Search Week in Review for Feb. 19, 2011

Industry 19 Feb 11 |

Here’s a recap of this week’s columns and news stories for the week of Feb. 13 to 19, as reported by Search Engine Watch, as well as search news and tips from around the web.

Search Engine Optimization

10 Types of Helpful SEO Content by Mark Jackson
Forget algorithms. The biggest influence on search rankings is content. Content in all of its forms is what will drive you to success.

Why SEOs Shouldn’t Fixate on Keyword Rankings by Rob Chant
Focusing only on where you rank for a small group of keywords is a bad investment for many reasons. Some tips on how to diversify your efforts.

SEO and PPC: A Love-Hate Relationship by Gareth Owen
Three big trends are changing how we attribute value in SEO. We are increasingly turning to tactics that were previously considered to be the realm of paid search professionals to meet client expectations.

Tapping Internet Resources for SEO and Beyond by Gary-Adam Shannon
An example of how you can use Internet resources to outsource the work you don’t want to be doing when it comes to SEO or practically anything.

Google Finally Admits Toolbar Data is a Ranking Signal by Danny Goodwin
Many SEOs have long believed that Google uses data it collects from the Google Toolbar to influence search results. Now Google has finally confirmed it.

Bruce Clay Re-Builds SEO Toolset To Create Fastest Ever Rank Checker by Jonathan Allen
Bruce Clay has fundamentally re-written every one of his well known SEO Tools. Starting from scratch the entire codebase has been re-built in .Net and Python and, where appropriate, is using Amazon’s EC2 cloud.

Search Advertising

PPC vs. SEO: Paid Search as Your Organic Competitor by Alex Cohen
The balance between paid and organic results in the SERPs in shifting. Paid listings may increasingly get more clicks at the expense of organic listings.

Rekindle the Romance With Your PPC Campaigns by Jeremy Hull
Like relationships, paid search campaigns are complex, dynamic, unpredictable, full of ups and downs, and require a lot of work. Show your PPC campaigns a little extra love starting this Valentine’s Day by following these tips.

Automate Your AdWords Management with Automated Rules, Part 2 by Joseph Kerschbaum
A walkthrough of the numerous requirements/criteria that you can use when setting up automated rules. Also, a review of the rules you can use at other levels of your account: ad group, keyword, and ad variation.

Google AdWords Opens Automated Rules For Ads To All Users by Frank Watson
Late last year, Google launched a beta test of “Automated Rules” for Adwords – “that lets you save time by scheduling automatic changes to your account based on criteria that you specify,” the AdWords Blog announced.

Bing Allowing Trademarked Terms In PPC Now Google Did Legal Heavy Work? by Frank Watson
Bing and Yahoo will allow advertisers to use trademarked terms in their PPC keywords starting next month, according to paidContent, suggesting they allowed Google to fight the legal battles before adding the option to their service.

Analytics & ROI

Social Media Marketing

Social PR: 10 Ways to Do PR Better with Social Media by Lisa Buyer
Optimizing and blending your online public relations strategy with social media and SEO has never had so many robust options. Here are 10 ways a business can capitalize on the social PR opportunity.

Do You Know Pop Culture? Ashton Kutcher Is Hiring VP To Cover Events by Frank Watson
Popchips and Ashton Kutcher are hiring a VP of Pop Culture “to report on-location from the hottest pop culture events, helping discover what’s popping, and weighing in on all the important issues,” the job description details.

Link Building

Online PR and Getting Links From Major Media: 6 Examples by Ken McGaffin
Getting editorial links from major media websites is one of the big bonuses of doing effective online public relations — a tactic every serious link builder should consider.

Making Link Building More Rewarding by Justilien Gaspard
Some ways to make the work of link marketing more rewarding, and get some links at the same time.

Local & Mobile Search

Google Android Music Store Closer to a Reality by Thom Craver
A Google music service has been rumored and reported on for a while now. Those speculations have been surfacing more and more in recent weeks.

SMB Search Marketing

Enterprise SEM

Ways to Improve Brand Awareness by Building Links by Steve Beatty
These strategies make use your internal assets to simultaneously build links and brand awareness, improve your company’s SEO visibility, and help you achieve your goals.

SEO Training for Large Organizations — Executives Matter by Chris Boggs
Leadership must understand the who, why, and how of search engine optimization measurement. Start building relationships and turning executives into high-powered SEO champions and evangelists.

SEM Agency Issues

9 Ways to Work with Your Client’s PR Agency by Nichola Stott
It’s the job of SEO and public relations agencies to deliver content and grow a relevant audience. While objectives and success metrics may differ, there is often (and more increasingly) a great deal of overlap in method.

International Search

Social Media Around the World: Current Trends and Future Growth by Michael Bonfils
A look around the globe reveals a diverse social media marketplace and plenty of opportunities for marketers.

Google Scores With 2011 Cricket World Cup Doodle by Danny Goodwin
In celebration of the first match in the Cricket World Cup, Google has posted a special cricket Doodle on Google India.

Ernest Shackleton, Antartic Explorer Honored With Google Doodle In UK by Frank Watson
Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton was born on 15 February 1874 and died on 5 January 1922. He was famous for his exploration of the Antartic and at one time had gone the furthest into the South Pole region. The Google Doodle today honors those efforts which ultimately took his life.

Guillermo González Camarena Inventor Of Color TV Gets Google Doodle by Frank Watson
Guillermo González Camarena invented the color TV and he was born in Mexico February 17, 1917 and Google Mexico has a Doodle to honor his work. Color TV was a major social change worldwide – so it gives cause to wonder why it was just a change to the Mexico logo.

