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A straight-forward guide to getting your Google Analytics set up and running.
Do you know what's driving leads/sales to your website? Google Analytics can tell you.
The trouble is many small businesses struggle to get Google Analytics set up, let alone use it to pull out meaningful data. This easy to follow guide will take you through the set-up process and help you understand how your website's performing.... Via paulo oliveira, Jose H. Flores
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Great Tutorial from the people at Simply Business. Very useful for those new to analyzing Web traffic as well as great reminders for those who need some fresh ideas for improving your web traffic. 
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Internal linking is an oft-cited inbound marketing best practice. Why? A couple reasons.
[Valuable analysis of linking and tips ~ Jeff]
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Is Pinterest worthwhile for business marketing? Does it really help with SEO? And if Pinterest is worth the effort, what are the best practices for using it?
While consumer brand marketers are embracing Pinterest enthusiastically, many B2B marketers are still in a quandary about the visual sharing site. On one hand, it’s highly engaging, rapidly growing, and has more than 11 million users. On the other hand, 80% of users are women and the most popular topics continue to be fashion, cooking, home decor, crafts, weddings and kids.
So, is Pinterest worthwhile for business marketing? Does it really help with SEO? And if Pinterest is worth the effort of getting to know the ins and outs of yet another social network, what are the best practices for using it?
The seven experts below contend that the site is indeed worthwhile for business, that it’s sort of helpful for SEO, and that their tips can lead to business success there. While some B2B marketers will likely remain skeptical, there’s no sign of Pinterest’s growth slowing anytime soon and the demographics are shifting, making the site at least worth keeping an eye on for now....
[Useful perspective for possible Pinterest marketers ~ Jeff]
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Here is a great infographic on keyword research, site architecture and structure, page optimisation for SEO, link building, SEO tactics, linkbaiting and social media.
This guide will help you find areas for improvements in your SEO techniques, and most certainly will offer insight on if you are on the right track or not with your websites SEO.
[Recommendeded SEO reading ~ Jeff] Via Antonino Militello, Janine Lloyd
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(Photo credit: C.P.Storm) You may have noticed that the SEO game has become a lot more difficult lately...
Mostly due to the recent algorithm updates like the Penguin and, like always, due to the ever-growing competition for valuable keywords.
However, some things remain unchanged. For instance, you still need to find a way to let Google know which keywords you’re targeting. The fact is that Google can figure this out on their own, kind of (through links, and social media interaction), but introducing some good on-page SEO can make things a lot quicker.
You have to be careful, though. Google now openly admits that they discourage all forms of active link building, and probably any other type of active SEO work as well.
So how to overcome this and not get in trouble?...
[Practical SEO tips for bloggers ~ Jeff]
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How social context is playing a role in SEO and how marketers can adjust their strategies to match the changing character of search.
In the history of search engine optimization the rank of a piece of content in search engine results has typically come down to two key drivers: relevancy and authority. Relevancy is all about using the right keywords in your headlines, sub-headlines and anchor text to match what people are searching for online. Authority has predominantly been defined by the number and type of sites that are linking to your content via inbound links. Pretty standard stuff, right?
Well recently, things have changed a bit. More and more, search engines have begun to incorporate social context into their search results. And it's high time we dive into what role social context is playing in SEO, and how marketers can adjust their strategies to match the changing character of search. So without further ado, let's get into the nitty gritty of what's being called "social search" and learn how it affects marketers.
What is Social Search? "Social search" is an evolving term for the way in which search engines factor a user's social network -- also referred to as social graph -- into how results are displayed after a search query. In social search, content that has a social connection to you in some way is prioritized. A social connection could mean someone you are linked to via Facebook, Twitter, or any other major social network. Alternately, some forms of social search prioritize content that has been shared by social media influencers, even if those experts aren't directly tied to you....
[Useful basics, clear examples ~ Jeff]
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With all of Google’s post-Penguin focus on natural link building and the increasingly high weight given to social performance by the company’s algorithms, it’s clear that social media marketing should be a priority for every business operating online these days.
However, when it comes to social networking, there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about promoting your business. Take a look at the following tips to see what’s working in 2012, and which outdated social media marketing tactics should be avoided at all costs!...
[These are really practical social media tips - JD]
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google is flipping seo on its head, as rankings will depend on the quality of content for readers, not clever choices of words for the search engine.
...But there is a silver lining to all of this. With last year's Panda release, and the more recent Penguin release, Google is going to flip SEO on its head. If Old SEO enabled some to fool a crawler into indexing borderline junk content to get high rankings, New SEO looks likely to take any notion of fooling anyone out of the equation.
