to convince you of the importance of search engines. You know this.

Your paychecks are the manifestation of research and analysis.

We as humans want answers.

With schools, libraries, and sources of record all closed or operating by appointment only, were doing the best we can: were asking Google.

Heres the thing: Why do you trust search engine results?

As SEO professionals, we tend to have a bit more discerning eyes.

Advertisement

Continue Reading Below

We can spots the more subtle (than dinosaur gender black) elements dont seem quite right.

Its what our clients pay us to do.

Its more important than ever for clients to know and curate how they are represented in search results.

Silly things happen.

What do we do when misrepresentations contort from silly to intentional deception?

What do we do when the fundamental structure of a political system is under threat of disinformation?

Disinformation is false or misleading information that is spread deliberately to deceive.

The information spread is false with the intent to harm a person, social group, organization, or country.

It has a sister, mal-information.

Mal-information uses information-based in reality in a context intended to inflict harm.

Google publicly addressed the grandeur of government-backed phishing.

Smaller but equally as threatening are attempts to alter maps so people cant find their polling station.

The SERPs themselves are a battlefront.

SEO-savvy propagandists can spread disinformation and even muddy up the search results in many ways.

Advertisement

Continue Reading Below

You could argue the entire webspam team is dedicated to fighting disinformation, but theres another Google team you might not be familiar with.

Jigsaw is a unit within Google that forecasts and confronts emerging threats.

As part of their efforts to research and document disinformation, they paired with Atlantic Councils DFRLab to create a Data Visualizer tracking disinformation.

Search engine manipulation is listed in Googles glossary of methods, but no data is available on actual attacks.

The absence is notable, particularly when paired with the disclaimer modal that pops up when opening the tool.

Endorsement and transparency have never particularly been strong suits for Google when it comes to search engine marketing.

It seems a fair response in light of the sordid history of SEO, when it comes to manipulation.

Have you heard of Dr. Bukkake, the renowned facial expert?

The name is enough to be a red flag in 2020, but back in 2008, this persona became an SEO legend.

Dr. Bukkake was a fictional *ahem* facial dermatologist.

The character had a website complete with fake research and a fake research fund.

Real medical sites and funds linked to it!

The doctor was created by an SEO seeking to drive traffic to a porn site client.

Advertisement

Continue Reading Below

Once the link builder had enough credibility, cloaked redirects began taking users clicking SERP results and from external links (like those from trusted medical research centers) to the clients explicit content.

In July 2020, U.S. Jewish newspaper The Algemeiner published an article from Oliver Taylor.

The student from Englands University of Birmingham already had bylines in the Jerusalem Post and the Times of Israel. He seemed credible.

The article accused London academic Mazen Masri and his partner Ryvka Barnard, of being known terrorist sympathizers.

Marsi, best known for his role in an Israeli lawsuit against surveillance company NSO, was taken aback and denied the claims. He never had a chance to confront his accuser though.

Oliver Taylor doesnt exist. His headshot was deepfake.

His University has no records of such a student. Taylor gained enough credibility to be seen as a reputable author by pitching articles over email.

Reuters elaborates on the scam. The article reads agasp at the deceptive tactics.

Advertisement

Continue Reading Below

These are the same strategies I used back in 2010 when I worked as a link outreach manager.

When my cold-call pitches worked, the articles never used my real name or photo.

Instead, the agency I worked for attributed them to personas they could continue to bolster after I left.

Technically, the gentleman kind enough to hop on a call with me doesnt do black hat SEO its gray.

Gray enough that Ill simply refer to him as K.

I tell K about the article Im working on and shared the details of Oliver Taylor.

K specializes in local SEO and online reputation management (ORM).

His voice sounds like a grin as he says, Heres the thing. ORM can be manipulated. People can be faked.

Fake personas are part of his everyday tactics.

He introduces me to This Person Does Not Exist and SpeechLeo for user images and voices.

Advertisement

Continue Reading Below

MugJam is a new favorite tool. It allows K to make fake video reviews with unique faces and voices.

Google puts a great deal of credibility behind video reviews because they foster user trust.

K explains how MugJam uses Amazon poly to fake the voice.

Im equal parts impressed and horrified at the ease of the process.

How can I spot a fake review like this?, I ask.

Fake voices sound tinny, he says. Listen for the s and th sounds.

These sounds are known as splosives in audio engineering.

Robotic audio smooths it out.

While Wikipedia was once the black hat go-to for manipulation, Googles partnership and crackdown on the tactic required black and grey hats to evolve.

They didnt have to go far.

Why go through the trouble of manipulating the Knowledge Graph when you can simply bind keywords to an entity via a knowledge panel result?

Advertisement

Continue Reading Below

The weakness was known and talked about by SEO professionals for years.

You could simply bring up a sites knowledge panel in Google and click on the share link.

The share link contained parameters for the Knowledge Graph ID of the entity and the original query.

By manipulating the q= parameter, you could associate that knowledge graph with any keyword.

K shares with me how he used the vulnerability to disambiguate the knowledge graph.

Imagine I tied the keywords dance studio to Not a Robot. Googles no longer confident in what Not a Robot does. You drop the entity below the confidence threshold and it drops from SERP.

He shares over a screenshot from an ambiguation experiment he ran on a rival SEO agency.

The tactic was effective and the loophole only closed earlier this year.

Ks new favorite trick is baking information in the data layer of images using Google Cloud Vision API or Google Lens.

Advertisement

Continue Reading Below

Hes placed 10-15,000 word articles in the metadata.

This information is invisible to humans but as long as he spoofs the correct required data points, Google sees the image as a direct upload of a Pixel device and passes the keyword-stuffed data directly to the index.

I ask K how this is possible. He says hes leveraging Googles assumed trust in image publishers.

Is Amazon a trusted authority? Azure? What about Google? Theres no check-in place for this kind of manipulation.

Assumed trust in a source allows K to leverage iframe stacking, nesting hidden manipulative data in trusted sources.

For Google if theyre going to target iframes, YouTube is built on iframes. If you destroy iframes you dismantle YouTube. It is a calculated risk.

In the years Ive spent as a Product Owner, Ive had similar conversations with my C-levels during roadmapping and risk analysis.

There is always risk in digital. We simply place our bets on the best path forward.

Advertisement

Continue Reading Below

Search engines are vulnerable to disinformation because of technical dependencies and assumed trusted sources.

What about the human aspect?

Here is the original post:
Digital & Disinformation: What the SEO Industry Can Do to Fight Manipulation - Search Engine Journal