The Search Industry

Valentine’s Day 2011: Search Engines Feelin’ the Love by Danny Goodwin
Google’s Robert Indiana Doodle wasn’t the only special logo or Valentine’s Day treat put out by the search engines. Bing, Yahoo, Ask, DuckDuckGo, and even Wolfram|Alpha are also feeling the love in their own ways today.

Does Everyone Search Valentine Info On Day? Or Do They Use Other Terms? by Frank Watson
Over the past week I have been looking at the various search suggestions being made as I type in Valentine – seems we may not use the holiday name itself when doing shopping or looking for places to take that special someone.

Single On Valentine’s Day? Maybe Your Gadget Is to Blame by Thom Craver
Geeks like their toys. Apple has certainly sold the public on the cool factor of owning an iPhone or an iPad. But is geek really chic? According to a recent Retrevo Gadgetology study, not necessarily.

Top Ten Things Not To Do On Valentine’s Day by Frank Watson
Okay you no doubt have had all sorts of suggestions on things to do for Valentine’s Day – buy roses and chocolates and make dinner reservations, but there needs to be a list of things not to do – that can offer some advise to both people in a relationship or not.

Infographic: Answers.com Ask What Should You Get your Girlfriend for Valentine’s Day? by Jonathan Allen
Answers.com have created an infographic for their blog illustrating the current fad for Q&A sites.

Google News

Google Integrates Social Into Search Results by Thom Craver
Starting today, you will be seeing what Google calls “social search results” interspersed throughout the traditional Google search results, based on Google’s idea of relevance. If you are connected to people on Blogger, Twitter, flickr and similar publicly available sites, Google will be letting you know who shared or published the information contained in the content returned in the SERP.

Google Outsourcing Spam Checking To You, Could Be Abused by Frank Watson
Google announced today that they have added a new extension to their Chrome browser that allows you to block sites from their search results. And “the extension also sends blocked site information to Google, and we will study the resulting feedback and explore using it as a potential ranking signal for our search results,” their Official Blog reported.

Texas AG Wants Google’s Formula for AdWords Rates, Ranking Sites by Danny Goodwin
The Texas attorney general leading an antitrust investigation of Google wants to know how Google determines the prices for its AdWords paid search advertising program and how sites are ranked in Google’s search results.

Google Announces One Pass Subscription Service, Rivals Apple by Thom Craver
Google announced a new subscription payment service today called One Pass. Google One Pass is toting itself as a “purchase-once, view-anywhere” service, enabling users to view subscription based e-content on any device.

Constantin Brancusi 135th Birthday Google Doodle by Thom Craver
Constantin Brancusi was a sculptor who worked in bronze, marble, wood and stone. In his 81 years, his works include some 215 sculptures and over 1,000 photographs. Today Google marks his 135th birthday with this Doodle.

Google Gets Painter Robert Indiana To Do Valentine’s Day Doodle by Frank Watson
If the Google Doodle looks familiar, it was done by artist Robert Indiana who did the popular Love painting.

Glenn Beck Attacks Google As Government Shills by Frank Watson
“Is anyone willing to do their own homework? Cause the media is not going to,” Fox News Commentator Glenn Beck asked Monday – and as a member of the media – he quickly showed he had not done his, claiming Google was “deeply in bed with the Federal government.”

Google Tracking Health Searches For Disease Mapping by Frank Watson
The BBC reported that Google tracks people’s searches for disease information and is mapping them to find trends. While this may work as a way to gather insights in to where diseases are occurring, there is a big question on the privacy issues involved.

Celebrate President’s Day With Google Earth by Thom Craver
Google has created an interactive set of animations they’re calling the U.S. Presidents Showcase that uses Google Earth to help celebrate President’s Day.

Google Adds Republican Lobbyist by Danny Goodwin
With a greater number of Republicans on Capitol Hill, Google is looking to add GOP members to its lobbying ranks.

2 Books Promising Inside View of Google Due Out This Year by Danny Goodwin
Two books scheduled for release in the coming months are promising to give us a glimpse inside Google — one from the perspective of a journalist and the other from a former employee.

Bing News

New Bing Toolbar Adds Facebook Connection, Limited To IE Browsers by Frank Watson
Google may have had an edge in the search engine toolbar application, but the launch of Bing’s new toolbar with its Facebook connection may be offering Google some serious competition, though limiting access to the Internet Explorer browser may hurt its adoption.

Yahoo News

Blekko News

Blekko & Stack Overflow Team Up; Is The Future Celebrity Endorsed Search Indexes? by Jonathan Allen
Search engine upstart, Blekko, continuing it’s quest to form an alliance against spam has partnered with Stack Overflow, “a programming Q&A site built by programmers for programmers”.

Video Marketing

How Do You Encourage People To Share Your YouTube Videos on Facebook, Twitter and Blogs? by Greg Jarboe
In addition to telling a story that is worth retelling, here’s how you can take advantage of YouTube features that enable viewers to share videos via social media and also spread the word to influential bloggers.

SES Conference & Expo

12 Bloggers Already Blogging About SES London 2011 by Greg Jarboe
Normally, events like SES London 2011 generate a great deal of buzz during the conference. But a dozen bloggers are already blogging about the leading search and social marketing event, which doesn’t get underway until next week.

Search Week in Review 2011 Archives

Feb. 12 | Feb. 5
Jan. 29 | Jan. 22 | Jan. 15 | Jan. 8

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