marți, 31 decembrie 2013

The Best of 2013: The Top Posts and People on the Moz Blog

The Best of 2013: The Top Posts and People on the Moz Blog


The Best of 2013: The Top Posts and People on the Moz Blog

Posted: 30 Dec 2013 03:31 PM PST

Posted by Trevor-Klein

Continuing what has become an annual tradition at Moz, on the last day of 2013 we're excited to bring you a roundup of the very best of this year's posts on the Moz Blog and YouMoz.

After asking Roger to work overtime to crunch these numbers, we've whittled the posts down to the cream of the crop, and have organized them in several different ways:

  1. The top Moz Blog posts by unique pageviews
  2. The top YouMoz Blog posts by unique pageviews
  3. The top Moz Blog posts by number of thumbs up
  4. The top Moz Blog posts by number of comments
  5. The top Moz Blog posts by number of linking root domains
  6. The top comments from our community by number of thumbs up
  7. The most active community members by number of comments posted
This year's data was more difficult to collect, as we migrated to our new domain in May. My eternal gratitude goes to Cyrus Shepard for helping make sure the right numbers were pulled.

Top posts by unique pageviews

One of the quintessential metrics for a piece of content is its number of unique pageviews. Reflecting our audience's thirst for advanced SEO, content marketing, and data analysis, these posts were winners from the very beginning.

Miranda Rensch

1. 10 Tools for Creating Infographics and Visualizations
February 6 - Posted by Miranda Rensch
Communicating visually is one of the most effective ways to explain complex concepts and relationships, both internally with your teammates and externally with your clients. Our very own Product Manager, Miranda Rensch, offers a list of tools you can use to create beautiful visualizations and let your visual communication skills shine!

randfish

2. A Visual Guide to Keyword Targeting and On-Page Optimization
August 6 - Posted by randfish
As the "O" in SEO has broadened in scope, the most effective elements of on-page optimization have changed. While there is arguably no "perfectly optimized page," this update to a 2009 post provides a comprehensive guide to steer you in the right direction.

DannyDover

3. The Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet 2.0
August 29 - Posted by DannyDover
It is my honor and privilege today to introduce the brand new version of The Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet. This free and downloadable cheat sheet covers all of the important SEO code and best practices that are needed by online marketers and developers.

Cyrus-Shepard

4. How to Rank: 25 Step SEO Master Blueprint
May 14 - Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
If you’re like most SEOs, you spend hours each week reading the latest SEO tactics and search engine tidbits. We spend hours learning, but does 90% of it change what we actually do - that is, the basic work of ranking a web page for search? To lend a hand, let me introduce the 25 Step SEO Master Blueprint.

Cyrus-Shepard

5. Amazing Correlation Between Google +1s and Higher Search Rankings
August 20 - Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
This year's Search Ranking Factors Study showed a very strong correlation between Google +1s and higher rankings, and there's a compelling reason why. Google+ was built for SEO, and is far better optimized for search than other platforms.

CueBlocks.com

6. Holy Grail of eCommerce Conversion Optimization - 91 Point Checklist and Infographic
January 24 - Posted by CueBlocks.com
Invest in building filthy rich user experience, consistently and throughout your store. That is what stores with deeper pockets (like ASOS, Zappos, and JCPenney) do to achieve better conversion rate than your store. This article will take you away from usual Search Engine Optimization stuff to where the real money lies - Conversion Rate Optimization. What you do with the visitors you bring to your website?

Matt Peters

7. 2013 Search Engine Ranking Factors
July 9 - Posted by Matt Peters
The results are in! Come check out Moz's 2013 Ranking Factors as Matt Peters presents a preview of the results from the survey and correlation study.

randfish

8. Goodbye SEOmoz. Hello Moz!
May 29 - Posted by randfish
For the last two years, the 130+ Mozzers across product, engineering, marketing, and operations have been working to transform this company to the next stage of our evolution. Today, that incredibly demanding, intense, but ultimately rewarding process has reached its first goal. I'm excited to announce that as of today, SEOmoz is formally transitioning our brand, our products, our company name, and all of our efforts to Moz.

Cyrus-Shepard

9. The 100 Best Free SEO Tools & Resources for Every Challenge - Interactive
July 31 - Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
At Moz, we love using premium SEO Tools. Paid tools are essential when you need advanced features, increased limits, historical features, or professional support. For other tasks, a free tool does the trick. Here you'll find a collection of the 100 best completely free tools, tools with both free and paid options, and free trials.

randfish

10. When Keyword (not provided is 100 Percent of Organic Referrals, What Should Marketers Do? - Whiteboard Friday
September 24 - Posted by randfish
The rate at which Google is lumping keywords into "(not provided)" has skyrocketed in the last month, leading to a huge drop in referral data and speculation that 100% of keywords will soon be masked. In this special Whiteboard Tuesday, Rand covers what marketers can do to make up for this drastic change.

