Google Link Scheme (Webmaster Tools)

In their Webmasters Tools website, Google has presented the Link Scheme guide which include scenarios that can have a negative influence on your search results.

Jennifer Slegg of SearchEngineWatch has written an article based on teh above mentioned guide that details the main schemes presented in the Google Webmasters Tools 'Link Scheme' guide , such as links, over-optimized anchored texts, advertorials, etc. and their effect on search results.

Take a look at the original article by clicking on the 'continue reading' link below and let us know your thoughts on the comment section...

Pinterest Personalized Pins

Pinterest announced on Friday that it is rolling out new features/improvements to their service.

• Edit Button to take control of what you get to see, or not (Follow/Unfollow Boards) as well as how you see it displayed in your feed.
• You can also select to get personalized pins and boards based on websites you go to that have the Pin It button (detailed info at Help Center or updated privacy policy).

Set to be available in "the next few weeks", these proposed changes could create some privacy concerns; although there has been confirmation that Pinterest will update its privacy policies. 

Take a look at the original post by Pinterest, by clicking on the 'continue reading' link below and share your thoughts on the new features and how they will affect user experience as well as privacy concerns.

Tips for Improving Your LinkedIn Marketing (article)

In a very interesting article, Steve Rayson discusses 9 ways to improve your LinkedIn B2B marketing attempts.

As he explains, in a research study made by Hubspot results showed that "more companies had acquired a customer through LinkedIn than any other social media channel. There are now over 225m registered LinkedIn members, including 77m in the US and 50m in Europe." This provides an understanding of the importance of LinkedIn in B2B marketing and the opportunities that exist in its strategic usage.

Take a look at the original article by clicking on the "continue reading" link below:

Blog Tips: Increasing Blog Conversions

Blogs are all about the reader, and as such you need to invest in making their experience in your site the best possible one.

Author Brian Casel (Mashable) does a very good job presenting various web page design related steps that you can take, which can play an important role in attracting more readers to your blog and making the stay! 

As you know, content quality and optimization is of major importance to a visitor's site experience, and as such these few design implementations can enhance and affect a reader's overall interaction with your site as well as affect "social shares, newsletter subscribers and even sales (if that's your goal)".

Take a look at the original article by clicking on the 'continue reading' link below

SEO and Content - the unbreakable bond

Based on the latest changes that Google has made to their algorithm (see Panda and Penguin updates) which has definitely influenced the workings of marketers and how they implement their strategies, author Nathan Safran has taken a look in his article "SEO & Content: The Time is Now for Collaboration! [Data]" at the correlation between SEO and content and how closely they are linked.

A study made showed that there is a strong correlation, and that SEO and content teams need to increase this collaboration further to increase results.

Despite the increased focus on content in today's online landscape, search marketers don't think the right place for content to live is under the umbrella of SEO. They do, however, overwhelmingly want to collaborate more closely with content than they currently do, in order to give their content the best possible visibility in the search results.
As search marketers, we can infer that the overwhelming desire to work more closely with content teams implies that they strongly believe doing so will only help their natural search visibility.

Take a look at the original article by clicking on the 'continue reading' link:

Search Engine Ranking Factors by Moz for 2013

Matt Peters wrote a post with an overview of the results and key factors that played a role in the 2013 study by Moz. The actual data will be presented sometime during the summer.

Click on the 'continue reading' link below to read the detailed overview of the study: 

Online and Offline marketing sales

One of the most beneficial tactics to search engine marketing is being able to make online and offline marketing attempts effectively come together and work for your business.

Joseph Kerschbaum (SearchEngineWatch) has proposed in his article "5 Tactics to Bridge the Online and Offline Sales Funnel", a series of techniques that can be used to effectively help businesses increase their online ROI while at the same time improving their offline results.

Click on the 'continue reading' link below to read the original article.

SEO leading indicators and progress.

In her article for Search Engine Watch, Purna Virji successfully presents the importance of  leading indicators when presenting the progress of a campaign to clients or management.
As she explains:

Economists regularly use leading indicators — the measurable economic factors that change before the economy as a whole changes — in order to analyze and predict future performance. Lagging indicators, on the other hand, are factors that change after the economy as a whole does.

[...] More valuably, these quick reports will build the client’s understanding of the different KPIs we SEO professionals monitor, and will be great for assuaging impatient clients and sparking a very productive dialogue each month.

The top 5 SEO indicators proposed/covered are:

• SEO Visibility (with Competitive Intelligence) 
• Links Acquired 
• Domain Authority 
• Search Traffic 
• Core Rankings

Click on the 'continue reading' link in order to see what these leading indicators are and how you can benefit from using them.