At the end of every year, we compile a list of the very best posts and most popular and prolific people that have been published on the Moz Blog and YouMoz. It's a really fun way to look back on what happened this year, and an insight-packed view of what really resonates with our readers.
Here's what we've got in store:
- Top Moz Blog posts by 1Metric score
- Top Moz Blog posts by unique visits
- Top YouMoz Blog posts by unique visits
- Top Moz Blog posts by number of thumbs up
- Top Moz Blog posts by number of comments
- Top Moz Blog posts by number of linking root domains
- Top comments from our community by number of thumbs up
- Top commenters from our community by total number of thumbs up
A huge thanks goes to Dr. Pete Meyers and Cyrus Shepard; their help cut the amount of time creating this piece consumed in half.
We hope you enjoy the look back at the past year, and wish you a very happy start to 2015!
1. Top Moz Blog posts by 1Metric score
Earlier this year, we created a new metric to evaluate the success of our blog posts, calling it "the one metric" in a nod to The Lord of the Rings. We even wrote about it on this blog. With the help and feedback of many folks in the community as well as some refinement of our own, we've now polished the metric, changed the spelling a bit, applied it retroactively to older posts, and are using it regularly in-house. The following posts are those with the highest scores, representing the 10 posts that saw the most overall success this year. In case there was any doubt, Cyrus really (really) knows what he's doing.
1. More than Keywords: 7 Concepts of Advanced On-Page SEO
October 21 - Posted by Cyrus Shepard
As marketers, helping search engines understand what our content means is one of our most important tasks. Search engines can't read pages like humans can, so we incorporate structure and clues as to what our content means. This post explores a series of on-page techniques that not only build upon one another, but can be combined in sophisticated ways.
2. New Title Tag Guidelines & Preview Tool
March 20 - Posted by Dr. Peter J. Meyers
Google's 2014 redesign had a big impact on search result titles, cutting them off much sooner. This post includes a title preview tool and takes a data-driven approach to finding the new limit.
3. Your Google Algorithm Cheat Sheet: Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird
June 11 - Posted by Marie Haynes
Do you have questions about the Panda algorithm, the Penguin algorithm, or Hummingbird? This guide explains in lay terms what each of these Google algorithm changes is about and how to improve your site so that it looks better in the eyes of the big G.
4. 12 Ways to Increase Traffic From Google Without Building Links
March 11 - Posted by Cyrus Shepard
The job of the Technical SEO becomes more complex each year, but we also have more opportunities now than ever. Here are 12 ways you can improve your rankings without relying on link building.
5. The Most Entertaining Guide to Landing Page Optimization You'll Ever Read
May 20 - Posted by Oli Gardner
If you've ever been bored while reading a blog post, your life just got better. If you've ever wanted to learn about conversion rate optimization, and how to design high-converting landing pages, without falling asleep, you're in the right place. Buckle up, and prepare to be entertained in your learning regions.
6. Illustrated Guide to Advanced On-Page Topic Targeting for SEO
November 17 - Posted by Cyrus Shepard
The concepts of advanced on-page SEO are dizzying: LDA, co-occurrence, and entity salience. The question is "How can I easily incorporate these techniques into my content for higher rankings?" The truth is, you can create optimized pages that rank well without understanding complex algorithms.
7. Panda 4.1 Google Leaked Dos and Don'ts - Whiteboard Friday
December 05 - Posted by Josh Bachynski
Panda is about so much more than good content. Let Josh Bachynski give you the inside information on the highlights of what you should (and should not) be doing.
8. 10 Smart Tips to Leverage Google+ for Increased Web Traffic
April 15 - Posted by Cyrus Shepard
While not everyone has an audience active on Google+, the number of people who interact socially with any Google products on a monthly basis now reportedly exceeds 500 million.
9. The Rules of Link Building - Whiteboard Friday
April 04 - Posted by Cyrus Shepard
Google is increasingly playing the referee in the marketing game, and many marketers are simply leaving instead of playing by the rules. In today's Whiteboard Friday, Cyrus Shepard takes a time-out to explain a winning strategy.
10. The Myth of Google's 200 Ranking Factors
September 30 - Posted by Gianluca Fiorelli
Nothing like the "The 200 Google Ranking Factors" actually exists. It is a myth, and those who claim to be able to offer a final list are its prophets. This post explains how the myth was born and the importance of knowing the stages of search engines' working process.