Top YouMoz posts by unique pageviews

We saw some real gems come through the YouMoz queue this year. Most of these posts were promoted to the Moz Blog shortly after they were published, as their resonance with the Moz community was readily apparent.

CueBlocks.com

1. Holy Grail of eCommerce Conversion Optimization - 91 Point Checklist and Infographic
January 24 - Posted by CueBlocks.com
Invest in building filthy rich user experience, consistently and throughout your store. That is what stores with deeper pockets (like ASOS, Zappos, and JCPenney) do to achieve better conversion rate than your store. This article will take you away from usual Search Engine Optimization stuff to where the real money lies - Conversion Rate Optimization. What you do with the visitors you bring to your website?

kevingibbons

2. 96 Quick SEO Wins - What Can You Do With an Hour?
January 31 - Posted by kevingibbons
If you want to win at SEO in 2013, you must commit to a solid long-term strategy. However, that's not to say you can't build small wins into your long-term strategy to strengthen it along the way. Here are 96 quick wins you can implement in an hour or less to see tremendous results.

Pratik.Dholakiya

3. The Ultimate Guide to Advanced Guest Blogging
January 21 - Posted by Pratik.Dholakiya
With "content marketing" being the indisputable SEO buzzword of 2012, we can expect 2013 to see an onslaught of marketers trying to build links with guest posts. The growth in this market will cause some sites to lower their guest posting standards, others to raise them, and still more to stop accepting them altogether. We're going to help you combat this by sharing how we got posts up on ProBlogger and Search Engine Journal, and by introducing you to our strategy for success with our clients.

Rhea Drysdale

4. 33 Link Building Questions Answered
April 4 - Posted by Rhea Drysdale
When it comes to link building idea generation, the sky's the limit! In today's post, Rhea Drysdale offers her tips for best practices and a philosophical approach to link building that will help bring your ideas to life.

Court Tuttle

5. Post-Penguin Anchor Text Case Study
January 15 - Posted by Court Tuttle
It's no secret that Google's Panda and Penguin updates caused a lot of panic. Although I'm pretty turned off to information about these updates, I've been really interested in the anchor text issues surrounding the Penguin update. If sites that have over-optimized anchors lost traffic due to the update, it seems to make sense that sites can move up with relatively few (or without any) anchored links. I wanted to test that idea and decided that it was time for a good, old fashioned case study.

Phil Sharp

6. 5 Lessons Learned from 100,000 Usability Studies
August 28 - Posted by Phil Sharp
As helpful as analytics can be, they simply can't give as complete a picture as usability studies. This post walks through five of the most important lessons we've learned after performing hundreds of thousands of those studies.

MatthewBarby

7. How to Build Links to Your Blog - A Case Study
June 4 - Posted by MatthewBarby
After a month or so of development, my site was finally ready and I wanted to start thinking about how to get some traffic going on the website. Whilst paid advertising and social media were a huge part of the strategy, I knew that appearing in the search engines for a wide selection of long-tail phrases was going to be instrumental to the blog's success. This is when I began developing my link building strategy and, after trialing out some very successful approaches, I've decided to now share my link building tactics with you all.

ILoveFashionRetail.com

8. How to Build a Great Online Fashion Brand - 34 Things that Really Amazing Fashion Retailers Do
May 30 - Posted by ILoveFashionRetail.com
Despite the title, we believe this article can also benefit and inspire retailers in industries outside fashion and help them find their way to success in online retail business in this new social commerce environment. The Online Fashion Retail Industry, particularly at the luxury end, seems to be doing well. Over the past few years, lot of money has been invested into fashion retail businesses. Valuations of these companies might seem inflated, but these companies are growing fast with the help of clear revenue stream and a value proposition that’s beyond price advantage. But while some companies in Fashion technology are successfully raising more money and growing, there is another segment that’s struggling to survive. These businesses are stalling because of their ability to adopt to the shift in the media consumption behavior of the consumer.

TannerC

9. How To Blog Successfully About Anything
January 9 - Posted by TannerC
In order to create a successful blog, you must be passionately curious about the topic you're covering. Learn how to turn even the most uninteresting blog post topics into goldmines with these tips for successful bloggers.

simonpenson

10. Semantic Web and Link Building without Links > The Future for SEO?
January 10 - Posted by simonpenson
Rand’s recent WBF about co-occurrence was a real wake up call for those still transfixed with link building practices of old. While anchor text based links may still have some effect, there is little arguing the fact that the factor’s importance is dwindling. In its place are things like social signals, link age, and, most importantly, a growing reliance on relevancy and how that is deciphered.

