Implementing AMP Forms from Start to Finish with amp-form [Examples]

The introduction of the amp-form component to AMP suspended the need to use hacks and expanded its functionality allowing for a much more flexible experience. Lead capture, commenting, search capability, and other site features common to most web pages suddenly became much more achievable with AMP HTML.

As with the rest of the AMP project, the amp-form documentation seems pretty straightforward, as it’s pretty close to standard HTML. The AMP team has even built out AMP By Example, a site with different example code snippets and demos. Continue reading →

Calculate Keyword Growth Using Google Trends, Python, and the Slope Formula

During a presentation I gave at Distilled’s SearchLove Boston conference in early May, I advocated that people use the slope formula and Google Trends data to determine if interest keywords have grown over time or if they are slipping away into searcher oblivion.

The only problem with this, is that unfortunately Google doesn’t provide an official API for Google Trends, so we need some Python wizardry to do this in bulk.
Continue reading →

Accelerated Mobile Pages (Google AMP) Hack to Add Lead Capture Forms

how to hack amp for lead generation and fast mobile sites

Update 5/15/2017: Refer to my new post about how to implement forms in AMP.

I’ve been working a lot with Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) Project as of late. The platform has a lot of restriction and doesn’t permit things such as third-party JavaScript and html form tags (so, lead-capture forms aren’t supposed to be possible within the AMP framework), but there is a weird workaround…
Continue reading →

Can I use blackhat article spinning (spintax) for whitehat purposes?

Whilst chatting in our office last week, reminiscing of ye old SEO tactics such as article spinning, automated backlink tools, etc, we started talking about article spinning and how it might have some legitimate value in certain use cases.

But first, let’s just one thing straight: In no way do I / we condone the use of article spinning for the purpose of blog posts, news articles or anything in between. There is a time and a place for everything, and spinning an entire article to get a unique version just isn’t something I’d recommend. On the other hand their are a few uses that I think we could re-examine such as:

  • eCommerce descriptions
  • photo gallery descriptions
  • meta descriptions, in some cases
  • and a few more

Continue reading →

Automatically Download Google Search Analytics Data Every Month [Updated for New API]

Google Webmaster Tools (recently renamed Google Search Console) is a treasure trove of data, especially useful keyword information.

Unfortunately, it isn’t stored for a long enough period to be useful for any trending.

If you want to get more use out of Google Webmaster Tools data, it is necessary to store it in a database, which may be challenging for some without a developer background.

I’ve been storing GWMT data ever since (not provided) came into full swing, and I recommend everyone do so as well.

Here is the Python script I have been using to download this data on a monthly basis…

Note: This script has been updated to use the new Search Analytics API.
Click here to jump to the new script.

Continue reading →

Semantic Keyword Research with KNIME and Social Media Data Mining – #BrightonSEO 2015

I had the opportunity to travel to the UK in April and speak at BrightonSEO, an SEO conference I’ve always admired from afar in the United States.

Needless to say, it was an incredible experience. I return from England having connected with many of my European SEO brethren, a liking of beans for breakfast, and with the word “garbage” stricken from my vocabulary and replaced with “rubbish”.

For those of you who did not make it out to see my presentation, or for those who attended and yearned for greater detail, I present to you this recap of my presentation…

Jump to…

Continue reading →

How to Integrate SEO and Social Media Marketing

social media and seo

I’ve been busy blogging away over on Marketing Land about ways to integrate SEO and Social Media practices for mutual benefit.

The first piece, How to Leverage Social Media for SEO: Link Building, covers the integrating SEO and Social Media via link building. Check it out to learn how Google+, Twitter, YouTube, and Facbook (via Ads) can be utilized as effective tools in your link building arsenal.

The second piece, Creating Synergy Between Social Media And Search, moves away from the subject of link building and explores way that Social Media can aid a number of other SEO and PPC activities (as well as one way that Search can help Social).

Continue reading →