2. Top Moz Blog posts by unique visits
The heaviest-weighted ingredient in the 1Metric is unique visits, as one of our primary goals for the Moz Blog is to drive traffic to the rest of the site. With that in mind, we thought it interesting to break things down to just this metric and show you just how different this list is from the last one. Of note: Dr. Pete's post on Google's new design for title tags is a nod to the power of evergreen content. That post is one that folks can return to over and over as they fiddle with their own title tags, and amassed more than twice the traffic of the post in the #2 slot.
1. New Title Tag Guidelines & Preview Tool
March 20 - Posted by Dr. Peter J. Meyers
Google's 2014 redesign had a big impact on search result titles, cutting them off much sooner. This post includes a title preview tool and takes a data-driven approach to finding the new limit.
2. The Most Entertaining Guide to Landing Page Optimization You'll Ever Read
May 20 - Posted by Oli Gardner
If you've ever been bored while reading a blog post, your life just got better. If you've ever wanted to learn about conversion rate optimization, and how to design high-converting landing pages, without falling asleep, you're in the right place. Buckle up, and prepare to be entertained in your learning regions.
3. 12 Ways to Increase Traffic From Google Without Building Links
March 11 - Posted by Cyrus Shepard
The job of the Technical SEO becomes more complex each year, but we also have more opportunities now than ever. Here are 12 ways you can improve your rankings without relying on link building.
4. Why Every Business Should Spend at Least $1 per Day on Facebook Ads
February 19 - Posted by Brian Carter
For the last three years I've constantly recommended Facebook ads. I recommend them to both B2C and B2B businesses. I recommend them to local theaters and comedians here in Charleston, SC. I recommend them to everyone who wants to grow awareness about anything they're doing. Here's why.
5. More than Keywords: 7 Concepts of Advanced On-Page SEO
October 21 - Posted by Cyrus Shepard
As marketers, helping search engines understand what our content means is one of our most important tasks. Search engines can't read pages like humans can, so we incorporate structure and clues as to what our content means. This post explores a series of on-page techniques that not only build upon one another, but can be combined in sophisticated ways.
6. Your Google Algorithm Cheat Sheet: Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird
June 11 - Posted by Marie Haynes
Do you have questions about the Panda algorithm, the Penguin algorithm, or Hummingbird? This guide explains in lay terms what each of these Google algorithm changes is about and how to improve your site so that it looks better in the eyes of the big G.
7. Make Facebook's Algorithm Change Work For You, Not Against You
January 23 - Posted by Chad Wittman
Recently, many page admins have been experiencing a significant decrease in Total Reach—specifically, organic reach. For pages that want to keep their ad budget as low as possible, maximizing organic reach is vital. To best understand how to make a change like this work for you, and not against you, we need to examine what happened—and what you can do about it.
8. How to Rank Well in Amazon, the US's Largest Product Search Engine
June 04 - Posted by Nathan Grimm
The eCommerce SEO community is ignoring a huge opportunity by focusing almost exclusively on Google. Amazon has roughly three times more search volume for products, and this post tells you all about how to rank.
9. Personas: The Art and Science of Understanding the Person Behind the Visit
January 29 - Posted by Michael King
With the erosion of keyword intelligence and the move to strings-not-things for the user, Google is pushing all marketers to focus more on their target audience. This post will teach you how to understand that audience, the future of Google, and how to build data-driven personas step by step.
10. Panda 4.0, Payday Loan 2.0 & eBay's Very Bad Day
May 21 - Posted by Dr. Peter J. Meyers
Preliminary analysis of the Panda 4.0 and Payday Loan 2.0 updates, major algorithm flux on May 19th, and a big one-day rankings drop for eBay.
3. Top YouMoz Blog posts by unique visits
One of our favorite parts of the Moz community is the YouMoz Blog, where our community members can submit their own posts for potential publishing here on our site. We're constantly impressed by what we're sent. These 10 posts all received such high praise that they were promoted to the main Moz Blog, but they all started out as YouMoz posts.
1. Make Facebook's Algorithm Change Work For You, Not Against You
January 23 - Posted by Chad Wittman
Recently, many page admins have been experiencing a significant decrease in Total Reach—specifically, organic reach. For pages that want to keep their ad budget as low as possible, maximizing organic reach is vital. To best understand how to make a change like this work for you, and not against you, we need to examine what happened—and what you can do about it.
2. Parallax Scrolling Websites and SEO - A Collection of Solutions and Examples
April 01 - Posted by Carla Dawson
I have observed that there are many articles that say parallax scrolling is not ideal for search engines. Parallax Scrolling is a design technique and it is ideal for search engines if you know how to apply it. I have collected a list of great tutorials and real SEO-friendly parallax websites to help the community learn how to use both techniques together.