Top Moz Blog posts by number of thumbs up

While something of a controversial metric, there's nothing more satisfying for an author (or, I admit, for a publisher!) than seeing a bunch of thumbs up. These posts went far beyond satisfying, though, garnering jaw-dropping numbers of thumbs up.

Cyrus-Shepard

1. How to Rank: 25 Step SEO Master Blueprint
May 14 - Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
If you’re like most SEOs, you spend hours each week reading the latest SEO tactics and search engine tidbits. We spend hours learning, but does 90% of it change what we actually do - that is, the basic work of ranking a web page for search? To lend a hand, let me introduce the 25 Step SEO Master Blueprint.

randfish

2. Goodbye SEOmoz. Hello Moz!
May 29 - Posted by randfish
For the last two years, the 130+ Mozzers across product, engineering, marketing, and operations have been working to transform this company to the next stage of our evolution. Today, that incredibly demanding, intense, but ultimately rewarding process has reached its first goal. I'm excited to announce that as of today, SEOmoz is formally transitioning our brand, our products, our company name, and all of our efforts to Moz.

DannyDover

3. The Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet 2.0
August 29 - Posted by DannyDover
It is my honor and privilege today to introduce the brand new version of The Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet. This free and downloadable cheat sheet covers all of the important SEO code and best practices that are needed by online marketers and developers.

randfish

4. A Visual Guide to Keyword Targeting and On-Page Optimization
August 6 - Posted by randfish
As the "O" in SEO has broadened in scope, the most effective elements of on-page optimization have changed. While there is arguably no "perfectly optimized page," this update to a 2009 post provides a comprehensive guide to steer you in the right direction.

Cyrus-Shepard

5. Amazing Correlation Between Google +1s and Higher Search Rankings
August 20 - Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
This year's Search Ranking Factors Study showed a very strong correlation between Google +1s and higher rankings, and there's a compelling reason why. Google+ was built for SEO, and is far better optimized for search than other platforms.

Matt Peters

6. 2013 Search Engine Ranking Factors
July 9 - Posted by Matt Peters
The results are in! Come check out Moz's 2013 Ranking Factors as Matt Peters presents a preview of the results from the survey and correlation study.

Cyrus-Shepard

7. The 100 Best Free SEO Tools & Resources for Every Challenge - Interactive
July 31 - Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
At Moz, we love using premium SEO Tools. Paid tools are essential when you need advanced features, increased limits, historical features, or professional support. For other tasks, a free tool does the trick. Here you'll find a collection of the 100 best completely free tools, tools with both free and paid options, and free trials.

NiftyMarketing

8. From Zero to a Million: 20 Lessons for Starting an Internet Marketing Agency
September 19 - Posted by NiftyMarketing
This post is a combination of stories and thoughts about what I have gone through building Nifty Marketing. My hope is that a few of you who are out there hustling will benefit from doing some of the things that I did, and most of the things that I didn't.

Court Tuttle

9. Post-Penguin Anchor Text Case Study
January 15 - Posted by Court Tuttle
It's no secret that Google's Panda and Penguin updates caused a lot of panic. Although I'm pretty turned off to information about these updates, I've been really interested in the anchor text issues surrounding the Penguin update. If sites that have over-optimized anchors lost traffic due to the update, it seems to make sense that sites can move up with relatively few (or without any) anchored links. I wanted to test that idea and decided that it was time for a good, old fashioned case study.

CueBlocks.com

10. Holy Grail of eCommerce Conversion Optimization - 91 Point Checklist and Infographic
January 24 - Posted by CueBlocks.com
Invest in building filthy rich user experience, consistently and throughout your store. That is what stores with deeper pockets (like ASOS, Zappos, and JCPenney) do to achieve better conversion rate than your store. This article will take you away from usual Search Engine Optimization stuff to where the real money lies - Conversion Rate Optimization. What you do with the visitors you bring to your website?

Top Moz Blog posts by number of comments

Some posts, whether due to truly inspired content or a touch of controversy (sometimes a little of both), generate significantly more discussion in the comments than others. Many of these have comment sections that dwarf the original post! We expected our announcement of the shift from SEOmoz to Moz would drum up some conversation, but we were interested to take a look at the rest of this list.

randfish

1. Goodbye SEOmoz. Hello Moz!
May 29 - Posted by randfish
For the last two years, the 130+ Mozzers across product, engineering, marketing, and operations have been working to transform this company to the next stage of our evolution. Today, that incredibly demanding, intense, but ultimately rewarding process has reached its first goal. I'm excited to announce that as of today, SEOmoz is formally transitioning our brand, our products, our company name, and all of our efforts to Moz.

