The Week in Review

The 3-5-7 Rule for Email Marketing

The 3-5-7 rule of thumb for email marketers is something they should live by as they plan, test and review their campaigns. It stands for: 3 is the number of seconds you have to get someone’s attention; 5 is the number of seconds you have to draw them in after getting their attention; 7 is the critical number of seconds you have after getting someone’s attention and drawing them in. (Smart Insights)

Google Unveils ‘Why These Ads’ Initiative

In a move to bring transparency to its ad targeting, Google introduced "Why these ads." When you click on the link for "Why these ads," "you’ll find information about why you’re seeing a particular ad and how it’s personalized for you," according to Google. The company also introduced "Ads preferences manager." (The Next Web, Official Google Blog)

Yahoo Buys Interclick for $270 Million

Yahoo is buying ad network Interclick for $270 million in an all-cash deal. Interclick will be used by Yahoo to sell more of its remnant ad inventory that it currently hands over to ad networks. (AllThingsD)

4 Ways to Make the Most of Your SEO Conference

When attending your next SEO conference, consider these four things: 1) Why are you attending an SEO conference? 2) ask questions, 3) mingle and 4) commit to actionable steps. (Search Engine Journal)

7 Tips for Creating Converting PPC Landing Pages

Here are seven conversion-optimization tips from the Conversion Conference in New York: 1) include privacy lines, 2) use short forms, 3) use relevant product images, 4) incorporate benefits into various page elements, 5) test your copy above forms, 6) try dual-colored call-to-action buttons and 7) test bigger buttons. (Search Engine Land)

Writing for SEO Copywriting vs. Social Media

Social media and SEO are becoming more related, so your writing techniques should reflect the shift toward a hybrid "social-SEO" writing strategy. "Creating readable, engaging, shareable — and searchable — content should be your goal when writing for both search engines and social media." (Search Engine People)

IndboundWriter WordPress Plug-in

InboundWriter recently released a WordPress plug-in that makes the process of writing and optimizing more seamless. Basically, the plug-in gives your document a score based on optimization best practices. It also gives you suggestions while you’re writing. (Search Engine Watch)

5 Common SEO Myths Explained

SEO is shrouded in myths and misconceptions that can sometimes be hard to confirm or debunk. Here’s a look at five of the more common ones, including the notions that having more reciprocal links on your site gives it a better ranking, you need to manually submit your site to search engines and cramming your site with keywords leads to a higher ranking. (SiteProNews)

Email Marketers and Replying

Email marketers, much to their disbelief, should encourage reply behavior, not dissuade it. Three things email marketers should consider when pondering the encouragement of replies to their messages are: start small, think big; set expectations accordingly; and validate and monetize the responses. (MediaPost)

How to Slay 5 Social Media Monsters

It’s time to shine some light on fears that hold marketers back from diving into social media. Among the five steps toward taking the scare out of social media marketing monsters are to accept that consumers own your brand based on their perceptions, create and distribute content for free when and where customers need it, and pay an employee to handle social media marketing. (ClickZ)

What You Should Know About the New LinkedIn Lead-Tracking System

Lead Collection is a new feature released for LinkedIn advertisers. In simple terms, it’s a lead tracker. LinkedIn uses a “lead collection bar,” which appears at the top of the landing page asking if the visitor would like to be followed up with via LinkedIn. This bar might help capture people who are on the fence when it comes to converting. (Search Engine Watch)

Eye-Tracking and SEO: Fad, Fact or Fiction?

High-quality usability tests on search engine results pages are interesting, but there are some studies that aren’t conducted properly. Among the things to look out for when hiring a usability firm to conduct eye-tracking tests on search interfaces are the characteristics of test participants, quantity of test participants and scenarios. (Search Engine Land)

PPC Copywriting Tips You Can Use in Your SEO Copy

Often what works for PPC works for SEO and vice versa, to a certain degree. Here are five tips borrowed from the realm of PPC that can improve your SEO copywriting: 1) experiment with exclamation points, 2) use data and evidence, 3) try virtual dynamic keyword insertion, 4) test like a PPC-er, and 5) don’t waste space. (Search Engine Journal)