3. (Provided): 10 Ways to Prove SEO Value in Google Analytics
February 25 - Posted by Jeff Sauer
We and our clients have relied on keyword reports for so long that we're now using (not provided) as a crutch. This post offers 10 ways you can use Google Analytics to prove your SEO value now that those keywords are gone.
4. How to Set Up and Use Twitter Lead Generation Cards in Your Tweets for Free!
May 07 - Posted by Dana Tan
Working as an in-house SEO strategist for a small business forces me to get "scrappy" every day with tools and techniques. I'm constantly on the lookout for an opportunity that can help my company market to broader audiences for less money. Here's how to set up your Twitter Cards for free!
5. 75 Content Starters for Any Industry
February 06 - Posted by Amanda Gallucci
Suffering from blank page anxiety? Before you go on the hunt for inspiration all over the Internet and elsewhere, turn to the resources around you. Realize that you can create exceptional content with what you already have at hand.
6. The Hidden Power of Nofollow Links
June 08 - Posted by Nicole Kohler
For those of us who are trying to earn links for our clients, receiving a nofollow link can feel like a slap in the face. But these links have hidden powers that make them just as important as followed ones. Here's why nofollow links are more powerful than you might think.
7. A Startling Case Study of Manual Penalties and Negative SEO
March 17 - Posted by Yonatan Dotan
One day in my inbox I found the dreaded notice from Google that our client had a site-wide manual penalty for unnatural inbound links. We quickly set up a call and went through the tooth-rattling ordeal of explaining to our client that they weren't even ranked for their brand name. Organic traffic dropped by a whopping 94% - and that for a website that gets 66% of its traffic from Google-based organic search.
8. How PornHub Is Bringing its A-Game (SFW)
July 23 - Posted by Javier Sanz
Despite dealing with a sensitive subject, PornHub is doing a great job marketing itself. This (safe-for-work) post takes a closer look at what they are doing.
9. Storytelling Through Data: A New Inbound Marketing & SEO Report Structure
January 07 - Posted by Aaron Friedman
No matter what business you are in, it's a pretty sure thing that someone is going to want to monitor how efficiently and productively you are working. Being able to show these results over time is crucial to maintaining the health of the long term relationship.
10. The Art of Thinking Sideways: Content Marketing for "Boring" Businesses
April 08 - Posted by Robin Swire
In this article, I'll examine the art of thinking sideways for one of the slightly more tricky marketing clients I've worked with. I hope that this will provide an insight for fellow content marketers and SEOs in similar scenarios.
4. Top Moz Blog posts by number of thumbs up
These 10 posts were well enough received that liked that quite a few readers took the time to engage with them, logging in to give their stamp of approval. Whiteboard Fridays are always a hit, and two of them managed to make this list after having been live for less than a month.
1. More than Keywords: 7 Concepts of Advanced On-Page SEO
October 21 - Posted by Cyrus Shepard
As marketers, helping search engines understand what our content means is one of our most important tasks. Search engines can't read pages like humans can, so we incorporate structure and clues as to what our content means. This post explores a series of on-page techniques that not only build upon one another, but can be combined in sophisticated ways.
2. New Title Tag Guidelines & Preview Tool
March 20 - Posted by Dr. Peter J. Meyers
Google's 2014 redesign had a big impact on search result titles, cutting them off much sooner. This post includes a title preview tool and takes a data-driven approach to finding the new limit.
3. Dear Google, Links from YouMoz Don't Violate Your Quality Guidelines
July 23 - Posted by Rand Fishkin
Recently, Moz contributor Scott Wyden, a photographer in New Jersey, received a warning in his Google Webmaster Tools about some links that violated Google's Quality Guidelines. One example was from moz.com.
4. Your Google Algorithm Cheat Sheet: Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird
June 11 - Posted by Marie Haynes
Do you have questions about the Panda algorithm, the Penguin algorithm, or Hummingbird? This guide explains in lay terms what each of these Google algorithm changes is about and how to improve your site so that it looks better in the eyes of the big G.
5. Thank You for 10 Incredible Years
October 06 - Posted by Rand Fishkin
It's been 10 amazing years since Rand started the blog that would turn into SEOmoz and then Moz, and we never could have come this far without you all. You'll find letters of appreciation from Rand and Sarah in this post (along with a super-cool video retrospective!), and from all of us at Moz, thank you!
6. Illustrated Guide to Advanced On-Page Topic Targeting for SEO
November 17 - Posted by Cyrus Shepard
The concepts of advanced on-page SEO are dizzying: LDA, co-occurrence, and entity salience. The question is "How can I easily incorporate these techniques into my content for higher rankings?" The truth is, you can create optimized pages that rank well without understanding complex algorithms.