Court Tuttle

2. Post-Penguin Anchor Text Case Study
January 15 - Posted by Court Tuttle
It's no secret that Google's Panda and Penguin updates caused a lot of panic. Although I'm pretty turned off to information about these updates, I've been really interested in the anchor text issues surrounding the Penguin update. If sites that have over-optimized anchors lost traffic due to the update, it seems to make sense that sites can move up with relatively few (or without any) anchored links. I wanted to test that idea and decided that it was time for a good, old fashioned case study.

Pratik.Dholakiya

3. The Ultimate Guide to Advanced Guest Blogging
January 21 - Posted by Pratik.Dholakiya
With “content marketing” being the indisputable SEO buzzword of 2012, we can expect 2013 to see an onslaught of marketers trying to build links with guest posts. The growth in this market will cause some sites to lower their guest posting standards, others to raise them, and still more to stop accepting them altogether. We're going to help you combat this by sharing how we got posts up on ProBlogger and Search Engine Journal, and by introducing you to our strategy for success with our clients.

randfish

4. Why We Can't Just Be SEOs Anymore - Whiteboard Friday
May 2 - Posted by randfish
There's a movement happening in our industry where many SEOs are changing their titles and practices to "inbound marketing." Where did this shift originate, and how is it shaping our industry at large? In today's Whiteboard Friday, Rand shares his thoughts on why we can't just be SEOs anymore if we're aiming for the bigger picture.

Cyrus-Shepard

5. The 100 Best Free SEO Tools & Resources for Every Challenge - Interactive
July 31 - Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
At Moz, we love using premium SEO Tools. Paid tools are essential when you need advanced features, increased limits, historical features, or professional support. For other tasks, a free tool does the trick. Here you'll find a collection of the 100 best completely free tools, tools with both free and paid options, and free trials.

PinpointDesigns

6. Ultimate Guide to Google Penalty Removal
October 14 - Posted by PinpointDesigns
A few months back, I wrote an article on Moz all about a penalty our web agency received for unnatural links pointing to our website. At first, this was a bit of a shock to the system, but since then, we've learned so much about Google's webmaster guidelines and we've helped lots of companies get their businesses back on track and remove manual penalties associated with their websites.

NiftyMarketing

7. From Zero to a Million: 20 Lessons for Starting an Internet Marketing Agency
September 19 - Posted by NiftyMarketing
This post is a combination of stories and thoughts about what I have gone through building Nifty Marketing. My hope is that a few of you who are out there hustling will benefit from doing some of the things that I did, and most of the things that I didn't.

randfish

8. When Keyword (not provided) is 100 Percent of Organic Referrals, What Should Marketers Do? - Whiteboard Tuesday
September 24 - Posted by randfish
The rate at which Google is lumping keywords into "(not provided)" has skyrocketed in the last month, leading to a huge drop in referral data and speculation that 100% of keywords will soon be masked. In this special Whiteboard Tuesday, Rand covers what marketers can do to make up for this drastic change.

Cyrus-Shepard

9. How to Rank: 25 Step SEO Master Blueprint
May 14 - Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
If you’re like most SEOs, you spend hours each week reading the latest SEO tactics and search engine tidbits. We spend hours learning, but does 90% of it change what we actually do - that is, the basic work of ranking a web page for search? To lend a hand, let me introduce the 25 Step SEO Master Blueprint.

RachaelGerson

10. Why Google Analytics Tagging Matters - Whiteboard Friday
March 15 - Posted by RachaelGerson
In today's Whiteboard Friday, Rachael Gerson sheds some light on "dark social" and explains why tagging in Google Analytics improves the accuracy of your referrals. Take credit for the work that you're doing, and tag your links!

Top Moz Blog posts by number of linking root domains

It just wouldn't seem right to use unique pageviews, thumbs, and comments to judge an SEO-focused blog without throwing in linking root domains as well. Using data from Open Site Explorer, here are the 10 posts that garnered the most attention from unique domains across the web.

Cyrus-Shepard

1. Amazing Correlation Between Google +1s and Higher Search Rankings
2013-08-20 01:46:00 - Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
This year's Search Ranking Factors Study showed a very strong correlation between Google +1s and higher rankings, and there's a compelling reason why. Google+ was built for SEO, and is far better optimized for search than other platforms.

