Posted by Cyrus-Shepard

For years now, we’ve heard the drumbeat from Google that marketers should stop focusing on building links. While it’s accepted wisdom that you should avoid manipulative link building to rank higher in search results, the popular narrative would have us believe that external links aren’t important in Google’s ranking algorithms at all, and that link building can be safely ignored.

Is there any truth to this?

To find out, we mined new information from our upcoming biannual ranking correlation study, conducted by Moz’s scientist, Dr. Matthew Peters.

https://moz.com/learn/seo/external-link

Moz’s study examined the top 50 Google search results for approximately 15,000 keywords. This allowed us to examine not only what factors correlate with higher search rankings, but also how frequently those characteristics are seen.

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At this point I must insert the usual caveat that correlation is not causation. Simply because a feature is strongly related to high rankings, this doesn’t prove or disprove that Google actually uses it in its algorithm. That said, it sure is a hint!

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The relationship between external links and rankings

When we look at what the study found about links, we find a strong relationship.

The correlation between higher rankings and the number of linking websites (root domains) sits at .30. This number seems small, but it’s actually one of the highest correlations the study found. (Smaller correlations are also not surprising—with over 200 ranking signals, Google specifically designed their algorithm so that one factor doesn’t dominate the others.)

Even more telling is the number of websites we found in the top results that had external backlinks, or rather, the lack thereof.

Out of the top results, a full 99.2% of all websites had at least one external link. (The remaining .8% is well within the margin of error expected between Mozscape and Google’s own link index.) The study found almost no websites ranking for competitive search phrases that didn’t have at least a single external link pointing at them, and most had significantly more links.

In other words, if you’re looking for a site that ranks well with no external links, be prepared to look for a very long time.

That said, the study did find numerous examples where individual pages ranked just fine without specific external links, as long as the website itself had external links pointing at it. For example, consider when The New York Times publishes a new page. Because it’s new, it has no external links yet. But because The New York Times‘ website itself has tons of external links, it’s possible for the new page to rank.

In all, 77.8% of individual pages in the top results had at least one external link from another site, which means 22.2% of individual pages ranked with no external links.

What the data says about links and Google rankings

There are a number of conclusions you can reasonably draw from these numbers.

1. External links are almost always present for competitive searches

If you want to rank for anything that’s even remotely competitive, the chances of finding a website ranking without external links is very rare indeed.

2. It’s possible to rank individual pages without links

As long as your website itself is linked externally, it appears more than possible to rank individual pages on your site, even if those pages themselves don’t have external links. That said, there’s a strong relationship between links to a page, and that pages performance in search—so it’s much better if the page actually does have external links.

To put this in layman’s terms, if a lot of people link to your website homepage, it’s possible for other pages to rank as well, but it’s even better if those pages also have external links pointing at them.

Although not examined in this study, it’s likely most of the pages without external links at least had internal links pointing at them. While not as strong as an external link, internal links remain a decent way to pass authority, relevancy and popularity signals to pages on the same site.

3. More links correlate with higher rankings

It seems obvious, but the study confirmed the long-standing correlation between higher rankings and the number of external links found from unique websites.

Indeed, out of all the data points the ranking correlation study looked at, the number of unique websites linking to a page was one of the highest correlated relationships we found.

4. When can you rank without links?

Despite the fact that we found almost no websites ranking without external links, it is still possible?

Absolutely, but there’s a catch.

The 15,000 keyword phrases used in this study were, for the most part, competitive. This means that lots of other people and websites are trying to rank for the same term. Think of phrases like “Galaxy s6“ and “New York car insurance.”

Non-competitive phrases, by their nature, are much easier to rank for. So if you want your website to rank without obtaining any backlinks, you might succeed by targeting more obscure phrases like “Oregon beekeeper ballet emporium” or “Batman flux platypus.” These phrases have much lower competition, and by default, much lower traffic (and in many cases, none.)

There are other edge cases where it’s possible to rank without links, such as when the user is searching for your website specifically, or when you offer something very unique that can’t be found anywhere else. Even in these cases, it helps tremendously to actually have links pointing at you.

Proceed with caution

There’s good reason people believe link building is dead, as readers of this blog know well. For readers less familiar with this concept, or those newer to SEO…

A link isn’t always a link.

