The Week in Review

Google+ Pages Aren’t Like Facebook’s Pages

Google+ is fundamentally different from Facebook, despite the similar layouts. Brands should understand the key differences between building Pages for Google+ and Facebook, including the different ways people use both social networks, the SEO implications and the media implications. Google+ also isn’t allowing contests or promotions on its Pages. (AdAge.com, TechCrunch)

Online Lead Generation: Faster Growth and More Profitability

According to a study from Hinge Marketing, professional service companies that generate a large portion of business leads online grow faster and more profitably than companies without online lead generation. (MarketingProfs)

Pinterest: The Next Big Place to Get Links and Social Mentions?

Link building remains the most tedious aspect of being an SEO. Pinterest, "a virtual pinboard where you can tag and organize images from across the Internet into category-specific groups," might change that. There’s evidence that a link from Pinterest’s root domain carries heavy SEO value. (Search Engine Land)

4 Visual Illustrations of On-Page SEO

Many SEO pros still make basic mistakes when it comes to on-page optimization. Here are four graphics to help clarify things: 1) the value of optimization and the danger of overdoing it; 2) on-page SEO is more than keywords; 3) how search engines can measure a page’s value; and 4) consolidation vs. multipage targeting. (SEOmoz)

SEO 101: Beginner’s Guides and Tutorials

This mega-roundup offers a mother lode of basic SEO information. From SEO for bloggers, to keyword competition research, to personalization and search engine rankings, this post has you covered. (Search Engine Journal)

Google Freshness Update: Winners and Losers

According to some research from Searchmetrics, Google’s recent "freshness" update yielded many winners and few losers. "Google prefers sites like news sites, broadcast sites, video portals and a lot Brand sites. This is also a type of sites which have regularly fresh content and a big brand with higher CTRs." (Searchmetrics)

The Digital Ad Alliance: Up to $1 Million Per Month in Fees

The three companies that form the Digital Ad Alliance, the coalition that places those self-regulatory icons on online ads, could be raking in somewhere between $500,000 and $1 million each month from icon-serving and compliance fees. (ClickZ)

Holiday PPC Keyword Research Checklist

Here are seven items that should be on your holiday PPC keyword research checklist: 1) a list of all the holidays people will be shopping for; 2) a list of all possible gift recipients; 3) a list of all your products; 4) a list of possible holiday promotions; 5) keyword research tools; 6) put your lists together; and 7) brainstorm some negative keywords. (PPC Hero)

Adobe Launches ‘Project Adthenticate’

Adobe launched a "Project Adthenticate," a hosted service for online ad testing available to publishers, rich-media vendors and creative agencies. It aims to help these parties test, validate and optimize ads based on the IAB’s 2011 Rich Media Creative Guidelines. (TechCrunch)

Google+ Pages Now Open for Businesses, Brands, Places and More

Google has finally opened the doors of Google+ to businesses, brands, places and any non-human entity through its Pages feature. There’s a lot going on here. (Search Engine Land)

15% of People in the U.S. Will Hit Retail Websites via Mobile This Holiday Season

According to IBM, “an unprecedented” 15 percent of people in the U.S. will log into a retailer’s website with a mobile device this holiday season. The iPad will play a significant role in mobile purchase behavior. (Search Engine Land)

Google’s Guide to Cloaking

According to Google, “cloaking refers to the practice of presenting different content or URLs to users and search engines. Serving up different results based on user agent may cause your site to be perceived as deceptive and removed from the Google index.” In a video, Matt Cutts discusses some of the problems on both sides of the cloaking issue. He seems to imply that Google will lean toward purity and punish sites not following their directions. (Search Engine Watch)

7 Content Marketing Tactics for Higher Rankings in Google’s New Fresh Results

How can you leverage Google’s new “Freshness Update”? Here are seven tips: 1) get into Google News, 2) use proper time stamps, 3) blog, 4) add forums, 5) add your own social network and 7) add your own social news section. (Marketing Pilgrim)

Will Google’s Update Impact Paid Search?
While Google hasn’t specifically addressed the potential impact its “fresher” algorithmic update may have on paid search, the company’s trend has been toward narrowing the gap between organic and PPC. This hints at some kind of consequence in the future. (PPC Hero)

Key SEO Questions for Better Content Marketing

Internet marketers should ask themselves some essential questions for every content object they create. For example: What is this article’s key message and how does it relate to the brand? What target search keywords is this content focused on? What promotion channels will be used to automate distribution? “In the context of content marketing, an ‘optimized’ approach is holistic and adaptable at making content easy to discover by the right audience, meaningful to consume and motivating to engage and act on.” (TopRank)

5 Tricks to Boost CTR and Conversions for Facebook Ads

Here are five creative tricks to help increase CTR and conversions for Facebook ads: 1) plain text on a white background; 2) brainstorms from Google Image Search; 3) relevant, familiar faces; 4) images synonymous with the problem you’re solving; and 5) goofy and attention-grabbing images. (Search Engine Watch)

Google Unveils New Ad Placements Below Search Results

Starting Wednesday, Google began showing ads that were previously shown to the side of search results below the results. “In many cases, we have found that displaying ads below search results fits better into the user’s flow as they scan the page from top to bottom,” noted Jerry Dischler, director of search ads product management at Google in a blog post. “On average, this placement performed better than side ads in terms of click-through rate in our tests.” (Inside AdWords)

Google’s New Search Algorithm to Make Results ‘Fresher’

Google recently announced the rollout of a new search algorithm that helps make search results “fresher.” The results will change for about 35 percent of all searches. While Caffeine was about infrastructure, this update is algorithmic. This opens the door “freshness” spam. Also, Google will still lack the “Twitter fire hose.” (Search Engine Land)

The 4 Components to Selling With Social Media

In order to improve ROI, marketing and campaigns on social must include four elements: attraction, retention, conversion and measurement. (Social Media Examiner)

Microsoft adCenter Introduces an Import Campaigns Feature

Microsoft unveiled the beta version of Import Campaign, a feature that enables advertisers to migrate (or port) their search campaign data from Google AdWords directly into adCenter. (adCenter Blog)

AOL: Third-Quarter Revenue Declines, Mentions New Social Ad Format

AOL reported that its third-quarter revenue was down 6 percent to $531.7 million, swinging to a net loss. However, its global advertising grew 8 percent. The company’s chairman and CEO mentioned that AOL will be introducing a new social ad format soon. (TechCrunch, AllThingsD)

What SEOs Can Learn From Savvy Affiliates

The U.K. affiliate scene is thriving, innovating, evolving and adding value to the Web. SEOs can learn a lot from affiliate businesses – they should optimize sites in a future-proof way, working with clients to ensure the site’s content is original and valuable. (Search Engine Watch)

Should Facebook Host Your Landing Page?

The latest trend in print ads and TV commercials is to drive customers to a landing page on Facebook instead of the brand’s own website or microsite. Is this a good idea for marketers? While there’s no clear-cut answer that fits everyone, there are pros and cons to consider. (MarketingExperiments Blog)

Advanced Google Analytics: Tips and Tricks

Though Google Analytics affects every search engine marketer, not everyone knows how to truly take advantage of the tool. Here are some advanced tips and tricks, including advanced segments, multiple-goal conversion tracking and cross-domain tracking. (SEOmoz)

SEO Beats PPC and Social Media for Generating Leads

According to the “2011 State of Digital Marketing Report” from Webmarketing123, SEO is the best source of leads for both B2C and B2B marketers, beating out PPC and social media marketing. (Search Engine Land)