The Week in Review

Tips for Creating SEO-Friendly Content

The first principle is to strike a balance between SEO-friendly content and readability. Once you keep that in mind, select keywords carefully, place keywords in appropriate places, be an expert on your topic, make use of free tools, write for your audience, make good use of links, make the content readable and use only white-hat SEO. (Blog@PixelCrayons)

7 Things to Do During the Weekend/Holidays to Help Your SEO

If you have a few minutes or hours over a weekend or the holidays, try doing these seven things: 1) double-check your sitemaps, 2) reclaim link strength, 3) find new head terms you want to rank for, 4) create a video sitemap, 5) write a blog post that will appeal to a different audience, 6) mine your mailing list, and 7) impress the linkerati. (distilled)

Managing Conversion-Rate Optimization

Conversion-rate optimization is a no-brainer, but the jargon and complexities of analytics appear to get in the way of understanding how to improve conversion rates. This six-step process should simplify things: 1) analyze, 2) talk, 3) plan, 4) design, 5) test and 6) market. (Smart Insights Digital Marketing)

Google Instant Doesn’t Really Affect Search Behavior

According to the a Google search eye-tracking test from Rosetta, search marketers’ SEO and PPC strategies aren’t impacted by Google Instant. The test also found that the Preview Pane feature increases the importance of post-click experience, while the Autocomplete feature is popular among searchers. (Rosetta)

The 5 Biggest Mistakes With PPC Campaigns

Here’s a checklist of five mistakes to ensure your firm isn’t making with PPC campaigns: 1) not properly managing negative keywords, 2) not running ads on your brand name, 3) not creating highly targeted landing pages for your ad groups, 4) not separating your search and content PPC campaigns, and 5) not testing for continuous improvement. (Daily SEO Tip)

The Evolution of Search

Google offers a brief history of the evolution of search in a six-minute video, which highlights some of the most important milestones of the past decade and a glimpse of what’s coming next. Also included is a timeline of search features. (Inside Search)

SEO Link-Building Secrets With Tumblr

After creating a Tumblr account (ideally with a keyword as your username), find Tumblr links of credible PageRanks, “like” them and repost them on your Tumblr blog. Repeating this process will bring your blog lots of backlinks, which is the main cog in building links with Tumblr. (Darren Spruyt)

Link Building and SEO With Pinterest

Pinterest is all the rage these days for SEOs. Here’s a quick primer on what Pinterest links look like, along with getting links via link reclamation. “Ultimately, I think Pinterest has as much content marketing potential as Tumblr for its community and ease of sharing.” (Search Engine Journal)

Can the Online Ad Industry Be Trusted to Regulate Itself?

Internet advertisers are attempting to persuade federal privacy regulators that they can police themselves with their own industry guidelines. Regardless, consumers are still uneasy about the volume of data they reveal to third parties. “Sooner or later, Americans will have to make a choice about whether they are comfortable with the convenience and economic benefits of the existing online ad model or if they want to contemplate European-style legislation that bars companies from collecting information altogether.” (paidContent)

Justin Bieber Dominated Searches on Bing in 2011

According to Bing, Justin Bieber was the most searched person on Bing in 2011, taking Kim Kardashian’s honor in 2010. Among the other winners on Bing’s list were “American Idol” (the most searched reality TV show), “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol” (the most searched movie) and “Royal Wedding” (the most searched celebrity event). (Bing)

Google Analytics Real-Time Reporting: A Game Changer?

Google recently unveiled its Real-Time tracking, which is in beta mode. The biggest feature is the measurement of social media impact. Still, this shouldn’t take anything away from traditional analytics. (Search Engine People)

Transitioning Away From Affiliate Marketing

Traditional affiliate marketing is dead, so stop being an affiliate. It’s time to think outside that box and become a revenue-generating business. Cut out the middle man and get closer to the source of revenue. The beautiful part of not being an affiliate is creating a database. (Search Engine Watch)

Social Engagement: The Way Forward for SEO

“Social Engagement is the new shift in SEO.” This isn’t to say that on-page and off-page SEO tactics are useless, but that social is now a noteworthy factor in the game. Now social recommendations can take you to the first page of Google search results. Install a Google+ button or sharebar, or use Twitter and Facebook sharing options to advance this cause. (Problogger)

Setting Goals in Google Analytics

Here’s a walkthrough for setting goals in Google Analytics, from the sprocket, to naming your goals, to entering the destination URL and beyond. “Seeing how users are interacting with your buying process is the key to fixing issues, making your guests more efficient in their choice, and finding room for improvement.” (Search Engine Land)

Using Emails to Build Links

Email marketing and list building are great ways to get links, though they’re often overlooked by those in the SEO realm. Once you’ve set up a solid list, it’s time to examine various link-building tactics, including sharing embeddable content and encouraging recipients to fill out profiles. (SEOmoz)

SERP Turkey: Split-Test and Gather CTR Analytics of SERP Entries

Measuring CTR data in search engine results is difficult, for many reasons. But here’s SERP Turkey to the rescue. It’s not perfect, but it’s a quick and cheap, and the signal-to-noise ratio is great. Here’s a rundown of how it works. (SEOmoz)

1 in 3 Online Consumers Will Be Using a Tablet by 2014

According to eMarketer, one in three online consumers in the U.S. (or about 35.6 percent) will be using a tablet by 2014. This would be the equivalent of 89.5 million tablet users. Nearly a quarter of them will be iPad users. (eMarketer)

What Brand Marketers Wish for From Facebook

Brand marketers have five wishes from Facebook: 1) to have more control over brand status updates, 2) to understand the quality of fans from paid Facebook ad campaigns, 3) frequency capping, 4) third-party tracking within social ads and 5) competitive separation. (AdAge.com)

Targeting the Full Tail of Search in Five Steps

Here’s a five-step look at how to target relevant keywords to cover the tail of search — head, mid-tail and long-tail terms: 1) understand the search tail (tail sections, searcher types, keywords types and keyword volumes), 2) get set up with basic Google tools, 3) segment your keyword targets into logical groups, 4) define priorities and 5) sense-check customer buying paths. (Smart Insights Digital Marketing)

Facebook to Mix Sponsored Stories Ads With Content

Facebook is beginning to display Sponsored Stories ad units in the site-wide ticker of real-time social activity. This opens up lucrative new ad inventory. "With proper optimization, Facebook may be able to fly just beneath the radar of widespread discontent while boosting ad revenues that could please investors waiting for its IPO." (TechCrunch)