In the past 10 years, after people spammed the heck out of link building to gain higher rankings, Google began cracking down in a serious way starting in 2012. First with its Penguin algorithm, then by de-indexing several link networks, and then by cracking down on guest blogging.

Today, even slight deviations from Google’s guidelines on manipulative links can land webmasters in penalty jail.

The web is filled with links. Billions of them. Many are built by robots, some are paid for by advertisers, some are good old fashioned editorial links. The challenge for Google is to separate the good from the bad in its ranking algorithm.

When Google finds a link pointing at your website, it can choose to do one of 3 things:

1. Count it in its ranking algorithm
2. Ignore it – or not give it any weight in boosting your rankings
3. Penalize you – if it thinks the link is manipulative

In fact, most people would be surprised to learn how many links don’t actually help you to rank, or can actually hurt. To play within Google’s good graces, it’s best to understand Google’s guidelines on manipulative link building, and knowing what types of links to avoid.

The safest link building is simply link earning, and to get your content in front of the right people.

But trying to rank in Google without any links at all?

Fuhgeddaboudit.

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Photo Credit: Geographically Accurate Paris Metro Map by Nojhan under Creative Common License

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Posted by RuthBurrReedy

It was once commonplace for developers to code relative URLs into a site. There are a number of reasons why that might not be the best idea for SEO, and in today’s Whiteboard Friday, Ruth Burr Reedy is here to tell you all about why.

For reference, here’s a still of this week’s whiteboard. Click on it to open a high resolution image in a new tab!

Let’s discuss some non-philosophical absolutes and relatives

Howdy, Moz fans. My name is Ruth Burr Reedy. You may recognize me from such projects as when I used to be the Head of SEO at Moz. I’m now the Senior SEO Manager at BigWing Interactive in Oklahoma City. Today we’re going to talk about relative versus absolute URLs and why they are important.

At any given time, your website can have several different configurations that might be causing duplicate content issues. You could have just a standard http://www.example.com. That’s a pretty standard format for a website.

But the main sources that we see of domain level duplicate content are when the non-www.example.com does not redirect to the www or vice-versa, and when the HTTPS versions of your URLs are not forced to resolve to HTTP versions or, again, vice-versa. What this can mean is if all of these scenarios are true, if all four of these URLs resolve without being forced to resolve to a canonical version, you can, in essence, have four versions of your website out on the Internet. This may or may not be a problem.

It’s not ideal for a couple of reasons. Number one, duplicate content is a problem because some people think that duplicate content is going to give you a penalty. Duplicate content is not going to get your website penalized in the same way that you might see a spammy link penalty from Penguin. There’s no actual penalty involved. You won’t be punished for having duplicate content.

The problem with duplicate content is that you’re basically relying on Google to figure out what the real version of your website is. Google is seeing the URL from all four versions of your website. They’re going to try to figure out which URL is the real URL and just rank that one. The problem with that is you’re basically leaving that decision up to Google when it’s something that you could take control of for yourself.

There are a couple of other reasons that we’ll go into a little bit later for why duplicate content can be a problem. But in short, duplicate content is no good.

However, just having these URLs not resolve to each other may or may not be a huge problem. When it really becomes a serious issue is when that problem is combined with injudicious use of relative URLs in internal links. So let’s talk a little bit about the difference between a relative URL and an absolute URL when it comes to internal linking.

With an absolute URL, you are putting the entire web address of the page that you are linking to in the link. You’re putting your full domain, everything in the link, including /page. That’s an absolute URL.

However, when coding a website, it’s a fairly common web development practice to instead code internal links with what’s called a relative URL. A relative URL is just /page. Basically what that does is it relies on your browser to understand, “Okay, this link is pointing to a page that’s on the same domain that we’re already on. I’m just going to assume that that is the case and go there.”

There are a couple of really good reasons to code relative URLs

1) It is much easier and faster to code.

When you are a web developer and you’re building a site and there thousands of pages, coding relative versus absolute URLs is a way to be more efficient. You’ll see it happen a lot.

2) Staging environments

Another reason why you might see relative versus absolute URLs is some content management systems — and SharePoint is a great example of this — have a staging environment that’s on its own domain. Instead of being example.com, it will be examplestaging.com. The entire website will basically be replicated on that staging domain. Having relative versus absolute URLs means that the same website can exist on staging and on production, or the live accessible version of your website, without having to go back in and recode all of those URLs. Again, it’s more efficient for your web development team. Those are really perfectly valid reasons to do those things. So don’t yell at your web dev team if they’ve coded relative URLS, because from their perspective it is a better solution.