7. Panda 4.1 Google Leaked Dos and Don'ts - Whiteboard Friday
December 05 - Posted by Josh Bachynski
Panda is about so much more than good content. Let Josh Bachynski give you the inside information on the highlights of what you should (and should not) be doing.
8. The Most Entertaining Guide to Landing Page Optimization You'll Ever Read
May 20 - Posted by Oli Gardner
If you've ever been bored while reading a blog post, your life just got better. If you've ever wanted to learn about conversion rate optimization, and how to design high-converting landing pages, without falling asleep, you're in the right place. Buckle up, and prepare to be entertained in your learning regions.
9. Does SEO Boil Down to Site Crawlability and Content Quality? - Whiteboard Friday
July 11 - Posted by Rand Fishkin
What does good SEO really mean these days? Rand takes us beyond crawlability and content quality for a peek inside the art and science of the practice.
10. How to Avoid the Unrealistic Expectations SEOs Often Create - Whiteboard Friday
December 12 - Posted by Rand Fishkin
Making promises about SEO results too often leads to broken dreams and shredded contracts. In today's Whiteboard Friday, Rand shows us how to set expectations that lead to excitement but help prevent costly misunderstandings.
5. Top Moz Blog posts by number of comments
While the discussions can take a big chunk out of an already busy day, the conversations we get to have with our community members (and the conversations they have with each other) in the comments below our posts is absolutely one of our favorite parts of the blog. These 10 posts garnered quite a bit of discussion (some with a fair amount of controversy), and are fascinating to follow.
1. Take the SEO Expert Quiz and Rule the Internet
May 28 - Posted by Cyrus Shepard
You are master of the keyword. You create 1,000 links with a single tweet. Google engineers ask for your approval before updating their algorithm. You, my friend, are an SEO Expert. Prove it by taking our new SEO Expert Quiz.
2. The Rules of Link Building - Whiteboard Friday
April 04 - Posted by Cyrus Shepard
Google is increasingly playing the referee in the marketing game, and many marketers are simply leaving instead of playing by the rules. In today's Whiteboard Friday, Cyrus Shepard takes a time-out to explain a winning strategy.
3. Dear Google, Links from YouMoz Don't Violate Your Quality Guidelines
July 23 - Posted by Rand Fishkin
Recently, Moz contributor Scott Wyden, a photographer in New Jersey, received a warning in his Google Webmaster Tools about some links that violated Google's Quality Guidelines. One example was from moz.com.
4. New Title Tag Guidelines & Preview Tool
March 20 - Posted by Dr. Peter J. Meyers
Google's 2014 redesign had a big impact on search result titles, cutting them off much sooner. This post includes a title preview tool and takes a data-driven approach to finding the new limit.
5. SEO Teaching: Should SEO Be Taught at Universities?
October 09 - Posted by Carla Dawson
Despite the popularity and importance of SEO, the field has yet to gain significant traction at the university level other than a few courses here and there offered as part of a broader digital marketing degree. The tide could be turning, however slowly.
6. 12 Ways to Increase Traffic From Google Without Building Links
March 11 - Posted by Cyrus Shepard
The job of the Technical SEO becomes more complex each year, but we also have more opportunities now than ever. Here are 12 ways you can improve your rankings without relying on link building.
7. The Broken Art of Company Blogging (and the Ignored Metric that Could Save Us All)
July 22 - Posted by Dan Shure
Company blogging is broken. We're tricking ourselves into believing they're successful while ignoring the one signal we have that tells us whether they're actually working.
8. Real-World Panda Optimization - Whiteboard Friday
August 01 - Posted by Michael Cottam
From the originality of your content to top-heavy posts, there's a lot that the Panda algorithm is looking for. In today's Whiteboard Friday, Michael Cottam explains what these things are, and more importantly, what we can do to be sure we get the nod from this particular bear.
9. Ways to Proactively Welcome Women Into Online Marketing
September 17 - Posted by Erica McGillivray
SEO may be a male-dominated industry, but let's step out of our biases and work hard to welcome women, and marketers of all stripes, into our community.
10. More than Keywords: 7 Concepts of Advanced On-Page SEO
October 21 - Posted by Cyrus Shepard
As marketers, helping search engines understand what our content means is one of our most important tasks. Search engines can't read pages like humans can, so we incorporate structure and clues as to what our content means. This post explores a series of on-page techniques that not only build upon one another, but can be combined in sophisticated ways.
6. Top Moz Blog posts by number of linking root domains
What, you thought you'd get to the bottom of the post without seeing a traditional SEO metric? =)
1. New Title Tag Guidelines & Preview Tool
March 20 - Posted by Dr. Peter J. Meyers
Google's 2014 redesign had a big impact on search result titles, cutting them off much sooner. This post includes a title preview tool and takes a data-driven approach to finding the new limit.