Matt Peters

2. 2013 Search Engine Ranking Factors
2013-07-09 03:19:00 - Posted by Matt Peters
The results are in! Come check out Moz's 2013 Ranking Factors as Matt Peters presents a preview of the results from the survey and correlation study.

randfish

3. When Keyword (not provided) is 100 Percent of Organic Referrals, What Should Marketers Do? â€" Whiteboard Tuesday
2013-09-24 00:05:00 - Posted by randfish
The rate at which Google is lumping keywords into "(not provided)" has skyrocketed in the last month, leading to a huge drop in referral data and speculation that 100% of keywords will soon be masked. In this special Whiteboard Tuesday, Rand covers what marketers can do to make up for this drastic change.

randfish

4. Goodbye SEOmoz. Hello Moz!
2013-05-29 06:59:00 - Posted by randfish
For the last two years, the 130+ Mozzers across product, engineering, marketing, and operations have been working to transform this company to the next stage of our evolution. Today, that incredibly demanding, intense, but ultimately rewarding process has reached its first goal. I'm excited to announce that as of today, SEOmoz is formally transitioning our brand, our products, our company name, and all of our efforts to Moz.

DannyDover

5. The Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet 2.0
2013-08-29 00:13:00 - Posted by DannyDover
It is my honor and privilege today to introduce the brand new version of The Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet. This free and downloadable cheat sheet covers all of the important SEO code and best practices that are needed by online marketers and developers.

randfish

6. A Visual Guide to Keyword Targeting and On-Page Optimization
2013-08-06 10:27:07 - Posted by randfish
As the "O" in SEO has broadened in scope, the most effective elements of on-page optimization have changed. While there is arguably no "perfectly optimized page," this update to a 2009 post provides a comprehensive guide to steer you in the right direction.

Zoompf

7. How Website Speed Actually Impacts Search Ranking
2013-08-01 03:24:00 - Posted by Zoompf
Google has long stated website performance will impact search ranking, but what exactly does this mean? In this article, Zoompf researches over 40 different speed metrics to determine the most impactful performance changes you can make to your website to improve search ranking.

Miranda.Rensch

8. 10 Tools for Creating Infographics and Visualizations
2013-02-06 02:52:00 - Posted by Miranda.Rensch
Communicating visually is one of the most effective ways to explain complex concepts and relationships, both internally with your teammates and externally with your clients. Our very own Product Manager, Miranda Rensch, offers a list of tools you can use to create beautiful visualizations and let your visual communication skills shine!

Kristina Kledzik

9. The SEO of Responsive Web Design
2013-01-28 02:05:00 - Posted by Kristina Kledzik
Will Critchlow announced back in November that Distilled's blog was updated with a new responsive design, but it occurred to me recently that we never went into the specifics of why responsive web design is so great. It's been a hot topic in online marketing for the past few months, but is it really going to become an industry standard? Short answer: yep.

Cyrus-Shepard

10. How to Rank: 25 Step SEO Master Blueprint
2013-05-14 03:14:00 - Posted by Cyrus-Shepard
If you’re like most SEOs, you spend hours each week reading the latest SEO tactics and search engine tidbits. We spend hours learning, but does 90% of it change what we actually do - that is, the basic work of ranking a web page for search? To lend a hand, let me introduce the 25 Step SEO Master Blueprint.

Top comments by number of thumbs up

We're always impressed by the discussions we see in the comments below blog posts. In addition to the great many insightful points that add to what the authors say, one of our favorite parts is the support our community members show for one another. Here are the most thumbed-up comments from 2013.

Stephan_Boehringer

1. Stephan_Boehringer | September 24
When Keyword (not provided) is 100 Percent of Organic Referrals, What Should Marketers Do? - Whiteboard Tuesday

gfiorelli1

2. gfiorelli1 | July 19
Heart to Heart About Link Building - Whiteboard Friday

MarkTraphagen

3. MarkTraphagen | August 20
Amazing Correlation Between Google +1s and Higher Search Rankings

jcolman

4. jcolman | May 29
Goodbye SEOmoz. Hello Moz!

randfish

5. randfish | August 29
The Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet 2.0

Dr-Pete

6. Dr-Pete | April 15
The Difference Between Penguin and an Unnatural Links Penalty (and some info on Panda too)

Bill Sebald

7. Bill Sebald | July 16
9 Experts and a Summary: What Makes an Ideal SEO Employee?

KeriMorgret

8. KeriMorgret | February 7
Going Beyond Moz Metrics to Answer: "Why is this Site Outranking Me?"

evolvingSEO

9. evolvingSEO | February 12
Stop Clicking Here! 7 Superior SEO Alternatives to Generic Links

KeriMorgret

10. KeriMorgret | March 8
6 Ways to Use Fresh Links & Mentions to Improve Your Marketing Efforts - Whiteboard Friday

Most active users by number of comments

While quality certainly trumps quantity in most cases, we're continuously impressed by the ability of our community members to cover both bases. On average, the folks on this list (which intentionally omits our own staff and associates) have left a comment on every second or third post we've published, and we couldn't appreciate their contributions more.