Relative URLs will also cause your page to load slightly faster. However, in my experience, the SEO benefits of having absolute versus relative URLs in your website far outweigh the teeny-tiny bit longer that it will take the page to load. It’s very negligible. If you have a really, really long page load time, there’s going to be a whole boatload of things that you can change that will make a bigger difference than coding your URLs as relative versus absolute.

Page load time, in my opinion, not a concern here. However, it is something that your web dev team may bring up with you when you try to address with them the fact that, from an SEO perspective, coding your website with relative versus absolute URLs, especially in the nav, is not a good solution.

There are even better reasons to use absolute URLs

1) Scrapers

If you have all of your internal links as relative URLs, it would be very, very, very easy for a scraper to simply scrape your whole website and put it up on a new domain, and the whole website would just work. That sucks for you, and it’s great for that scraper. But unless you are out there doing public services for scrapers, for some reason, that’s probably not something that you want happening with your beautiful, hardworking, handcrafted website. That’s one reason. There is a scraper risk.

2) Preventing duplicate content issues

But the other reason why it’s very important to have absolute versus relative URLs is that it really mitigates the duplicate content risk that can be presented when you don’t have all of these versions of your website resolving to one version. Google could potentially enter your site on any one of these four pages, which they’re the same page to you. They’re four different pages to Google. They’re the same domain to you. They are four different domains to Google.

But they could enter your site, and if all of your URLs are relative, they can then crawl and index your entire domain using whatever format these are. Whereas if you have absolute links coded, even if Google enters your site on www. and that resolves, once they crawl to another page, that you’ve got coded without the www., all of that other internal link juice and all of the other pages on your website, Google is not going to assume that those live at the www. version. That really cuts down on different versions of each page of your website. If you have relative URLs throughout, you basically have four different websites if you haven’t fixed this problem.

Again, it’s not always a huge issue. Duplicate content, it’s not ideal. However, Google has gotten pretty good at figuring out what the real version of your website is.

You do want to think about internal linking, when you’re thinking about this. If you have basically four different versions of any URL that anybody could just copy and paste when they want to link to you or when they want to share something that you’ve built, you’re diluting your internal links by four, which is not great. You basically would have to build four times as many links in order to get the same authority. So that’s one reason.

3) Crawl Budget

The other reason why it’s pretty important not to do is because of crawl budget. I’m going to point it out like this instead.

When we talk about crawl budget, basically what that is, is every time Google crawls your website, there is a finite depth that they will. There’s a finite number of URLs that they will crawl and then they decide, “Okay, I’m done.” That’s based on a few different things. Your site authority is one of them. Your actual PageRank, not toolbar PageRank, but how good Google actually thinks your website is, is a big part of that. But also how complex your site is, how often it’s updated, things like that are also going to contribute to how often and how deep Google is going to crawl your site.

It’s important to remember when we think about crawl budget that, for Google, crawl budget cost actual dollars. One of Google’s biggest expenditures as a company is the money and the bandwidth it takes to crawl and index the Web. All of that energy that’s going into crawling and indexing the Web, that lives on servers. That bandwidth comes from servers, and that means that using bandwidth cost Google actual real dollars.

So Google is incentivized to crawl as efficiently as possible, because when they crawl inefficiently, it cost them money. If your site is not efficient to crawl, Google is going to save itself some money by crawling it less frequently and crawling to a fewer number of pages per crawl. That can mean that if you have a site that’s updated frequently, your site may not be updating in the index as frequently as you’re updating it. It may also mean that Google, while it’s crawling and indexing, may be crawling and indexing a version of your website that isn’t the version that you really want it to crawl and index.

So having four different versions of your website, all of which are completely crawlable to the last page, because you’ve got relative URLs and you haven’t fixed this duplicate content problem, means that Google has to spend four times as much money in order to really crawl and understand your website. Over time they’re going to do that less and less frequently, especially if you don’t have a really high authority website. If you’re a small website, if you’re just starting out, if you’ve only got a medium number of inbound links, over time you’re going to see your crawl rate and frequency impacted, and that’s bad. We don’t want that. We want Google to come back all the time, see all our pages. They’re beautiful. Put them up in the index. Rank them well. That’s what we want. So that’s what we should do.