[Content rises in importance as traffic generator as Google implements search engine changes - JD]
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Dan Zarrella, the “social media scientist” who works for Hubspot these days, has created a lot of interesting analysis over the years which is great for giving practical ideas of how to improve social media communications – the infographic at the bottom of this post on what is effective in Facebook is one example.
He recently wrote a guest post on SEOmoz I thought was worth sharing since it gives some evidence to help answer the often-asked question – “(How) does Social media marketing support SEO?”
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Learn about content optimization and the dynamics of content marketing strategies from our infographic, Content Beyond the Search Engine.
Get ready to learn the ins and outs of content optimization and gain a deeper understanding of some of the dynamics around search, social and content marketing strategies. This is the first infographic we’ve created from scratch, so we’re as happy as a squirrel in an oak tree to share it with you!
[InboundWriter serves up an interesting infographic - JD]
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I had lunch back in March with Adam Torkildson, one of the top SEO consultants in Utah and one of the best in the country.
He said something to me that blew me away. “Google is in the process of making the SEO industry obsolete, SEO will be dead in 2 years.”...
Google decided to change the weight of their emphasis from “backlinks” more towards social media likes, shares, tweets, reddits, and 1+ (Googles obvious favorite.) In the world of digital media the emphasis is on follows, comments, and views as well....
The bottom line is that all external SEO efforts are counterfeit other than one: Writing, designing, recording, or videoing real and relevant content that benefits those who search....
[This will reassure every blogger, writer, PR and content producer that content counts even more when it comes to SEO - JD]
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How Content Marketing Helps Demonstrate Thought Leadership and Boosts SEO | Inbound Marketing Agency
From
inblurbs
Content marketing has become a powerful way to engage customers. An increasing number of B2C and B2B marketer are faced with the challenge to produce and publish buyer persona oriented interesting and remarkable content to attract customers to their products and services.
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How would you respond if someone asked you to identify the most important shift in PR now and in the next year? One thing is certain. You wouldn’t say “Google is becoming irrelevant.”
Yet that’s precisely what’s happening as social media continues its avalanche of impact on PR and all business.
Dan Verhaege’s post Social Search to Gain 70% of Search by 2013; Google Becoming Irrelevant says it best...
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Content has become increasingly important for SEO. With major search engines focusing on creating the best possible experience for users, sites that offer the more relevant content are being rewarded. Original, quality content creation is essential to SEO success in the current search climate. 92% of marketers say that content creation is either “very effective” or “somewhat effective” for SEO. Content is also becoming more social, with search engines using signals such as the Facebook Like, Google +1 button, and Tweets to index content faster. Marketers are turning up content creation on their priority lists, and are even turning to services such as BBB to maintain a regular flow of content. Check out this infographic on the importance of content for SEO:
Jeff Domansky's insight:
More useful insight into content and SEO.
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Robin Good: If you have been resisting the idea of curating news content on your web site because you are afraid of being penalized for having "duplicate" content, this article will shed some light on what is best to do to avoid it.
By working with titles, writing intros and commentaries to curated posts, linking out to relevant and credible sources, you have many variables at your disposal to make curation work for you, rather than against you.
Just follow the good advice contained in this good article by Josh Cunningham (author of the WP-Drudge for link and news aggregation) and you will be OK. It's the same approach I use to curate all my news channels. It does work.
[Really useful overview of curation and balancing SEO ~ Jeff] Via Robin Good
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Unless you’re ranked in each of the top 3 slots for each of your main keywords in the search engines the chances are your website has a number of competitors who are taking a large slice of the search engine traffic that you are targeting.
If you’re just getting started and barely have a presence then they probably have almost the whole slice of traffic that you want! What if there was a way to take advantage of their success and bring a few of those precious customers on to your website?
By using blog commenting as part of your SEO strategy you can!...
[Smart SEO strategy ~ Jeff]
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"What is 'great content' exactly?"
"The question is not as simple as it sounds.
"Defining great content depends on your point of view. What does it consist of, how is it used, and how to measure its value, are just some of the perspectives to be considered..."
Rick DeJarnette, in-house SEO at MSN.com, gives a good account of what makes great content from an SEO's point of view. Easily readable by humans, easily readable by robots, well-structured, well-tagged pages, plenty of links to it...
But the mechanics don't make great content. They just make it easier to find.
It needs to be interesting, compelling, useful, of the moment. All the SEO's in the world won't make a dreary article into a great one.
So what is the secret of great content?
Now if I told you that, it wouldn't be a secret.
