Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start. Wait a minute. That’s not it…that’s the code for Contra. SEO code is something you apply to backend of your website to tell search engines what each page is all about. This includes title tags, meta descriptions, and meta keywords, among other things. Want a grade for your SEO code?

Today at Google Zoo we’re going to be observing the Panda. This appears to be the kung-fu variety of the popular black and white species. Notice how this particular Panda is much more picky about the type of content he consumes. No longer will he take content that’s been duplicated or robotically written or unappealing to average user. He demands only high quality content from this point on. Well, we’re happy to oblige.

Don’t forget to eat your veggies. An SEO plan that works is one that includes equal parts local, social, mobile, and all the traditional optimization strategies. And just like dieting, maintaining a healthy standing in search engines takes hard work. It’s an ongoing thing, not a fad diet. No one time cleanses or flushes or any of that nonsense here. Just good old fashioned time and effort. Delicious!

Do you see clearly the future of search engine optimization? We don’t know exactly what the search landscape is going to be like in the next decade, but we are getting strong glimpses into the future right now. Search results that find you, not the other way around. Wearable technology. Information hovering in your line of sight browsable with voice or motion gestures. Implants? Uh-oh. Swallow a pill to recover your password. This is getting crazy. Start a search plan now, be prepared for anything.

Kids might be out for summer, but SEO school for websites is just getting into session. Request an SEO scorecard HERE to play along. The course consists of 14 short lessons, and you can work at your own pace. The only way to fail is to ignore your professor, SEO speaker Stathis Edel. Everyone, find your seats.

We’re back with fresh batch of videos from our last Google seminar at the Alamo Drafthouse. And we have a whole new format. Instead of lecturing, we’re grading websites. Actually, you’re going to be the one grading your own website. So be fair, but don’t go too easy on yourself. Learn from your mistakes and become an SEO pro.

Submit your URL to receive an SEO scorecard.

Here’s what Cyrus had to say to our questions:

When did you become involved with SEO & why?

I was a restaurant waiter for the better part of 15 years before getting into SEO. I had built a website and wanted to market it, so I signed up with SEOmoz. What I didn’t realize is they were located in Seattle, where I lived. A year and a half later, I was working for the company.

What role does guest blogging play in SEO? How can businesses get started with guest blogging and where do you recommend beginning?

There’s good guest blocking, and there’s spammy guest blogging. We expect Google to further crack down on guest posts located on off-topic sites, with over-optimized anchor text, and low-quality posts.

On the other hand, guest posting isn’t going away and can still be a valuable tactic for SEOs. The best advice is to only post on the highest quality sites you can find – sites that will send your website traffic, regardless of any SEO benefit. Also, write the highest quality articles possible, and make sure you are adding value to your guest posting efforts. Would you recommend this article to a friend?

Finally, don’t abuse your guest posting anchor text. I like to forgo author “boxes” and link to an asset on my own site within the body of the post. Of course, in order to do this, you have to have something worth linking to in the first place.

What do you see on the horizon for Google algorithm updates and how do you recommend businesses prepare for these?

We know from Google that they will soon release Penguin 2.0, which aims to further target low quality backlinks. There’s also a hint that Google may also be incorporating author authority signals into its algorithms, so that authors who are an authority rise to the top in rankings. For more hints, watch this recent video from Google’s Matt Cutts – http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/what-to-expect-in-seo-in-the-coming-months/

Backlinks versus content: Who wins?

Both. It’s the Chicken and the egg. But in this case, you need content first, so I guess the egg wins.

How do you see the landscape of social media affecting organic search in the future?

Social media signals already play a factor in Google’s algorytm, and we expect that trend to continue. That said, social media is also an important channel all by itself, even without the ranking signals. That’s why I encourage folks to think of social media as valuable as its own set of channels, and optimize these channels for user experience, and not necessarily for ranking factor considerations.

By the way, if you haven’t adopted Google+ yet for your business, I would highly recommend doing so.

Do you have any advice for a small business needing content but may not have the resources to consistently create content?

Instead of creating more content, create better content. Make sure your site content is excellent in that it answers all customer questions and helps your sales process – that’s a start. But instead of creating a blog and writing everyday for the sake of creating content that no one wants to read, instead put that effort into creating 3-4 bigger pieces of content each year.

I talked to one webmaster recently who sold adult diapers. Not an interresting subject for small business. So he created an ebook about choosing adult diapers that was a hit with elderly centers and certain doctor’s offices.

If you were to start optimizing a site for search engines from the ground up, what would you do?

A big question to answer here. Let me refer you to 2 blog posts:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/a-basic-yet-essential-pre-post-content-launch-checklist-with-guidelines
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-rank

What do you think about the Bing Challenge? Are you a fan of Bing or Team Google?

Marketing aside, I love what Bing is doing. That said, I’m mostly a Google boy.

Do you have any great SEO tips?

SEO is easy – building great stuff is hard. Spend your most important time building creative assets – whether it’s your product, your website or your content. Then when it comes time for marketing, the process is much easier.

Other SEO tips: Test everything. A well designed site will perform better than one that delivers a sub-par user experience. The title tag is still one of the most important ranking factors, but don’t over-optimize it. Build relationships, not links.

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Thanks Cyrus!

Cyrus Shepard is officially the “Senior Content Space Dude” at Moz. Check out his contributions here.

(Note: All interviews conducted over email. Answers appear in full unless otherwise noted.)

Kicking things off, we have Ben Pfeiffer, Founder and President of RankSmart Search Marketing.

When did you become involved with SEO & why?

I become involved with SEO and internet marketing in 1999, while I was still in high school. I was president the marketing club DECA and also was very good working with computers and the internet. It was kind of a natural fit so to say that I was attracted to learning how to using marketing on the web. I had a fascination with search engines at the time and wanted to figure out how to get websites included within the search engine results. At the time no one besides the librarian really knew how search engines worked. They used to give you these nifty sheets explaining how to use BOOLEN operators in a search which no one really paid much attention to. I started to discover you could submit websites to the search engines/directories so I started an early business doing website submissions. I became really good at getting websites listed in the Yahoo Directory, as Yahoo search was powered by their directory at the time. Google was still mostly unknown at the time, but I also focused on it because it wasn’t too hard to submit there. I started to make money off of website submissions and it started a career into SEO and many other businesses I started or was a part of.

What role does guest blogging play in SEO? How can businesses get started with guest blogging and where do you recommend beginning?

Guest blogging is still a valid strategy a webmasters can use to market their products or services. A lot of people are still using guest blogging as an approach to build links to their website. Because they look at guest blogging as a way to build links the focus is often not on the content, it’s the links at the bottom of the article. So the content suffers. It’s horrible. If you go out and try to get placements with horrible content that no one wants to read you are going to get horrible placements on low quality websites and have a low success rate.

I recommend webmasters start slow and really spend a lot of time developing some amazing content that it will be hard for another website not to want to place on their website. This can mean forgoing a link to you website and instead building your authority in a specific topic with authorship. I would also recommend webmasters write content specifically for a website. Write the content before you even contact the website and tailor it specifically to their audience. Add value to their business and do not be self-serving in your approach to guest blogging.

What do you see on the horizon for Google algorithm updates and how do you recommend businesses prepare for these?

Matt Cutts recently announced that there will be quite a few dramatic updates this coming summer. It will be another tough summer for businesses that depend on Google traffic. If they haven’t done so already they need to start aligning their website to get away from any spammy, manipulative SEO approaches that will definitely get them in hot water over the coming months. Even if you made it through Penguin and Panda last year and think you are sitting pretty, you still have to be prepared.