There are couple of ways to fix your relative versus absolute URLs problem

1) Fix what is happening on the server side of your website

You have to make sure that you are forcing all of these different versions of your domain to resolve to one version of your domain. For me, I’m pretty agnostic as to which version you pick. You should probably already have a pretty good idea of which version of your website is the real version, whether that’s www, non-www, HTTPS, or HTTP. From my view, what’s most important is that all four of these versions resolve to one version.

From an SEO standpoint, there is evidence to suggest and Google has certainly said that HTTPS is a little bit better than HTTP. From a URL length perspective, I like to not have the www. in there because it doesn’t really do anything. It just makes your URLs four characters longer. If you don’t know which one to pick, I would pick one this one HTTPS, no W’s. But whichever one you pick, what’s really most important is that all of them resolve to one version. You can do that on the server side, and that’s usually pretty easy for your dev team to fix once you tell them that it needs to happen.

2) Fix your internal links

Great. So you fixed it on your server side. Now you need to fix your internal links, and you need to recode them for being relative to being absolute. This is something that your dev team is not going to want to do because it is time consuming and, from a web dev perspective, not that important. However, you should use resources like this Whiteboard Friday to explain to them, from an SEO perspective, both from the scraper risk and from a duplicate content standpoint, having those absolute URLs is a high priority and something that should get done.

You’ll need to fix those, especially in your navigational elements. But once you’ve got your nav fixed, also pull out your database or run a Screaming Frog crawl or however you want to discover internal links that aren’t part of your nav, and make sure you’re updating those to be absolute as well.

Then you’ll do some education with everybody who touches your website saying, “Hey, when you link internally, make sure you’re using the absolute URL and make sure it’s in our preferred format,” because that’s really going to give you the most bang for your buck per internal link. So do some education. Fix your internal links.

Sometimes your dev team going to say, “No, we can’t do that. We’re not going to recode the whole nav. It’s not a good use of our time,” and sometimes they are right. The dev team has more important things to do. That’s okay.

3) Canonicalize it!

If you can’t get your internal links fixed or if they’re not going to get fixed anytime in the near future, a stopgap or a Band-Aid that you can kind of put on this problem is to canonicalize all of your pages. As you’re changing your server to force all of these different versions of your domain to resolve to one, at the same time you should be implementing the canonical tag on all of the pages of your website to self-canonize. On every page, you have a canonical page tag saying, “This page right here that they were already on is the canonical version of this page. ” Or if there’s another page that’s the canonical version, then obviously you point to that instead.

But having each page self-canonicalize will mitigate both the risk of duplicate content internally and some of the risk posed by scrappers, because when they scrape, if they are scraping your website and slapping it up somewhere else, those canonical tags will often stay in place, and that lets Google know this is not the real version of the website.

In conclusion, relative links, not as good. Absolute links, those are the way to go. Make sure that you’re fixing these very common domain level duplicate content problems. If your dev team tries to tell you that they don’t want to do this, just tell them I sent you. Thanks guys.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

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Posted by NoamC

Today, we’re excited to announce some new features and changes to the Moz Local dashboard. We’ve updated your dashboard to make it easier to manage and gauge the performance of your local search listings.

New and improved dashboard

We spent a lot of time listening to customer feedback and finding areas where we weren’t being as clear as we ought to. We’ve made great strides in improving Moz Local’s dashboard (details below) to give you a lot more information at a glance.

Geo Reporting

Our newest reporting view, geo reporting, shows you the relative strength of locations based on geography. The deeper the blue, the stronger the listings in that region. You can look at your scores broken down by state, or zoom in to see the score breakdown by county. Move your mouse over a region to see your average score there.

Scores on the dashboard

We’re more clearly surfacing the scores for each of your locations right in our dashboard. Now you can see each location’s individual score immediately.

Exporting reports

Use the new drop-down at the upper-right corner to download Moz Local reports in CSV format, so that you can access your historical listing data offline and use it to generate your own reports and visualizations.

Search cheat sheet

If you want to take your search game to the next level, why not start with your Moz Local dashboard? A handy link next to the search bar shows you all the ways you can find what you’re looking for.

We’re still actively addressing feedback and making improvements to Moz Local over time, and you can let us know what we’re missing in the comments below.

