Today at its MozCon 2024 conference, Moz announced a range of AI-powered features and product updates, with the announcements focused on modernizing the tool to meet the changing needs of SEO professionals.
Ethan Hayes, general manager at Moz, acknowledged that “the search industry experienced the most disruption last year in Moz's 20-year history, and our goal is to help our customers meet it head-on.”
Modern tools for the future of SEO
Moz showed off an improved version of STAT, its enterprise SERP tracking solution, as well as some usability improvements to the Moz Pro interface.
Willow Mack, SVP of People and Transformation at Moz Enterprise, explained in an interview with Search Engine Journal:
“When we were thinking about the user interface, we wanted to think carefully about how to make it more than just look good. It's not just about making it look good, it's about making it easy to use.”
Mack stressed that the goal is to make the product more future-proof, allowing users to gain insights more quickly and efficiently.
“Our aim is to reduce the time and effort it takes to become an expert on a tool,” she added.
Shrike AI
The company announced Moz AI, a suite of tools designed to streamline workflows and power enterprise-grade data. Moz AI is a collection of three features integrated into Moz Pro.
- Search intent of keyword suggestions
- Domain Search Themes
- Domain Keyword Topics in Domain Overview
Moz focuses on “augmented intelligence,” or using AI to enable and enhance human intelligence and insight rather than replacing it.
The new search intent feature in Keywords Explorer uses a two-tiered process with ML classification and rule-based models to help you understand where searchers are in their search journey and how you can effectively target them with content.
The Domain Overview tool now includes Domain Search Themes, which uses a language model across your site's Google rankings to dynamically generate how Google sees your site, and Domain Keyword Topics, which categorizes your site's ranking keywords into up to five topics to give you quick insight into your competition.
“We're taking a thoughtful approach to AI and we're learning what it can mean for our industry and for SEO,” Mack explained.
She continues:
“When we look at the AI capabilities in Moz Pro, our intention is fundamentally to reduce the time to insight and give people their time back. The faster you get insights, the more efficiently you can do your job.”
Accessible and affordable data
Moz announced the launch of new Moz API plans to make enterprise-quality data more accessible and affordable. Starting at $5 per month, customers can now access an expanded set of beta endpoints.
“We know that data is at the core of what we do, so we're excited to enter the market with our affordable API plans,” Mack said.
She continues:
“We currently have companies using the Links API to power their own tools, and we're already seeing use cases in action today, with companies doing some really interesting things with our data through the API.”
20 Years of the Shrike
As Moz celebrates its 20th anniversary, I asked Mack what he thinks is the company's most important contribution to SEO.
“What resonates with me the most is the commitment to community and education, which is at the core of what Moz has always done,” she said.
Mack emphasized that Moz's product development is inspired by feedback from SEO experts.
She added:
“Our product roadmap and vision is heavily informed by our customer base, so the entire STAT rewrite and user interface rewrite was driven by customer feedback, and we're doing the same with Pro.”
She points out that MozCon is another example of the company's community-building efforts.
“MozCon is a great example of this – it really brings together SEO professionals and brings the community together. To me, providing this safe space to learn every year is one of Moz's most notable efforts to create spaces where we can learn from each other.”
AI Ethics and Risks
Moz takes the ethical challenges of AI seriously, especially large-scale language models. The company is mindful of the explosion of AI-driven content and of being a responsible citizen of both the internet and the Google ecosystem.
While aware of Google's evolving policies on AI-generated content and the potential risks of content abuse on a large scale, Moz aims to help SEOs create useful, impactful content that serves searchers and meets users along their search journey.
Mozcon 2024
Live demonstrations of these product enhancements will be available at MozCon 2024, ongoing now, where attendees can experience the new features first-hand and engage with Moz experts.
In summary
As Moz celebrates its 20th anniversary, it remains committed to providing SEO professionals with advanced tools, educational resources, and community support to help them navigate the ever-changing search landscape. Powered by AI, the company's goal is to make SEO more effective and impactful.
Mack summed it up like this:
“The key message for us is that we recognize that SEO and the industry are constantly evolving. Moz has been a pioneer in the space and continues to evolve with the industry, committed to community education and best-in-class tools.”
Featured image: Photo by author, June 2024.