2. Panda 4.0, Payday Loan 2.0 & eBay's Very Bad Day
May 21 - Posted by Dr. Peter J. Meyers
Preliminary analysis of the Panda 4.0 and Payday Loan 2.0 updates, major algorithm flux on May 19th, and a big one-day rankings drop for eBay.
3. Personas: The Art and Science of Understanding the Person Behind the Visit
January 29 - Posted by Michael King
With the erosion of keyword intelligence and the move to strings-not-things for the user, Google is pushing all marketers to focus more on their target audience. This post will teach you how to understand that audience, the future of Google, and how to build data-driven personas step by step.
4. Why Every Business Should Spend at Least $1 per Day on Facebook Ads
February 19 - Posted by Brian Carter
For the last three years I've constantly recommended Facebook ads. I recommend them to both B2C and B2B businesses. I recommend them to local theaters and comedians here in Charleston, SC. I recommend them to everyone who wants to grow awareness about anything they're doing. Here's why.
5. The New Link Building Survey 2014 - Results
July 16 - Posted by James Agate
How has the marketing industry changed its views of link building since last year? James Agate of Skyrocket SEO is back with the results of a brand new survey.
6. Google's 2014 Redesign: Before and After
March 13 - Posted by Dr. Peter J. Meyers
Google's SERP and ad format redesign may finally be rolling out, after months of testing. Before we lose the old version forever, here's the before-and-after of every major vertical that's changed.
7. Google Announces the End of Author Photos in Search: What You Should Know
June 26 - Posted by Cyrus Shepard
Many of us have been constantly advising webmasters to connect their content writers with Google authorship, and it came as a shock when John Mueller announced Google will soon drop authorship photos from regular search results. Let's examine what this means.
8. The Greatest Misconception in Content Marketing - Whiteboard Friday
April 25 - Posted by Rand Fishkin
Great content certainly helps business, but it isn't as simple as "publish, share, convert new customers." In today's Whiteboard Friday, Rand explains what's really going on.
9. The Most Entertaining Guide to Landing Page Optimization You'll Ever Read
May 20 - Posted by Oli Gardner
If you've ever been bored while reading a blog post, your life just got better. If you've ever wanted to learn about conversion rate optimization, and how to design high-converting landing pages, without falling asleep, you're in the right place. Buckle up, and prepare to be entertained in your learning regions.
10. Your Google Algorithm Cheat Sheet: Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird
June 11 - Posted by Marie Haynes
Do you have questions about the Panda algorithm, the Penguin algorithm, or Hummingbird? This guide explains in lay terms what each of these Google algorithm changes is about and how to improve your site so that it looks better in the eyes of the big G.
7. Top comments from our community by number of thumbs up
These 10 comments were the most thumbed-up of any on our blogs this year, offering voices of reason that stand out from the crowd.
1. Marie Haynes | July 23
Commented on:
Dear Google, Links from YouMoz Don't Violate Your Quality Guidelines
2. Brian Dean | September 30
Commented on:
The Myth of Google's 200 Ranking Factors
3. Martin Pezet | July 22
Commented on:
The Broken Art of Company Blogging (and the Ignored Metric that Could Save Us All)
4. Danny Sullivan | July 23
Commented on:
Dear Google, Links from YouMoz Don't Violate Your Quality Guidelines
5. Cyrus Shepard | October 21
Commented on:
More than Keywords: 7 Concepts of Advanced On-Page SEO
6. Sarah Bird | September 17
Commented on:
Ways to Proactively Welcome Women Into Online Marketing
7. Rand Fishkin | July 04
Commented on:
5 Fashion Hacks for the Modern Male Marketer - Whiteboard Friday
8. Martin Pezet | September 30
Commented on:
The Myth of Google's 200 Ranking Factors
9. Jeff Ferguson | October 24
Commented on:
Is It Possible to Have Good SEO Simply by Having Great Content - Whiteboard Friday
10. Robert Duckers | March 20
Commented on:
New Title Tag Guidelines & Preview Tool
8. Top commenters from our community by total thumbs up
We calculated this one a bit differently this year. In the past, we've shown the top community members by sheer number of comments. We don't want, however, to imply that being prolific is necessarily good within itself. So, we added up all the thumbs-up that each comment on our blogs has received, and figured out which community members racked up the most thumbs over the course of the year. (We've intentionally omitted staff members and associates from this list, as they'd stack the deck pretty heavily!)