We hope that our latest updates will make your Moz Local experience better. But you don’t have to take my word for it; head on over to Moz Local to see our new and improved dashboard and reporting experience today!

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!

The surge of videos on social media and content marketing channels has come quickly. In the past year alone, Facebook has averaged more than 1 billion video views each day.

Video has become go-to visual content for a huge number businesses and brands.

And I’d love to share how you can do video, too, no matter your resources or skills. 

I researched all the best and easiest video editing tools that are ideal for novice video producers with limited budgets and busy schedules. I tried each one out and am happy to share here how things went and what I ended up creating. I’d love if it inspires any thoughts or creations from you!

The 6 Easiest Video-Editing Tools for Small Business Marketers

To help you create compelling videos, I tested 5 of the best video production apps available for amateur video producers, as well as 1 beginner-friendly video editor for Macs.

1. Nutshell
2. Magisto
3. Animoto
4. Videoshop
5. iMovie App
6. iMovie for Macs

Let’s get started and check out these 6 video editing tools!

1. Nutshell

Quick Introduction

Snap 3 pictures. Add captions. Choose graphics. 

Nutshell creates fun mini-movies for you in seconds using just these few elements.

For your mini-movie, Nutshell will even create an audio track for you using the sounds that were captured when the three photos were snapped.

• Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch: iOS 8.0+
• Pricing: free (with Nutshell branding added to the video)
• Additional paid features: None

How To Use Nutshell To Create Videos

1. Snap 3 photos.

When prompted, capture photos from within the Nutshell app.

2. Add captions.

Select from the animated text options, and insert a message into each text graphic you select.

3. Add graphics.

Choose animated graphics to embellish each of your 3 photos.

4. Preview your video.

Nutshell creates a mini-movie for you in a few seconds using your 3 photos plus the graphics and text you inserted.

5. Be friendly.

Send your Nutshell video to your friends. They can respond to your Nutshell movie with Nutshell cartoons.

6. Save and share.

Share you video via social media, email, or the Prezi website.

A Nutshell Sample Video

2. Magisto

Quick Introduction

Fully automated video editing app

Magisto makes it easy to transform photos and videos into edited movies, complete with music and effects, in minutes.

• Compatible with iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch (iOS 7.0+), Android (compatibility varies by device), Windows (versions 7+), and an online version available here
• Pricing: Free to try, downloads cost 99 cents
• Additional paid features: Unlimited cloud storage, longer movies, upload 30 or more clips/photos into a video,

How To Use Magisto To Create Videos

1. Add photos and videos.

To get started with Magisto, you can shoot video clips from within in the app or select photos and videos from your camera roll.

2. Select editing style.

Choose a visual style for your video by perusing the themes provided in the app.

3. Select soundtrack.

For your soundtrack, add music from Magisto’s library of licensed songs or choose a song you have saved on your device.

If you choose to use a track from one of your personal playlists, be careful to not misuse copyrighted material.

4.  Put the finishing touches on your video.

Select the length of your video.

With a free Basic account, users can create movies up to one minute and fifteen seconds in length by uploading a total of 10 photo and/or video files. Users with premium accounts can upload more files and create longer movies.

Also, give your video a title that will appear at the beginning of your video.

You cannot add text to your video except for the title at the beginning.

5. Magisto edits your video with automated editing.  

Magisto handles all of the remaining details of the video production for you.

For example, you won’t need to worry about picking the perfect filters or transitions for your clips because Magisto makes those decisions for you based on the style theme you selected.

Once Magisto creates your video, you can make minor changes to your movie by adding or removing photo and videos clips as well as changing your chosen style theme and selected audio track.

6. Save and share.

Share your video with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and email. Or, pay to download and save your video.

Magisto Sample Video

Bonus: Magisto Shot for Messenger

Magisto recently released another video app worth mentioning: Magisto Shot, which turns a photo and text into a micro-movie.

It’s free to download and available for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad (iOS 7.0+) and also available for Android (4.0+).

3. Animoto

Quick Introduction

Automated video editing app

Animoto simplifies video editing by limiting the number of customization options and making most of the editing decisions for you.

Animoto is my favorite of the automated video editing apps on this list as a result of the easy process and the impressive results.