Charles_SEO

1. Charles_SEO
mozPoints: 516 | Rank: 161

Spook SEO

2. Spook SEO
mozPoints: 259 | Rank: 350

Brahmadas

3. Brahmadas
mozPoints: 341 | Rank: 248

Dubs

4. Dubs
mozPoints: 946 | Rank: 85

steviephil

5. steviephil
mozPoints: 1,030 | Rank: 77

paints-n-design

6. paints-n-design
mozPoints: 224 | Rank: 435

danatanseo

7. danatanseo
mozPoints: 3,298 | Rank: 10

manishbhalla

8. manishbhalla
mozPoints: 230 | Rank: 422

skifr

9. skifr
mozPoints: 234 | Rank: 407

Matt-Antonino

10. Matt-Antonino
mozPoints: 1,681 | Rank: 36


Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

Foursquare Quietly Unlocks Its Own "Local Data Aggregator" Badge

Posted: 30 Dec 2013 02:28 AM PST

Posted by David-Mihm

I was wrong about Foursquare.

While five of my 2013 local search prognostications came to fruition, my sixth predictionâ€"that Foursquare would be boughtâ€"doesn't look like it will (unless Apple has silently acquired Foursquare in the last couple of days).

In fact, Foursquare has been turning away from an acquisition path, setting off on a fundraising spree in 2013. While this quest for cash has struck some analysts as a desperate tactic, PR from the company indicates that it remains focused on growing its userbase and its revenues for the foreseeable future. It's one of the few companies in tech to successfully address both sides of the merchant and consumer marketplace, and as a result, might even have a chance at an IPO.

As the company matures, we hear less and less about mayorships, badges, and social gamificationâ€"perhaps a tacit admission that checkins are indeed dying as the motivational factor underlying usage of Foursquare.

Foursquare: the data aggregator

Instead, the company is pivoting into a self-described position as "the location layer for the Internet."

Google, Bing, Nokia, and other mapping companies have built their own much broader location layers to varying degrees of success, but it's the human activity associated with location data that makes Foursquare unique. Its growing database of keyword-rich tips and comments and widening network of social interactions even make predictive recommendations possible.

But I'm considerably less excited about these consumer-facing recommendations than I am about Foursquare's data play. If "location layer for the internet" is not a synonym for "data aggregator," I'm not sure what would be.

In the last several months, Foursquare has been prompting its users to provide business details about the places they check-in at, like whether a business has wi-fi, its relative price range, delivery and payment options, and more. It's also accumulating one of the biggest photo libraries in all of local search. For companies that have not yet built their own services like StreetView and Mapmaker, Foursquare "ground truth" position is enviable.

So from my standpoint, Foursquare's already achieved the status of a major data aggregator, and seems to have its sights set on becoming the data aggregator.

Foursquare: The Data Aggregator?

That statement would have sounded preposterous 18 months ago, with "only" 15 million users and 250,000 claimed venues.

But while many of us in the local search space have been distracted by the shiny objects of Google+ Local and Facebook Graph Search, Foursquare has struck deals with the two largest up-and-coming social apps (Instagram and Pinterest) to provide the location backbone for their geolocation features. Not to mention Uber, WhatsApp, and a host of other conversational and transactional apps.

And buried in the December 5th TechCrunch article about Foursquare's latest iOS release was this throwaway line:

"Foursquare has a sharing deal with Apple already â€" it's one of over a dozen contributors to Apple's Maps data."

So, doing some quick math, we have

All of a sudden that's a substantial number of people contributing location information to Foursquare. Granted, there's considerable overlap in those users, but even a conservative 80-100 million would be a pretty large number of touchpoints.

In fact, one thing that Wil Reynolds and I realized at a recent get-together in San Diego is that for many people outside the tech world, Foursquare and Instagram are basically the same app (see screenshots below). I'm seeing more and more of my decidedly non-techie Instagram friends tagging their photos with location. And avid Foursquare users like Matthew Brown have always made photography their primary network activity.

Providing the geographic foundation for two appsâ€"Pinterest and Instagramâ€"that are far more popular than Foursquare gives it a strong running start on laying the location foundation for the Internet.