The graphics to the right of each community member show the number of comments they've left on blog posts in 2014 as well as the total number of thumbs up those comments have received.
This list is truly an illustration of how amazing the Moz community is. This site would hardly be anything without all of you, and we so appreciate your involvement on such a regular basis!
1. Samuel Scott (Moz username: SamuelScott)
MozPoints: 1557 | Rank: 54
2. Andreas Becker (Moz username: paints-n-design)
MozPoints: 667 | Rank: 148
3. Marie Haynes (Moz username: MarieHaynes)
MozPoints: 4706 | Rank: 7
4. Mark Traphagen (Moz username: MarkTraphagen)
MozPoints: 993 | Rank: 102
5. Steve Morgan (Moz username: steviephil)
MozPoints: 1249 | Rank: 72
6. Russ Jones (Moz username: russangular)
MozPoints: 3282 | Rank: 16
7. Martin Pezet (Moz username: mpezet)
MozPoints: 464 | Rank: 211
8. Chris Painter (Moz username: Pixelbypixel)
MozPoints: 2707 | Rank: 25
9. Bill Slawski (Moz username: billslawski)
MozPoints: 709 | Rank: 140
10. Dana Tan (Moz username: danatanseo)
MozPoints: 4071 | Rank: 11
What a great idea to do this! I'm thrilled and honored to be mentioned in this post.
I also wanted to thank Moz for the opportunity to contribute. I've had people say to me that I should be posting my best articles on my own site. However, the exposure that I get from Moz has been so valuable to my business and my personal branding. I haven't tallied it up, but I would guess that more than 50% of my business comes from people who connected with me on Moz. That's just amazing.
True. Moz bring effect similar like "as seen on tv" with mutual benefits and you're already seen it too.
It's been an absolute pleasure working with you, Marie. You've really got a knack for teaching people about complex subjects in a way that makes them seem more manageable. That's a dynamite skill both in the business world and on sites like ours, so we absolutely love having you as such a visible part of the community. #3 overall post and #1 comment in 2014? Yeah, that ain't bad. =)
Here's to the best yet to come!
Thanks so much Trevor! I really enjoy connecting with Moz too!
Marie, I have had the exact same responses from people who see me contributing articles and posting comments!
I was actually thinking about writing a YouMoz or something on my own site someday that would be a case study of community engagement best-practices -- but from the perspective of a participant than the community owners.
Nutshell: About a year and a half ago, I decided to take time out of each day to do contribute whatever I could to help to make the Moz community the best it can be -- just because I simply love the community. Answering Q&As, contributing articles, writing thoughtful comments on posts, and more. As a result, I've gotten business leads, speaking opportunities, website traffic, social followers, and more.
But here's the key: It has to be first and foremost all about the community -- and not you. Anything that even smacks of a little self-promotion is instantly off-putting. If someone gives 110% to a certain community (any community on any topic), then the benefits (such as those that I listed above) are just good by-products.
So, I guess I would say that I encourage any Mozzer to take a little time to help to make this community for digital marketers the best it can be! (After all, everyone is an expert on something -- some topic, some niche, some industry or vertical.) There's no downside -- and everyone from Moz to we participants to the community as a whole benefits as a result.
Wow -- I didn't realize I was spending so much time on this site! :)
Actually, I'd prefer that the credit for all of my comments and upvotes go to everyone who writes for Moz. The only reason that I and others can comment is because of all of the quality posts that inspire people to comment in the first place. So, contributors, thank you!
Sometimes I and other commentors might agree with you -- and sometimes we might not. But that's not the point. The point is the great community that results from bringing people together who all have the goal of simply becoming better marketers.
Moz, here's to 2015!
Sam, whenever one of the discussions gets lively, I breathe a little sigh of relief when I get a notification that you've chimed in. You're a wonderful voice of reason in a chaotic industry, not to mention a talented writer, and your 650 thumbs up (655 as of this reply, actually) are a testament to your contributions. Thanks so much for everything you do to make our community what it is! =)
Trevor, thanks so much -- I'm beyond flattered and honored. As I described in a different comment just now, it's just doing whatever I can to help our community and industry! :)
Yay, I finally made one if these lists. Next year I plan for one of my posts to make it, not just my comments :)
I've got zero doubt you've got it in you -- I think it's just a matter of finding the right topic. Shoot me a note any time -- I love hearing from you, Russ!
One thing I think, and have always thought is so awesome about Moz as a company is how engaged the staff is. Great to see so many posts, likes, and comments on the posts of Moz staff and by Moz staffers. Well done!
Before year ago i thinking same... without influencers or engagements i can't imagine them anymore.