• Compatible with iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch (iOS 7.0+), Android (version 2.2+), and an  online version available here. Animoto also offers a plug-in for Lightroom so you can export your photos directly into Animoto.
• Pricing: Free to try, with plans starting at $9.99/month
• Additional paid features: HD videos, longer videos, video downloads, cloud storage, more photos and videos to upload

How To Use Animoto To Create Videos

1. Add photos and videos.

Similar to Magisto, with just a few taps of your finger you can insert your preferred photos and videos from your camera roll.

Unlinke Magisto, you cannot capture photos or videos from within the app.

2. Select editing style.

Add filters and embellishments to your video by choosing a style theme from the list of provided options.

The theme you select will determine how your clips are processed.

3. Select soundtrack.

Animoto provides song options for your video.

As mentioned earlier, if you choose to not use a track provided by the app and instead opt for a song you purchased for your personal use, ensure that you are following all copyright laws when you upload your video for the public to view.

4. Add captions and titles.

Animoto prompts you to include copy for intro and outro titles.

You can also add text to your photo and video clips by writing captions for your visuals.

In addition you can insert title screens with custom messages throughout your video.

5. Animoto generates a preview with automated editing. 

Once Animoto generates your video, you can make minor changes to your design.

6. Save and share.

Share your video via Messages, email, Twitter, and Facebook.

If you upgrade to a paid version, you can save your video on your device.

Animoto Sample Video

4. Videoshop

Quick Introduction

A Beginner-Friendly Video Editor

Videoshop lets you create movies inside a relatively user-friendly interface without restricting you to a template format.

Compared to Magisto, Nutshell, and Animoto, the creative control can be inspiring or intimidating – depending on the user.

• Compatible with iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch (iOS 7.0+)
• Pricing: $1.99 download
• Additional paid features: None

How To Use Videoshop To Create Videos

1. Add photos and videos.

Videoshop offers slow motion, time-lapse, and stop motion as options when capturing video from within the app

2. Add audio tracks.

Add sound effects or a song from the included collection of tracks or pick a song from your personal collection of music.

3. Organize clips.

Arrange your clips in your preferred order.

Also trim you clips to the optimal length.

4. Edit video.

With some advanced editing options, but not too many, Videoshop could be considered the best of both worlds. For example, you can select from a variety of transitions to adjust how each clip flows into the next clip, but you can only make a limited number of minor adjustments to your audio track.

However this gain of extra editing flexibility comes at a price. Since the app is not transforming your clips into a movie for you, producing a mesmerizing video will likely take more time and effort on your part.

5. Add filters and a title. 

You can select one of the provided filters to alter your video, or you can leave you footage as-is.

Also, you can create a title using one of the provided templates or opt to create your own title some basic text options.

6. Save and share.

Save your video to your device or share on social media.

Videoshop Sample Video

Check out this sample video created using Videoshop:

5. iMovie app

Quick Introduction

A Beginner-Friendly Video Editor

The iMovie app makes it easy for you to produce videos to fit your needs exactly – without the limitations of a required template.

The iMovie app is similar to Videoshop in that it lets you make a variety of creative decisions during the editing process. I personally think iMovie is easier to use than Videoshop, however the two apps are relatively comparable in regards to the features offered.

• Compatible with iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch (iOS 8.3+)
• Pricing: Download for $4.99
• Additional paid features: None

How To Use The iMovie App To Create Videos

1. Select a format for your video. 

Choose from 2 format options:

1. Movie: You can create video that is truly unique.
2. Hollywood-Style Trailer: You can create a video that looks and feels like an authentic trailer for a Hollywood film.

2. Select a theme.

For movies:

• Choose from 8 style themes.
• You will have the option to use titles, transitions, and music that fit your selected theme.
• However you can bypass these suggested theme options if you prefer to use titles, transitions and music from outside of the theme.

For trailers:

• Choose from 14 trailer templates.
• Templates include titles, transitions, and music that fit your selected theme.
• Customize the trailer storyboard with your own video clips and photos, as well as a movie title, studio logo, and character names.

3. Add photos and videos.

Capture new photos and videos from within the iMovie app or upload visual assets from your device.

iMovie automatically adds movement to your images, however you can adjust the movement on your photos to fit your personal preference. The added movement will make your images more interesting and more appropriate for video.

With iMovie version 2.1 and iOS 8, you can use an extension to enhance video clips right in your photos app

4. Add audio files. 

Create a soundtrack using the included music and sound effect collections or  songs from your music library.

