Welcome to the Q&A Forum

The latter, mostly. Think of it types of posts we're hoping to see. They'll become veritable categories, however, as they are created and shared, highlighting to other members of the audience how they can share their best ideas.

RS

Hi Donna,

Yes, original only. We don't accept posts that have been published elsewhere.

Turnaround has more to do with the quality of the post than anything else. Almost all posts will need some work, even the best pieces. But if a writer can adhere to these guidelines and incorporate the elements outlined here, the turnaround can be very short.

Below I list the main elements we look for in a YouMoz post. (Assuming the post is, first and foremost, TAGFEE

- Accuracy

• Quality writing

• Depth

• Actionable takeaways

• Novel ideas

The first two are must-haves, but if you can deliver in at least one other area, the post has a good chance of making it onto the blog.

Thank you for asking about the YouMoz process, Donna. We strive to make it as easy as possible for authors to contribute.

RS

In the last year, we've searched for ways to make YouMoz more interesting, more exciting and more inviting for the Moz community. The blog really does belong to the community, for it's the place where many novel ideas are shared, discussed, and further developed.

Aside from being a great place to share ideas, though, YouMoz is also the primary vehicle by which many now-household names in online marketing were discovered. (Many of the top posts on YouMoz eventually find their way onto the main Moz Blog.)

YouMoz belongs to the community. The blog was created as a place for the community to share and engage around bright ideas, in addition to being a vehicle for provoking thought around new concepts, strategies and tactics. For both aspiring and established authors, YouMoz has become a popular destination in the online marketing space.

In the quest to make YouMoz even better, we’ve come with a few ideas to ensure that everyone continues to feel as though they can contribute to the blog.

Beginning today, we’re introducing what we hope becomes four common formats for YouMoz: My Story, Headsmacking Tips, Problem Solved and Here’s How:

• My Story: The name pretty much says it all. Share with the community an interesting story related to online marketing. The story could be funny, personal or informational. As long as it’s interesting, well-written, and a benefit to the community, we’d love to hear it. A great example of the type of post we’re looking for is Mike Ramsey’s From Zero to a Million: 20 Lessons for Starting an Internet Marketing Agency.

• Headsmacking Tip: We’re bringing this format, first shared by Rand years ago on the main blog, out of the mothballs. Simply share with the audience an awesome online marketing-related tip that could make their jobs easier. (Example:Headsmacking Tip #21: Write Better Headlines Than Anyone Else.)

• Problem Solved: Tell the audience how you solved a significant marketing problem, making it easier for you to do your job. Share the nitty-gritty details, and include any graphics or tips needed for the community to solve the problem for themselves. (Example: A Simple Guide to Overcoming Ad Blindness for Publishers.)

• Here’s How: This style of post is meant to be a little more wide-ranging, allowing you to share with the audience ways they can successfully deploy a technique, tactic, strategy, tool or anything else you’ve gleaned that might be of value to marketers. (Examples: How to Write Emails That Get Opened Every Time and The 10 Tools I Use to Monitor Social Media More Effectively. A big shout out to Katy Katz for the inaugural post in this category: Here’s How to Write an Email That Throws off a Whole Room’s Productivity.)

Sounds easy enough, doesn’t it? Don’t overthink it. Read our guidelines, then dive in and get started.

Also, we’d love to hear what you think about these new formats. Plus, we welcome your comments or questions.

Feel free to share your thoughts below

Ricky,

It's impossible to get around using the same and/or similar phrases in multiple pieces of content on a website. As long as your writing the content your audience craves, this should be of little concern.

To become an authority on/in a given topic or area, you will need to create a deep collection of similar but varied content.

In a nutshell, your worries about cannibalization in this sense, are unfounded.