That's really great to hear, Patrick. Sometimes we get a little nervous about dominating the conversation, and think we should have outside contributors post more frequently. The numbers are pretty convincing, though, and we appreciate the encouragement. =)
Just wanted to chime in that Moz does an excellent job of "nurturing" outside contributors and their posts -- whenever I submit a post, the content team always responds with good, objective, and positive feedback to make the essay as good as possible before it goes live. I'm sure other contributors can say the same.
As a former journalist, I'll be the first to say that even Woodward and Bernstein needed an editor. Fresh, objective eyes on any article are always needed. This is another "plus" for the Moz community. Too many sites are so hungry to pump out as much content as possible -- which is always a bad strategy, by the way -- that they rarely do quality control.
And quality is always better than quantity.
I am legit beyond honored and humbled to be on one of these lists. :)
You legit earned it. =)
I hope you're paying Cyrus Shepard more in 2015.
You are both an intelligent and good looking man.
And Cyrus, you're good enough, you're smart enough, and gosh darn it, people like your posts! :)
This makes me realize that, when I helped redesign 1Metric, I should've rigged it more or built in a back door :)
if (author='Cyrus') { $i1Metric = $i1Metric - 25; }
;) Just kidding - great work, Cyrus! I'm not just saying that because you're one of my bosses.
"Wow, Cyrus has a lot of scores in the low 70s... remarkably consistently... I wonder if that's right?"
While I love the 1Metric (Dr. Pete and Trevor both know from our private conversations how useful I find it) it's important to remind ourselves that other metrics server very useful purposes - that's why Trevor included so many different views.
For an old-school SEO like myself, I like # of linking root domains as my most significant metric. (as it's relevant to our specific Content/SEO goals at Moz)
In that particular bracket, I only broke the Top 10 once, and Dr. Pete wins with 3.
Other folks have discussed Whiteboard Fridays. Even though only a few made the Top 10, collectively they contributed more links, social shares and traffic than just about anything else. The challenge with list like these is it is hard to convey the power of the long tail.
I'm glad to see that one of my post entered in the top ten accordingly to the one metric.
It would be interesting to have a synthetic consideration the marketing team has done looking at results the 1Metric offers with respect others classic ones. For instance, the 1Metric doesn't prize any WBF, which - as I remember - were a classic in these charts.
Finally, well... thanks for pointing out that you didn't count Staff and Associates in the Top Commenters list: I was wondering were I was :D
Yeah, I think you know exactly where you'd be if we included staff and associates. ;)
Re: Whiteboard Friday, those posts are just about the most consistently successful thing we could ever publish, especially when they come from Rand (though Josh's, Michael Cottam's, and one from Cyrus were also quite well received)... but they tend not to be blockbuster success stories. There's definitely more interesting data to be unearthed there, and I agree, it'd be interesting to find it.
Wow. Just wow. You guys have come through big time for all of us with these great lists.
Whoever the doubting Thomas was who said that SEO is dead unless implemented by a small cabal of insiders that purposefully disseminate misinformation to weaken competitors and strengthen their own hand is an idiot. Moz continues to deliver highly digestible content based on proven a/b testing without the conjecture and speculation of lessor SEO 'authorities'.
Keep up the stellar work and here's to a brilliant 2015 giving Google a poes klap with your expert guides.
This is the first year I didn't make this list, think I was on the last 3 =) I guess I need to be more active in 2015 on MOZ...I also plan to write some more content for the site in 2015!!!
Was great to meet some MOZ staff members at SMX Sydney this year as well, Jen and Cyrus were very nice people to share dinner with.
The wonderful thing about this community is you can travel the world and find friends almost anywhere.
Grilling steak (and "vegetarian" steak for Jen) with you and other members of the Austrailian SEO community was certainly one of the highlight of our trip to Sydney. This year Dr. Pete is going in our place, so you might have to buy him a beer.
Agree 100% Cyrus the Moz community is second to none, you will have to mention to Dr Pete to get in touch with me to organize another dinner as last year was great fun and it needs to be ran again. Woj (who attended the dinner last year) was actually asking already what am I organizing this year.
Feel free to get in touch with Dr. Pete ;) - [email protected]. Definitely interested in meeting up with as many people as possible when I'm there, although I haven't finalized my schedule yet.
I hope you do write more in the next year James - you're probably my favourite Aussie to read. (well, you & Dan.) Can't wait to see what the new year brings and hopefully one of these times, also catch up with you!
Thanks Matt, 2014 was very busy we had so much work on. We will 100% put more time into writing some content for 2015.