3 Google Analytics Metrics Beginners Should Monitor

If you’re new to Google Analytics, start by looking at these three metrics: visitors, sources and landing pages. For some, conversions can be added to this list. “Ultimately, you know your business best. What works for you might not work for your competitors, or your business goals just might be different. Starting out somewhere is the key.” (Search Engine Land)

The Ultimate Keyword Sorting and Organization Spreadsheet

Keyword research requires more than just research – it requires the ability to organize and sort keywords into groups that will enable you to optimize them most effectively into your site. Here’s a walkthrough of the organization side of keyword research, with the help of a downloadable, customized keyword research spreadsheet. (Search Engine Guide)

What You Should Know About Google AdWords Dynamic Search Ads

So what exactly are Google AdWords dynamic search ads? In simple terms, they present a new opportunity to target prospects without using keywords. Smaller advertisers might want to consider this, as well as midsized to large advertisers looking for a new angle for keyword expansion. However, there are a few pitfalls to bear in mind. (WordStream)

MoPub: Real-Time Mobile Ad Bidding

MoPub is the mobile advertising startup founded by former AdMob and Google employees. The company has launched MoPub Marketplace, which will act as a virtual trading floor for mobile ads, enabling app publishers to connect with ad buyers in real time. (TechCrunch)

Psychology and SEO

SEO plans are not purely technical. “When SEO consulting is grounded in psychology and strategy, the entire method has more punch when it reaches the stage of coding and content structuring. It can harness synergies with marketing ventures like social media, press releases, public relations and more.” (Search Engine Land)

10 Reasons Why Your Link Requests Are Failing

If you’re not getting a response from your link requests, here are 10 potential reasons why. For example, maybe your request is getting stuck in spam filters. To avoid this, avoid words like “money” or “act now.” (Wordtracker)

8 Best Ways to Find Negative PPC Keywords

If your ads display on irrelevant searches, part of the solution is choosing keywords carefully. For the best performance possible, you need negative keywords to target your traffic properly. Among the eight ways to do this are search query reports, using someone else’s list, competitor research, and misspellings and typing mistakes. (SEOptimise)

The 10 Commandments of Link Building

"Effective link building is an art, and whoever tells you different either doesn’t know better or is trying to sell you something." Among the 10 commandments of link building are: "Thou shalt not blog comment spam," "Thou shalt not create thousands of forum profiles" and "Thou shalt not email spam for reciprocal links." (John Chow)

Should SEOs Prepare for Google’s End to the Natural Algorithm?

Leaving user intent aside, "Google has consistently taken steps to devalue the natural search results." So is the search engine planning on killing the natural algorithm? The removal of the referrer string, the relegation of most natural results below the fold and the prospect of an entirely paid model all seem to point that way. "To people in the search industry, this might be a big problem, an admission that they can’t actually create an algorithm clever enough to determine user intent and therefore, are willing to let big companies pay their way to the top of all listings, but at the moment all the evidence suggests that is exactly what they are going to do." (Search Engine Watch)

Google Tools for Keyword Research

Here’s a step-by-step rundown of how to use Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics for keyword research for SEO. Identifying which keywords aren’t sending traffic but are getting your site seen; identifying which keywords are sending traffic to your site; and researching the market to identify relevant trending keyword combinations are part of this six-step process. (Smart Insights Digital Marketing)

The Life Cycle of a Web page on StumbleUpon

This infographic from StumbleUpon describes the life cycle of a Web page on its site, including how long one can expect the average Web page to keep getting visitors. Among the tidbits of information is that the half life of a link ("the point in time when a link has garnered half of the engagement it will ever get") shared on StumbleUpon is 400 hours, which dwarfs the 3.2 hours on Facebook and 2.8 hours on Twitter. (StumbleUpon)

5 Tips to Boost Your Online Sales During This Holiday Season

About a quarter of total yearly sales online is generated during November and December. Testing new ideas and tactics even during the holiday season is important. This post includes five tips for testing and experimentation this holiday season: mobile website/app, split test a holiday-themed website, A/B test different offers, change default call-to-actions, and segment and personalize. (Search Engine Land)