You can also record your own narration from within the iMovie app.

5. Edit your video.

Bring your video to life with the many editing options available in the iMovie app.

iMovie lets you pick clip transitions, edit the length and speed of your visual assets, add filters to your clips, and make other edits restricted in some of the previously listed editing tools.

6. Save your video or share it via email or social media.

iMovie Sample Video

6. iMovie for Mac

Quick Introduction

A Beginner-Friendly Video Editor for Mac

If you want an easy video editing option that also gives you control over almost all aspects of your creation, iMovie is a great option for you to consider.

The Mac version is more robust than the iMovie app, thus both iMovie versions should be listed as unique options for video producers.

Even though the other video editing options featured on this list are all apps, I chose to include iMovie for Macs because it is easy for beginners to use.

In addition, since I used iMovie to edit the demo videos included above, I wanted to be transparent and give an inside look into the creation of those videos.

• Compatible with Mac computers (OS X 10.10.2 or later)
• Pricing: $14.99 from the Mac App Store
• Additional paid features: None

The Best Introduction To iMovie Is A Demo Video

Because the list of iMovie features is extensive, iMovie for Mac gives you the freedom to get wildly innovative with your videos.

You can create videos following a variety of workflows, utilizing a multitude of features.

To see how the iMovie app demo video (featured above) was created, watch this demo:

 

3 Additional Resources For Videos

While creating the demo videos included above, I discovered some great resources that you might also find useful when producing your own videos. Below are 3 additional resources for you to use while creating your videos.

1. YouTube Audio Library

If you need audio files to create soundtracks for your videos, download songs from the YouTube Audio Library. All audio files in this library can be used for any videos, personal or commercial.

2. Distill

Offering free HD videos for personal and commercial use, WeDistill.io is a unique resource for video producers. If you need some stunning HD footage for your videos, visit WeDistill.io and peruse their video library for clips to download.

3. Pexels Videos

Similar to WeDistill.io, Pexels Videos offers free downloads of video footage for use in any type of project. Compared to WeDistill.io, Pexels currently has more clips in their video library.

Conclusion

While this list is only the tip of the iceberg for video production resources, the 6 video editors and 3 additional tools featured on this list are a great place for you to start if you are eager to create your own videos for your social media and content marketing posts.

What type of video content do you plan to produce for your social media and content marketing posts? What video production tools have you tried? Have you tested any of the tools or resources listed above?

I’d love to hear your feedback and experiences!

The post The 6 Easiest Video-Editing Tools for Small Business Marketers appeared first on Social.

Posted by AndreaLehr

This post was originally in YouMoz, and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author’s views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of Moz, Inc.

With more people of all ages online than ever before, marketers must create content that resonates with multiple generations. Successful marketers realize that each generation has unique expectations, values and experiences that influence consumer behaviors, and that offering your audience content that reflects their shared interests is a powerful way to connect with them and inspire them to take action.

We’re in the midst of a generational shift, with
Millennials expected to surpass Baby Boomers in 2015 as the largest living generation. In order to be competitive, marketers need to realize where key distinctions and similarities lie in terms of how these different generations consume content and share it with with others.

To better understand the habits of each generation,
BuzzStream and Fractl surveyed over 1,200 individuals and segmented their responses into three groups: Millennials (born between 1977–1995), Generation X (born between 1965–1976), and Baby Boomers (born between 1946–1964). [Eds note: The official breakdown for each group is as follows: Millennials (1981-1997), Generation X (1965-1980), and Boomers (1946-1964)]

Our survey asked them to identify their preferences for over 15 different content types while also noting their opinions on long-form versus short-form content and different genres (e.g., politics, technology, and entertainment).

We compared their responses and found similar habits and unique trends among all three generations.

Here’s our breakdown of the three key takeaways you can use to elevate your future campaigns:

1. Baby Boomers are consuming the most content

However, they have a tendency to enjoy it earlier in the day than Gen Xers and Millennials.