1Metric! That takes me back to the comments on the original post. I love a spirited debate and that sure was one. Didn't jump in because my talents lie other than advanced maths but as much as I'd love to have a single metric, still agree with the "MozCon signups" comment on the original post - shares & traffic won't always be the goal so we have to keep that in mind.
As far as the other data, I find it absolutely stunning and interesting that even on a blog as large and popular as Moz, the top performing (traffic) post had more than #2 & #3 combined. You still had *A* single stand out piece. It's interesting that because that piece also contains a useful tool, so it doesn't have a similar proportion of thumbs up (presumably everyone interested already thumbed it up once.)
Next year I'll do my best to make the list. :)
First thing I saw when I woke up that morning was the comment that got the entire debate started. Oy. =)
I really agree about spirited debates, though. Defending a position isn't always fun at the time, but I always love it in retrospect, as it clarifies and solidifies our convictions. The future becomes easier when we debate the present.
And yes -- Pete's post surprised us all, I think. We knew it'd go over well, but it's still racking in visits, and is edging toward 200,000 uniques. That's insane, and you're spot on with your read -- it's the simple but useful tool that keeps people coming back to the post again and again.
Ah... don't tell it to me about "debates"... check from what post are two of the most upvoted comments...
It's very encouraging that you acknowledge contributors like this! Hopefully we'll get on this list in 2015.
Cheers!
Twice in the top 10 comments! I am such an armchair SEO warrior.
Me too Martin! Congrats :-)
Excellent recapitulation of the best articles on Moz, White Board Friday though is my favorite :)
Wow, how cool is that! I didn't even know until I started getting congratulations at work. Congrats to everyone who made the list. You people are my mentors, role models and best of all, friends. Hopefully now that the dust is settling from my transition from the world of in-house to agency I can jump back in there and crank out some awesome content for 2015 :-) Happy New Year everyone.
I love the creativity that goes into these posts! Very cool, keep them coming! I'll curl up next to the fire with a few "best of" posts from this site, for sure!
This is the great sample of do things well. The virtue of Moz is the capacity of make this content and create a excellent community of experts around this. Thanks Moz and thanks all people!
Wow, crazy to see Rand's article about my site in 2 of the spots. HAHA
Congrats everyone listed here. You guys are truly heros in helping people. especially Cyrus Shepard who looks like the top performer of 2014.
Thanks Trevor for making this list, I think it will encourage more people to create content here.
And the Oscar goes to...congratulations to all the winners.This post reminded me that my first comment on the internet was on Moz post.Somehow they "convinced" me to participate.This year I was away from seo approximately 10 months.And now when I returned the first blog that I have visited was Moz.What is their secret?I agree with Samuel Scott, but I have a feeling that there is something more.
Suggestions for Trevor: people on the list, except for Staff and Associates, should get a badge or medal under the name or portrait. Or frame around the portrait. Until the next December and the new winners.
Definitely a cool idea. We're toying around with all sorts of ideas around gamification of profiles, and at the very least, a badge of some sort seems like a cool way to celebrate these folks. Thanks for the idea, Stelian, and for being a loyal reader!
The secret is TAGFEE, most definitely...It's real and alive in the wonderful world of Moz :-)
Undoubtedly one of the best things that provide the data is the ability to create graphs and statistics. And blogs MOZ could not be an exception. I think publish such statistics community MOZ is a great idea and sure to help many people improve their items and others to have a well-deserved recognition for their items. So, we all win.
Thanks for share this.You have done a great job..This helped me to find the topic easily on moz....thank you very much
Bit late to the party but wow Awesome that I made it to the list, I feel really special aww shucks! thanks Moz it's been a pleasure reading all of the article's and talking with everyone can look forward to more in 2015!
It is through this kind of best of that we see that the Moz community is very active! Great article.
Excellent post ! Saves a lot of time. Thanks for listing out the best of 2014 from Moz :) .
2. Andreas Becker (Moz username: paints-n-design) 233 375
Seems that I wrote a lot of trash :(
No way! I see your comments here -- and ESPECIALLY your great advice in the Q&A section -- and it's obvious to all that you write a lot of valuable stuff for everyone. :)
Moz is the God Father for search engine marketers as well as for the content creators.
Congratulations to everybody in Moz, both listed and unlisted contributors, thank you all for providing valuable content!
Congratulations !
Fantastic post of fantastic posts. It's time to say good bye to 2014 and welcome 2015 with open arms. New year means new roll outs, time to become educated on the best practices of 2015.
Thanks for the directorial state of the posts in MOZ 2014. Wish you MOZ find in the new year with more and more content tailoring insights.
Excellent round up Moz! Thanks for bringing the best from 2014.
nice post for us.thanks for shear it.