Why does it take six months for a website to rank? We get asked this quite a bit. For the most part, it's because there is a lag time of between 10 and 20 weeks before listings start to improve in search results. The exception to the rule is viral content—if users signal content is of superior value, and they do so quickly, search listings can improve in hours. Unfortunately, not every piece of content is going to go viral. Spammy, low-quality SEO can have a quick effect, but it tends to rapidly off again and will more often than not make things worse.

For all the brands looking to improve their online presence, here is a checklist of 50 SEO tips that briefly cover everything from SSL certificates to schema to search friendly URLs and much more. 

Welcome to Reputation Experiment #142

Sometimes you have to get the SEO ball rolling in order to improve search rankings. To get things started, consider a basic link and social media structure. Done correctly, it will attract organic links and shares on it's own without the need to buy links or engage in nefarious activities. While there are many, a classic link building pattern to prime content includes:

Create these five types of content at the same time, and in a specific order to give your inbound / SEO campaign consistency and make it easier to execute.

Google announced something surprising back in 2016: the news that voice search made up 20 percent of their mobile queries that year.

If you make or edit online content, you are are a content creator. As a content creator, you’ll need to strike that balance between SEO (search engine optimization) and a positive user experience. To make sure everyone is on the same page, here is a list of the different elements that combine to create an engaging and well optimized piece of content.

Why do some web pages show up "above" the first search result? This is called a Featured Snipped, or "position zero" in the SEO field. For instance, we searched "featured snippet" in Google and here's what happened:

What's the difference between branded and non-branded content? Branded content is clearly about you or your company. Non-branded content is not necessarily about you or your company at all, but it contains references to either. Both types of content include your search phrase and assist in your online reputation strategy, but are structured differently. Both types of content require freshness updates.

If you've ever wanted to learn search engine optimization (SEO) but don't know where to start - here is a list of the best resources we've found to learn SEO. Most of the steps below are free, some cost money, most just cost a lot of time. You'll also need a website to practice on and a good degree of patience.

ORM, PR, and SEO -- what are all of these acronyms for? Let's break them down, and then delve deeper into how they all fit together.

1. ORM: (Online reputation management) is the repair and maintenance of a person, company, or other entity's online image.
2. PR: (Public relations) is the how organizations, businesses and people communicate with the public and media.
3. SEO: (Search Engine Optimization) is the effort made by online content creators (of words, images, videos, or other media) to help a website rank higher in search engine results.

PR, SEO and ORM are all specialized disciplines of online marketing.