The Week in Review

The New Facebook Punishes Brands

Facebook users will probably notice the absence of brand posts in their News Feeds lately. "The new Facebook news feed has practically erased from users’ homepages all brands that don’t buy advertising." This could either drive brands to be more creative as they endeavor to engage users with their content, or it may steer brands to Facebook’s ad products. Neither content nor conversation is king — Facebook is. (AllFacebook.com, Search Engine Land)

The Mobile Evolution of Email

Mobile, email and direct marketing have been blending for the past decade. "As an email marketer, we also need to be aware of the mobile platform’s impact on email marketing." Among some stats mentioned in this post is that 39 percent of consumers ages 13 and older check their personal email each day on their mobile device. Email marketers should get on the boat lest they be left behind. (ClickZ)

7 SEO Twitter Tips to Rank Better in Search

Though Google’s Realtime Search feature is gone, there are still notable SEO benefits from using Twitter properly. Here are seven tips: 1) use your Twitter handle wisely; 2) make your username count; 3) nail your bio; 4) links away; 5) get followers and build recognition; 6) keep your tweets focused; 7) include your site’s URL. (HubSpot)

What Makes a Good Link?

The most common question this SEO professional has been asked is: What makes a good link? While there’s no simple answer, here’s a simple rule of thumb: "A good link should have the potential to deliver relevant visitors." Some things to bear in mind are that relevant visotrs are from the target geolocation, a site must have an audience in order to provide relevant visitors and relevant visitors come from clickable links. (Search Engine Watch)

Google+ to Feature Quora-Like Q&A Features?

A hacker found some interesting features in the Google+ code. One is referred to as "Google Experts" and appears to be a Quora-like Q&A feature with the posting, commenting and sharing features that Google+ posts have. There also appears to be Google Voice integration, new photo-browsing options (including photos from Messenger), new privacy presets, and a Facebook wall-like feature. (ReadWriteWeb)

The Evolving Costs of Search Marketing

Search marketing’s heyday might be gone and display might be the hot new thing, but that doesn’t mean you should turn your back on search. It also doesn’t mean prices for search are coming down. While money spent on search marketing won’t go further than before, it might be spent more effectively than before. Here’s a look at factors driving this: more integration, mobile and better landing pages. (Mashable)

Google Enables Gambling-Related Ads

Google informed AdSense publishers and AdWords advertisers that it would begin allowing gambling-related ads starting today. There are still restrictions in place and an opt-in is required. (Search Engine Roundtable)

10 Tips for Writing Lead-Generation Copy for Landing Pages

"In lead generation, the more you tell, the less you sell. Successful pages engage a visitor by establishing credibility and relevance within three seconds or less." Among the 10 tips for writing effective copy for landing pages are to begin with the end goal in mind, align your ad traffic copy, and use words like "you" and "your." (Performics)

SEO Metrics Everybody Can Use

An SEO must report on metrics that will show the progression of the project being worked on. Suggested metrics to include in reports are month-over-month keyword/phrase movement, percent of non-brand traffic vs. search traffic, and time on site. (SEOptimise)

Facebook Will Give Small Businesses $10 Million in Advertising Credits

Facebook announced its Facebook Marketing Solutions program, which will give small businesses $10 million in advertising credits. "It will officially kick off next month and will teach both cost-free measures to engage more customers as well as how to buy display ads targeting specific markets." (ZDNet)

Facebook Is the New AOL

With its latest changes, Facebook is vying to be the default go-to platform for social networking – much like AOL did back in the day. The question is, do we really want the site to be present in every nook and cranny of our lives? “So the choice is clear: login to Facebook and be more open about your life’s choices. Or get left behind with the non-social Internet and become an online hermit. I want more choices; it shouldn’t have to be as binary as that. It seems like that’s where we are now.” (ReadWriteWeb)

What PPC Pros Should Know About Robots.txt Files

An improperly configured robots.txt file can dent your quality scores, cause your ads to be unapproved, lower your organic rankings and create a host of other problems. Here’s an examination of the AdWords robot, the Microsoft adCenter robot, and testing landing pages and causing duplicate content. (Certified Knowledge)

How to Get the Most out of Your Links

Anchor texts aren’t as beneficial as they were just two years ago. This discussion of anchor texts and factors that influence rankings through anchor-text links covers general influencers (words used, text surrounding links, pages linked to and site URLs), exact vs. partial match and how to vary your anchor. (Search Engine People)