[Terrific tips... and secrets to better ROI on content ~ Jeff]
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The realm of website administration is still one that’s somewhat intimidating to many, but the truth is that it’s not particularly hard nowadays to run a fairly complex blog. Thanks to nearly foolproof CMS blogging platforms like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla and even hosted solutions like Tumblr, anyone can configure a blog in minutes. While your focus should always be on content, it’s still important to fine-tune a blog’s back-end for SEO purposes. Keep these five considerations in mind when optimizing your blog...
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How Much Does SEO Cost? is generally a mystery in the online marketing world. The range is certainly big, from under $50/month up to the unbelievable price of over $250,000/month! This informative infographic shares the results of custom research from SEOmoz, and was designed by AYTM.
How much does SEO cost? How much time do you have to discuss the various models and prices out there! However, a new survey sheds some light on the subject.
Over 500 people and companies who offer search engine optimization services were asked about how their models. Turns out, it’s most common to charge $100 to $150 per hour, in the US. But by-the-hour consulting is only one of four nearly co-equal ways of charging.
Also popular is project-based pricing, where the average price is between $2,500 to $5,000, in the US. That’s also the same average price for those who buy on a monthly retainer basis. Fixed prices on a contract basis is also a popular way that SEO is sold, but no averages were provided.
The survey was conducted by SEOmoz and compiled into the infographic below by AYTM...
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Tweet Tweet Freshness is one of the more recent factors that Google has added to their algorithm in the last couple of years.
Freshness is one of the more recent factors that Google has added to their algorithm in the last couple of years. In fact, the Caffeine web indexing system was meant to help them find and identify fresh content among the massive amount of stuff that gets published every day…an impact that affected 6-10% of searches....
More than likely you will fall into that last category…useful, but old content. So let me tell you how to reach the top of the rankings by increasing the freshness of your current content....
Freshness is just one piece of theGoogle algorithm puzzle. Learning how to influence it will only get you so far, so it pays to have a comprehensive SEO strategy. That strategy should focus on developing valuable content, which will naturally influence freshness and other factors.
[Neil Patel offers advice on how to use content strategically to improve SEO. A must-read - JD]
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Talking to PR agencies about search engine optimisation (SEO) can make you feel like Noah before the flood.
Building on the recent debate around PR owning SEO, I look at how agencies who fail to embrace search will ultimately fail.
Cast your mind back to 2007-8 and the buzzwords in PR and marketing then around social media. Agencies scrambled to recruit what some mistakenly called a ‘guru’ (often a fresh graduate) who understood the platforms, if perhaps not the principles and nuances of marketing.
Since then, savvy and ambitious PR agencies realised they needed proven digital expertise and either bought in talent or skilled up their own executives on the ways of social media. Social media is now a healthy component of UK PR practice and providing high levels of fee income for PR agencies.
Fast forward to 2012 and the same is strangely not happening for a seriously high value battleground: search engine optimisation....
[Ready or not for SEO challenges or opportunities? - JD]
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Top Reasons Why Public Relations Needs to Optimize | Media Relations Blog - TopRank Online Marketing
The public relations world is in a state of flux with increasing importance on getting into the content and social web business.
Consumers are spending more time with digital and social media. Advertising dollars are following. That means less budget to staff newsrooms and reporters, journalists and editors to pitch.
Understanding the needs of their “customers’ customer” is essential for PR agencies and communications professionals to remain relevant and productive. “Push PR” is increasingly being complemented by “Pull” tactics – optimization for discovery. Being able to provide value is essential and here are 3 ways a better understanding of SEO can do just that....
[An excellent overview of the importance of optimization to PR and business - JD]
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In preparing for our morning show we were doing some research and came across an old story that showed that StumbleUpon was actually driving more traffic than Facebook in January of 2011 and we wondered two things about that - firstly, is it still true, and secondly what would that mean for internet marketing and social media experts who stake their companies social media results on traffic from just Facebook and Twitter?
So we went back to the source of the original data, StatCounter.com for an update for the last 12 months...
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My “World’s Simplest SEO Formula for Great Rankings” is:
Okay, so SEO can obviously be a lot more complex than that, but if you’re a blogger just looking for the essentials, that two-step process is actually relevant.
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There is a positive cycle when marketers use content curation. Content creates the potential for traffic; search engine optimization drives that traffic; traffic leads to influence, leads or thought leadership. That influence affects business results, which enables continued content curation, which starts the cycle over again....
But there is clear evidence that content can drive SEO ranking. Wharton Marketing suggests that companies that have blogging platforms get 434 percent more indexed pages on search engines compared to the ones that do not blog, for example....
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Great Tutorial¡
Great Tutorial¡