What's next for Foursquare?

While Facebook is undoubtedly building its own location layer, Zuckerberg and company have long ignored local search. And they've got plenty of other short- and mid-term priorities. Exposing Facebook check-in data to the extent Foursquare has, and forcing Instagram to update a very successful API integration, would seem to be pretty far down the list.

As I suggested in my Local Search Ecosystem update in August, to challenge established players like Infogroup, Neustar, and Acxiom, in the long run Foursquare does need to build out its index considerably beyond the current sweetspots of food, drink, and entertainment.

But in the short run, the quality and depth of Foursquare's popular venue information in major cities gives start-up app developers everything they need to launch and attract users to their apps. And Foursquare's independence from Google, Facebook, and Apple is appealing for many of themâ€"particularly for non-U.S. app developers who have a hard time finding publicly-available location databases outside of Google or Facebook.

Foursquare's success with Instagram and Pinterest has created a self-perpetuating growth strategy: it will continue to be the location API of choice for most "hot" local startups.

TL;DR

Foursquare venues have been contributing to a business's citation profile for years, so hopefully most of you have included venue creation and management in your local SEO service packages already. Even if you optimize non-retail locations like insurance agencies, accounting offices, and the like, make one of your 2014 New Year's resolutions be a higher level of engagement with Foursquare.

The bottom line is that irrespective of its user growth and beyond just SEO, Foursquare is going to get more important to the SoLoMo ecosystem in the coming year.


Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

Seth's Blog : Broken English

 

Broken English

All the nuance disappears. When talking to someone in a languge that's not easy for them, you discover that idioms and other forms of communication disappear. You need to be extremely direct and specific in order to make yourself understood.

The thing is, just about everyone speaks some form of broken English. It's "broken" because it doesn't match our version. Their language and our language isn't the same one—the other person may think your English is broken too.

Our ability to communicate with one another isn't nearly as sophisticated or error free as we think it is.

You will be misunderstood. If it's critical that we understand you, say it more clearly. Say it twice. Better yet, act it out, live it, make it an action, not merely a concept.

       

 

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luni, 30 decembrie 2013

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis


Joke Headline of the Day: "Pending Home Sales Rise"; Five Housing Headwinds

Posted: 30 Dec 2013 01:02 PM PST

I was perusing online stories about today's release of pending homes sales data from the National Association of Realtors. Here are a few sample headlines.

NAR: Pending Home Sales Edge Up in November
CNBC: US pending home sales rise 0.2 percent
Calculated Risk: Pending Home Sales Index increased 0.2% in November
Forbes: Pending Home Sales Tick Up In November, First Time In Five Months
Reuters: U.S. pending home sales end slide, hint at stabilization
Fox Business News: Pending Home Sales Rise Slightly, Miss Street View

One Headline Title Stood Out

Zero Hedge: Pending Home Sales Plunge At Fastest Pace Since April 2011

It took about one second to understand the discrepancy.

All but the ZeroHedge headline (not necessarily the articles) ignored the NAR statement (see first link) "The Pending Home Sales Index,* a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, inched up 0.2 percent to 101.7 in November from a downwardly revised 101.5 in October, but is 1.6 percent below November 2012 when it was 103.3."

ZeroHedge has a chart that shows just that.

Pending Home Sales Year-Over-Year



It's kind of easy for sales to be up when the previous month was revised lower. But how much lower? The NAR did not even say. Let's take a look at monthly NAR reports to find out.

November 25 NAR: October Pending Home Sales Down Again, but Expected to Level Out: The Pending Home Sales Index,* a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, slipped 0.6 percent to 102.1 in October from an upwardly revised 102.7 in September, and is 1.6 percent below October 2012 when it was 103.8. The index is at the lowest level since December 2012 when it was 101.3; the data reflect contracts but not closings.

October 28 NAR: Pending Home Sales Continue Slide in September: The Pending Home Sales Index,* a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, fell 5.6 percent to 101.6 in September from a downwardly revised 107.6 in August, and is 1.2 percent below September 2012 when it was 102.8. The index is at the lowest level since December 2012 when it was 101.3; the data reflect contracts but not closings.

September 26 NAR: Pending Home Sales Decline in August: The Pending Home Sales Index,* a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, eased 1.6 percent to 107.7 in August from a downwardly revised 109.4 in July, but remains 5.8 percent above August 2012 when it was 101.8; the data reflect contracts but not closings. Pending sales have been above year-ago levels for the past 28 months.

August 28 NAR: July Pending Home Sales Slip: The Pending Home Sales Index,* a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, declined 1.3 percent to 109.5 in July from 110.9 in June, but is 6.7 percent above July 2012 when it was 102.6; the data reflect contracts but not closings.  Pending sales have stayed above year-ago levels for the past 27 months.