An SEO Checklist for New Sites

Once you’ve launched a new website, how do you set things up for SEO? Accessibility; keyword targeting; content quality and value; design quality, user experience and usability; social account setup; link building; guest posts and content; relevant social industry and app account links; and social media link acquisitions are all things that should be on your checklist. (SEOmoz)

Facebook Shifts From Scale to Engagement

Marketers should note three things from Facebook’s f8 conference: 1) it’s not about just building connections and getting a huge number of fans – it’s about what you offer them; 2) your vocabulary can expand beyond “like”; 3) News Feed, Ticker, Timeline and Sponsored Stories are now all ways consumers can talk with you. (AdAge.com)

21 Ideas for Turning Social Media Traffic Into Business Leads

Can social media actually drive sales? "My answer, when asked, is that social media primarily grows permission through lead generation if you’re approaching it as a “sales acquisition tactic”. But it’s actually often a more relevant tactic for customer re-engagement." Here are 21 ideas for using social media to generate leads and sales. For example, have a clear brand message and tone of voice, offer variety, and inspire an army. (Smart Insights Digital Marketing)

The 21 Biggest SEO Myths

"SEO, as an industry, is known unfortunately for the mass of rumours, myths, mistruths and unscrupulous gurus." This post attempts to shed some light and dispel some of the more popular SEO myths, including: Google is the only search engine, you can "SEO" a site just once and you can learn SEO by reading up on it. (Noupe)

Mobile Landing Page Quality Affects AdWords Quality Score on Mobile Ads

To incentivize getting websites optimized for mobile users, Google recently announced that mobile optimization will be a factor in ad quality for Adwords campaigns driving mobile search traffic. Google offered these suggestions: keep the layout simple, design for thumbs, prioritize content, use uniquely mobile feature and make it easy to convert. (Search Engine Watch)

4 Tips for Optimizing for Local Search

The first step for leveraging local SEO is to include your city or regional keywords in your URL, page titles, meta description, H1 and H2 tags, and throughout your site’s content. To go the extra mile, here are four best practices: 1) refrain from keyword stuffing, 2) leverage business blogging, 3) focus on local link building and 4) be congruent. (HubSpot)

Facebook f8: The Details

Timeline, apps and OpenGraph were among the main topics of Facebook’s f8 Developers Conference. Music, news and videos will be made more social on Facebook, and applications will be able to play nice with Timeline and have more visibility. (The Next Web, AllFacebook, CNET)

How to Use Email as a Lead-Generation Tool

Here’s a helpful overview of how to develop a lead-generation strategy for non-customers. It examines the various ways to form a compelling offer, the types of emails that should be part of your email campaign and some other pointers. The basic steps are: qualify leads, keep prospects interested, segment decision-makers and follow up. (MailerMailer Blog)

Google Is Adding the +1 Button to Display Ads

Google is set to add its +1 button on the Google Display Network. "If you’re running display ads through the Google Display Network you may begin seeing the +1 button and personal annotations with your ads. With a single click, people can recommend the ad’s landing page to their friends and contacts." This means +1 data will act as a signal of relevance in the AdWords auction for display. (Inside AdWords, Search Engine Land)

9 Ways to Be a Competitive SEO

"Part of being a good SEO is to understand what these rules are, but part of being a GREAT SEO is to know how far you can stretch these rules, how to cleverly interpret them, and when you can break them." Here are nine ways to go about this: 1) do the opposite; 2) surprise; 3) change one thing; 4) steal; 5) combine; 6) question everything; 7) ignore "can’t," "don’t," "shouldn’t" and "mustn’t"; 8) honesty; and 9) persistence. (Explicitly Me)

Top-of-Page and First-Page Bid Estimates

How does Google AdWords calculate "First Page Bid Estimate" and "Top of Page Estimate"? The former offers estimates "based on a search query that matches your keyword exactly and is based on both Quality Score and competitive atmosphere meaning that your first page estimates may not be completely accurate." The latter makes it easier to "bid appropriately for those keywords to reach the top of the results." Also included in this post is a brief discussion on how to improve your rank, which includes looking for ad groups with a high ratio of below-first-page bid estimates and checking the corresponding Quality Scores for those keywords. (PPC Hero)

The Top 3 Must-Check PPC Metrics, According to 17 Experts

Seventeen paid-search experts shared their must-check PPC metrics, along with the PPC metric they think is most bogus/overrated/a waste of time. The top three must-check metrics overall were: click-through rate, cost per conversion and conversion rate/CPA (tie). View-through conversions was the metric mentioned the most as worthless/overrated. (Business 2 Community)