DSM Weekly Search Marketing Digest – 24/01/14

Apologies for the lack of industry digest last week. To make up for it, we have a bumper list of great links this week, covering all that is new and inspiring in the world of search marketing – from analytics to content writing, from Adwords management to industry current affairs, dive in and be inspired!

• And in case the lessons of Penguin are not deep in our hearts, Search Engine Watch had an excellent study here:
  • http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2323727/Dissecting-Google-Penguin-2.1-What-Factors-Mattered-Study
• And if it’s inspiration you want, Seth Godin has some great words on authority here:
  • http://www.copyblogger.com/striving-for-authority

 

• And banging the drum for improved outreach – how you find (and engage) appropriate and relevant partners on the internet – could not be more relevant.  Here’s some thoughts from back in August 2013 that continue to make complete sense.  Be real, be honest and be an authority…
  • http://www.seerinteractive.com/blog/seo-guide-to-outreach

 

• We’ve defended Google+ before (and not just for SEO reasons – it is actually a really good social network, if your audience is there) but above all else, the reality is that it’s not going anywhere.  Here are some articles that echo our thoughts and why we’re not changing our minds:

 

• We haven’t got down and dirty with some Adwords analysis yet so here’s some excellent, in-depth analysis on location-based paid search (and bid adjustments):
  • http://www.lunametrics.com/blog/2014/01/13/started-adwords-location-based-bid-adjustments

 

• …and more generically, a really cool infographic on giving your PPC a new year health check:
  • http://searchengineland.com/start-the-new-year-with-a-ppc-health-check-part-1-179471

 

• Great warnings on how to keep your SEO on track when you’re involved in a site redesign.
  • http://econsultancy.com/blog/64125-three-things-seos-need-to-know-to-prevent-site-redesign-disaster

 

• Love this glossary of “winning at SEO”
  • http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/post-hummingbird-search-glossary-seo-list

 

• The Moz looks at link-building from 20000 feet:
  • http://moz.com/blog/31-link-building-tactics-discovered-from-competitive-analysis

 

• As we alluded to earlier, Matt Cutts took aim at guest blogging earlier in the week…
  • http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/guest-blogging/

…though he did update his remarks to add context – context that, in the main, brings us back to square one – that is, stay focused on high quality relevant sites and being valuable.  Here’s SearchEngineLand running the rule over Matt’s post….

• • http://searchengineland.com/matt-cutts-stick-a-fork-in-it-guest-blogging-is-done-182147
  • http://searchengineland.com/seo-bloggers-say-keep-writing-quality-content-reactions-to-matt-cutts-claim-guest-blogging-is-dead-182199

 

• Matt Cutts also weighed in on the fact that Facebook and Twitter social signals are not incorporated into their algorithm.  Worth noting that he does acknowledge that this will probably change (and, of course, there’s still Google+)
  • http://searchengineland.com/googles-matt-cutts-facebook-twitter-pages-are-treated-like-any-other-web-page-on-the-internet-182370

 

• An interesting look at “the fold” – whether it still exists in any meaningful sense and how we need to look at page design and formatting now:
  • http://moz.com/blog/life-above-and-beyond-the-fold

 

• Conversion Rate Optimisation was definitely high on our client discussions this year. Here are a couple of articles that bring conversion back to the fore of marketing discussions:
  • http://econsultancy.com/blog/64175-was-2013-the-year-of-conversion-optimization
  • http://mashable.com/2014/01/20/online-retail-sales/

 

• And, lastly, we’ve been practising these all week in the office and still not managed to convince anyone that we’re intellectuals…!
  • http://www.wired.com/design/2014/01/use-hand-gestures-look-like-real-intellectual