Note the October data (released November 25) showed the pending home sales index slipped a reported 0.6 percent to 102.1.
  
"Pending Home Sales Rise"

  • Last Month: 102.1
  • This Month: 101.7
  • Result: Rise of 0.2

With all this revisionist history, these month-over-month comparisons seem rather meaningless. The chart posted by ZeroHedge shows the real story.

Lawrence Nun, the NAR cheerleader had this to say "We may have reached a cyclical low because the positive fundamentals of job creation and household formation are likely to foster a fairly stable level of contract activity in 2014".

Absolutely nothing suggests a cyclical low. The recovery has been fueled by excessively low rates, that are now rising sharply.  Numerous headwinds blow strongly. I strongly disagree with Nun on jobs and household formation.

Five Housing Headwinds

  1. Prices Up (Housing Less Affordable)
  2. Interest Rates Up (Housing Less Affordable)
  3. Insufficient Wage Growth (Housing Less Affordable)
  4. Household Formation Poor (Lack of Buyers)
  5. Poor Job Growth  (Lack of Buyers)

For further discussion of headwinds, especially the rise in interest rates, please see Average 30-Year Mortgage Rate Hits 4.47% (Not Counting Fees); Affordability Check

For a report on Household Formation, please see Haircut Deficit: Kids Living in Basements a Drag on U.S. Services Spending.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Judge Bars San Jose from Imposing Voter-Approved Pension Cuts; Hollow Victory for Unions

Posted: 30 Dec 2013 10:32 AM PST

On December 24, a state court judge barred the city of San Jose, California, from imposing voter-approved pension cuts on current municipal worker.
San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, a Democrat, encouraged voters in his city to back municipal pension cuts he proposed as part of last year's Measure B, which drew 70 percent support at the polls. The unions challenged the measure, leading to Judge Lucas' ruling in Santa Clara County Superior Court. Her decision is likely to be appealed.

In her "tentative" ruling, dated from last week but publicly released on Monday, Lucas said the city was entitled under the ballot measure to cut workers' pay to save money, but she held that vested pension benefits were protected by state law and thus off limits.

Reed is pressing for a statewide ballot initiative next year that would give cities across California the authority to reduce pension benefits.

In a statement, Reed welcomed the judge's ruling on pay cuts, but added: "Unfortunately, the judge's decision to invalidate certain portions of Measure B also highlights the fact that current California law provides cities, counties and other government agencies with very little flexibility in controlling their retirement costs."
Hollow Victory

The pension ruling was hailed by union advocates but not the wage cut ruling. Both sides are likely to appeal aspects of the ruling. Should the ruling stand as is, unions will come to regret their victory.

Voters Had Enough of Unions

Reed will press the matter further, in a statewide initiative. And sentiment suggests voters have finally had enough of unions.

However, one must expect the teachers' unions, the police and fire unions, and every other public union in the state to spend massive amounts of money hoping to defeat the proposition.

For California public-union sentiment details, please see Voters Take Negative View of Labor Unions; Liberals in Favor of Strikes (Until Strikes Happen); Aging Population an Anti-Union Force?

Should Reed's initiative pass and be struck down by the courts, Reed can shove it straight down the union's throats by declaring bankruptcy.

Unlike the mayoral economic illiterates in Vallejo and Stockton (who could have and should have slashed pension benefits in bankruptcy), it's pretty clear Reed would do just that.

100% Certain Pensions Not Sacrosanct

Given rulings in Detroit, Michigan; Central Falls, Rhode Island (see Central Falls Set to File Bankruptcy Exit Plan; 50% Pension Reductions, 40% Slash in Police and Fire Budgets Coming Up) and numerous cities in California, it is 100% certain that federal bankruptcy laws override state constitutions. In other words it is 100% certain that public union pensions are NOT sacrosanct.

One way or another pensions must be cut, and will be cut. But how?

Unions can help decide the nature of the cuts, or they can fight them every step of the way only to have cuts crammed down their throats in bankruptcy court. Unions being what they are, will no doubt choose to be force-fed cuts in numerous bankruptcies across the nation.

Unfortunately, force-fed across-the-board cuts in bankruptcy court are not the fairest thing to do. Nor is it fair to ask taxpayers to pick up the tab, given the threats, coercion, vote buying, and backroom deals under which politicians rewarded their friends and themselves jobs with ridiculous pensions.

For further consideration of the fairness aspect, please see Mish Template for Fair Public Union Pension Settlement.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com