RS

Hi Ricky,

I'm going to break your question up:

1 - First, I'd like to see a brand creating and sharing content about/around and area they can own in the mind of prospects and customers. This means the brand has a staff that contains experts on the topic, and who can write with passion, depth and empathy for the audience. If you have this mindset and these people in place, you need not worry about writing too much about a given topic. For example, a plumbing site might want to rank for "Tulsa plumbers," "water leaks Tulsa" "emergency plumbers Tulsa" and "24 hour plumbers Tulsa." The competition will likely be fierce. But that same brand could focus on building the brand through creating recognizable personalities and creating educational content, such as videos. This way the content being shared gains the attention from a wide swath of prospects, and the brand personality - now associated with that shared information - is top of mind when an emergency repair occurs. Try this: (a) Pull your team together and brainstorm educational content ideas, with the idea of helping one person: Who is she? What does she desire in the way of worthwhile information? What information is you brand uniquely qualified to provide? Where should it be shared? Who can help you amplify it? After you build out four or five of these personas, you should have a long list of content ideas.

2 - At the page-level on your website, you don't want multiple pages competing for the same keywords. For example, that same plumber wouldn't want two main pages competing for "Tulsa Plumbers." However, it's unlikely you'll be able to avoid including some of the same keywords on other pages. An approach that I follow, and that is summed up here, is to have main pages be more generic - Tulsa Plumbers - and use subcategory pages be more specific, Tulsa Plumbers Emergency Repair.

Thanks for the question, Ricky. Please let me know if this helps.

I'll answer this using the words of a former neighbor who, when asked why he kept three vehicles when he could only drive one at any given time, said "Unlike horses, they don't cost me anything to sit in the yard."

I see G+ much the same way. No matter what is said, no one knows for sure what's going to happen with G+. However, if you're looking closely, many of the earliest adopters and staunchest advocates have cooled to it, preferring to devote resources elsewhere, such as Facebook or Twitter or even newcomer Blab.

I'd say do the same: till the most fertile ground for your brand.

If you've invested in G+ and have a large audience who shares and engages around your content, continue to nurture those relationships. But to cover your bases, begin building relationships elsewhere, too, on platforms where your prospects are likely to congregate. Begin by following the influencers, sharing and engaging around their content. Share your content there as well, then enlist the help of your G+ followers - many of whom are also on the newfound platform - to amplify and engage around your content.

In this way, you're plowing new ground continuing to tend your existing flock.

This approach ensures that you're not beholden to the whims of Google and you needn't fret over what becomes of G+.

RS

One of biggest mistakes I used to make - and I had no idea I was making it at the time - was in trying to be too cute with my H1s, H2s and meta tags/meta descriptions. How? I focused more on using fancy punctuation (e.g., dashes, pipes and colons, especially) than I did on the message I hoped to get across to readers.

This was in 2010. Eventually, I discerned the trouble I was creating for myself, and not simply in the eyes of Google.

Instead of thinking about what punctuation Google "recognizes," think of how you can deliver your information in the simplest, easiest-to-digest manner possible. When we attempt to get too cute with our punctuation, we must rely too heavily on someone/something else (e.g., search engines) to deliver our message in the way we hope to convey it; most important, though, it takes the emphasis off of the user, which is always, ALWAYS more interested in the best, most apropos result, not the result that highlights our prowess as A-List grammarians and punctuation scholars.

My advice: Write simply to convey your message thoroughly. More often than not that means few words and even fewer punctuation characters.

RS

Hi Jeanette,

While I think your questions are certainly apropos from a search engine perspective, I'd like to see you take a step back and look at the site from the standpoint of the people who'd/who'll find value from such a site. Getting found, while important, is simply the start, for no one wants web searchers to leave their site unsatisfied.

With that in mind, I'd like to offer up a few quick ideas:

• Who's your ideal web user? And what content do they desire and would consume most readily? (Use the answers to these questions
• Aside from being a directory, consider creating some original content, which could aid in increasing your site's reach and help establish it as an online destination.
• Look at what website owners in similar verticals are doing to drive awareness and traffic to their sites. You can likely follow a similar path to success by adding some of their seemingly successful elements to your repertoire.

RS