Although we found striking similarities between the younger generations, the oldest generation distinguished itself by consuming the most content. Over 25 percent of Baby Boomers consume 20 or more hours of content each week. Additional findings:

• Baby Boomers also hold a strong lead in the 15–20 hours bracket at 17 percent, edging out Gen Xers and Millennials at 12 and 11 percent, respectively
• A majority of Gen Xers and Millennials—just over 22 percent each—consume between 5 and 10 hours per week
• Less than 10 percent of Gen Xers consume less than five hours of content a week—the lowest of all three groups

We also compared the times of day that each generation enjoys consuming content. The results show that most of our respondents—over 30 percent— consume content between 8 p.m. and midnight. However, there are similar trends that distinguish the oldest generation from the younger ones:

• Baby Boomers consume a majority of their content in the morning. Nearly 40 percent of respondents are online between 5 a.m. and noon.
• The least popular time for most respondents to engage with content online is late at night, between midnight and 5 a.m., earning less than 10 percent from each generation
• Gen X is the only generation to dip below 10 percent in the three U.S. time zones: 5 a.m. to 9 a.m., 6 to 8 p.m., and midnight to 5 a.m.

When it comes to which device each generation uses to consume content, laptops are the most common, followed by desktops. The biggest distinction is in mobile usage: Over 50 percent of respondents who use their mobile as their primary device for content consumption are Millennials. Other results reveal:

• Not only do Baby Boomers use laptops the most (43 percent), but they also use their tablets the most. (40 percent of all primary tablet users are Baby Boomers).
• Over 25 percent of Millennials use a mobile device as their primary source for content
• Gen Xers are the least active tablet users, with less than 8 percent of respondents using it as their primary device

2. Preferred content types and lengths span all three generations

One thing every generation agrees on is the type of content they enjoy seeing online. Our results reveal that the top four content types— blog articles, images, comments, and eBooks—are exactly the same for Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials. Additional comparisons indicate:

• The least preferred content types—flipbooks, SlideShares, webinars, and white papers—are the same across generations, too (although not in the exact same order)
• Surprisingly, Gen Xers and Millennials list quizzes as one of their five least favorite content types

All three generations also agree on ideal content length, around 300 words. Further analysis reveals:

• Baby Boomers have the highest preference for articles under 200 words, at 18 percent
• Gen Xers have a strong preference for articles over 500 words compared to other generations. Over 20 percent of respondents favor long-form articles, while only 15 percent of Baby Boomers and Millennials share the same sentiment.
• Gen Xers also prefer short articles the least, with less than 10 percent preferring articles under 200 words

However, in regards to verticals or genres, where they consume their content, each generation has their own unique preference:

• Baby Boomers have a comfortable lead in world news and politics, at 18 percent and 12 percent, respectively
• Millennials hold a strong lead in technology, at 18 percent, while Baby Boomers come in at 10 percent in the same category
• Gen Xers fall between Millennials and Baby Boomers in most verticals, although they have slight leads in personal finance, parenting, and healthy living
• Although entertainment is the top genre for each generation, Millennials and Baby Boomers prefer it slightly more than than Gen Xers do

3. Facebook is the preferred content sharing platform across all three generations

Facebook remains king in terms of content sharing, and is used by about 60 percent of respondents in each generation studied. Surprisingly, YouTube came in second, followed by Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn, respectively. Additional findings:

• Baby Boomers share on Facebook the most, edging out Millennials by only a fraction of a percent
• Although Gen Xers use Facebook slightly less than other generations, they lead in both YouTube and Twitter, at 15 percent and 10 percent, respectively
• Google+ is most popular with Baby Boomers, at 8 percent, nearly double that of both Gen Xers and Millennials

Although a majority of each generation is sharing content on Facebook, the type of content they are sharing, especially visuals, varies by each age group. The oldest generation prefers more traditional content, such as images and videos. Millennials prefer newer content types, such as memes and GIFs, while Gen X predictably falls in between the two generations in all categories except SlideShares. Other findings:

• The most popular content type for Baby Boomers is video, at 27 percent
• Parallax is the least popular type for every generation, earning 1 percent or less in each age group
• Millennials share memes the most, while less than 10 percent of Baby Boomers share similar content

Marketing to several generations can be challenging, given the different values and ideas that resonate with each group. With the number of online content consumers growing daily, it’s essential for marketers to understand the specific types of content that each of their audiences connect with, and align it with their content marketing strategy accordingly.

Although there is no one-size-fits-all campaign, successful marketers can create content that multiple generations will want to share. If you feel you need more information getting started, you can review this deck of additional insights, which includes the preferred video length and weekend consuming habits of each generation discussed in this post.

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