The Week in Review

Does #Hashtag Marketing Actually Work?

It seems like everyone’s trying to use hashtags to get something trending on Twitter. But does it work? For starters, marketers should stop focusing on getting something trending. There are some cases where hashtags work well — conferences, for example. The problem is that there’s too much noise. (Simply Zesty)

Breaking Down Google’s $38 Billion in 2011 Revenues

Google generated $37.9 billion in revenues in 2011. The top five industries that spent the most money on Google advertising last year were finance and insurance, retailers and general merchandise, travel and tourism, jobs and education, and home and garden. (WordStream)

Impacts of Facebook Actions on SEO

The top three impacts of Facebook Actions on SEO can be summarized as: 1) consumers declare their intentions, 2) provides an immediate route and 3) graphic. “Facebook has done a nice job in creating a more in-depth user experience while at the same time, benefiting SEO firms by making Facebook Actions make sense for SEO.” (Search Engine Journal)

43 Questions and Answers About Search, Social, Content, Conversions and More

Rand Fishkin tweeted out a request for questions about search, social, content, conversion or analytics. He received an overwhelming response. Among the 43 questions answered here are five things to do to improve conversions through outreach. (SEOmoz)

26 Tips for Writing Great Blog Posts

Here are 26 tips, from A-Z, for creating optimal blog posts. The list runs from “Anatomically Correct” to “Metrics for Blogging” to “Zone for Writing.” (Social Media Examiner)

Help People Find You on Facebook Using Keywords

“Social media search is slowly evolving into a search service.” Companies who want to get to the top of a social media search page must use the right keywords. Finding the right keywords entails thinking of lay terms, considering desired association, checking the competition, SEO keyword research and preparing for different social media sites. (AllFacebook)

Facebook Ads Worth People’s Attention

Here are four elements that make Facebook ads worthy of people’s attention: 1) visually prominent colors, 2) humor, 3) unusual photos and 4) story appeal with added interest for your target market. (Search Engine Watch)

The 4 Pillars of Content Marketing

To maximize the effectiveness of content marketing, marketing plans must be developed around the four pillars of context, channels, connections and commerce. “By integrating the four pillars of content into your overall marketing, you can attract prospects to your offering, build a relationship with them, and persuade them to purchase.” (ClickZ)

Google’s 2012 Mobile Revenues: $4 Billion or $6 Billion

Recent comments from Google have financial analysts aggressively forecasting Google’s mobile ad revenues in 2012. One analyst estimates Google will make $5.8 billion in mobile ad revenue this year. (Search Engine Land)

Reputation vs. SEO

Solid SEO takes time to kick in and solidify. Blogging, speaking at conferences, and being interviewed or interviewing someone else are good ways to build up a brand’s online reputation while waiting for SEO benefits to enter the picture. (Marketing Pilgrim)

The Top 5 KPIs for SEO Campaigns

There are many ways to measure an SEO project’s performance, but which are the most important? The five key performance indicators (KPIs) to observe are: 1) keyword ranks, 2) traffic volume, 3) non-brand organic traffic volume, 4) ROI and 5) brand exposure. (Econsultancy)

Time Management for SEO

Here are some time-management tips for SEOs. They cover time planning, email, email categories/labels, to-do lists and time sheeting. (SEOptimise)

AdWords Graphs

The AdWords Graphs feature is a valuable tool to “sort through and visualize large data sets at many levels of granularity and at several different periods of time.” Here’s a look at some of the helpful settings in the feature, including year-over-year CPL performance and year-over-year cost performance. (PPC Hero)

Pages With Too Many Ads Above the Fold Are Punished by Google’s Algorithm

Google’s new “page layout algorithm” penalizes pages where content is buried underneath ads that lie above the fold. Some of the main points of discussion are that this will impact less than 1 percent of Google searches, fixing ads on your pages doesn’t immediately fix the problem, and pages that are ad-heavy but not top-heavy with ads may escape this wrath. (Search Engine Land)

How the Landscape of Affiliate Marketing Has Changed

Affiliate marketers have noticed a few major changes in the past couple years. Google Panda, for example, has killed low-level affiliates – but that has opened a door for high-quality sites. “The biggest thing to do is follow laws developing throughout the world.” (1stwebdesigner)

Goals to Keep in Mind During Email Marketing Conference Season

With email marketing conference season upon us, it’s important to hold onto some goals and not get swept away by the madness of it all. Here are four you should keep in mind: 1) measuring attribution for the email channel, 2) channel integration with the email channel, 3) the valuation of email to the organization and 4) quality vs. quantity. (MediaPost)

U.S. Online Ad Spending: $39.5 Billion in 2012

According to eMarketer’s estimates, online ad spending in the U.S. will reach $39.5 billion in 2012, up from $32.0 billion in 2011. By 2016, this figure is expected to grow to $62.0 billion. (eMarketer)

24 SEO Experts Discuss Links vs. Tweets

Tweets have changed the world of linking and sharing. Here are 24 SEOs discussing various topics related to this revolution, including the impact of links on rankings, and the desirability of a link from an authoritative blog or a tweet from an authoritative figure. (Point Blank SEO)

Why Search Marketers Must Use AdWords Ad Extensions

“The overall benefit of using Ad Extensions is the direct impact on CTR from displaying the right message, product, address, or phone number, in addition to your original text ad.” Here’s an overview of sitelinks, location extensions, product extensions and click-to-call. (Search Engine Watch)

Search Rankings Are Dead

Here’s a bold declaration for 2012: search ranking reports don’t matter anymore because there’s no such thing as consistent Google rankings. “As search engines incorporate social media factors and collective intelligence more deeply into their ranking algorithms, awareness and understanding of different conversations becomes just as important as who is linking to whom.” (Search Engine Land)

Marketers Thank Jerry Yang

Yahoo co-founder and former CEO Jerry Yang resigned from the company’s board. Marketers had some nice things to say on Twitter. (ClickZ)

31% of Display Ads Not Seen by Consumers

According to comScore’s study of 1.7 billion ad impressions, 69 percent of display ad impressions were classified as being “in-view,” while 31 percent were delivered but unseen by a consumer, “a likely result of a consumer scrolling past the ad before it loaded or a consumer never scrolling the ad into view.” (comScore)

How to Split-Test Your Facebook Ads to Boost Conversions

Conjuring up a successful Facebook advertising strategy requires testing, which is a bit of an intimidating proposition. Among the six split-testing tips for Facebook ads are to keep similar ad conditions, watch the reports and rotate your ads often. (HubSpot)

Chartboost Expands to Asia
Chartboost is a direct-deals mobile ad marketplace for game developers. A month after expanding to Android, the company is taking itself to Asia. Chartboost enables game publishers to do direct deals with each other. (TechCrunch)

Unified: All-in-One Social Ad Platform

Unified announced its Social Operating Platform to help brands manage paid media campaigns across social sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn. (Inside Facebook)