Tad Chef noted in an article for SEOptimise that this aspect of internet marketing is often avoided for fear of pushing visitors away from a website.

However, he noted that linking to “relevant high quality resources using deep links” can make an online portal rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).

The expert said Google favours ‘hub sites’ which link to relevant content, adding that firms should try to link out a great deal or not at all.

Mr Chef said organisations should not be afraid to link to others in the industry, commenting: “Embrace linking out to industry peers wholeheartedly and don’t be nit-picky about every single link.”

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The rationale for this update is clear: faced with increasing public criticism over the quality of its SERPs, Google had to act.

And act it did. Early analyses of the Google ‘Farmer‘ update show that some recognizable names whose content used to appear prominently on the first page of many Google SERPs have been knocked back.

German SEO solutions provider SISTRIX, which looked at its own historical data, determined that the 15 sites hurt the most by Google’s update so far are:

• wisegeek.com
• ezinearticles.com
• suite101.com
• hubpages.com
• buzzle.com
• associatedcontent.com
• freedownloadscenter.com
• essortment.com
• fixya.com
• americantowns.com
• lovetoknow.com
• articlesbase.com
• howtodothings.com
• mahalo.com
• business.com

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The Internet is the great equalizer, giving unlimited ad space and airtime to businesses no matter how big or small. Today, 70 percent of local businesses are marketing through Facebook — more than anywhere else on the Internet.

It’s one thing to have a social media presence, but it’s another to manage it correctly. These sites are living, breathing entities. If you pay them attention and perform proper maintenance, then they will remain healthy and grow at a steady pace. With this in mind, social media-savvy restaurant owners are acquiring and retaining new customers at a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising.

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On its official blog, the company explained that social results would now be mixed into other results based on their relevance, whereas in the past they had only appeared at the bottom of the page.

“This means you’ll start seeing more from people like co-workers and friends, with annotations below the results they’ve shared or created,” the organisation stated.

Results will also include notes that inform a user when people in their social networks have shared a link, with these results showing up higher in the listings than they otherwise might have.

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But it is important not to neglect SEO services in doing so, as a piece from Search Engine Land suggests.

The article explains: “Time and again, B2B marketers fail to make SEO a priority at the start of a website redesign.

“As a result, it can wreak havoc on all the SEO work that has already been established.”

To avoid this, companies should first start with keyword research and consider how a target audience could navigate to the website.

Google’s Keyword tool is a good way to begin this process, as it allows users to brainstorm and come up with a master list of keywords that may be implemented.

Failure to do this could result in negative consequences, such as picking up the wrong type of traffic or no visits at all, the news source warns.

SEO and PPC: A Love-Hate Relationship

Gareth Owen | Feb 16, 2011 | 3 Comments

Alex Cohen yesterday wrote about how paid results are increasingly getting clicks at the expense of organic results in “PPC vs. SEO: Paid Search as Your Organic Competitor.”

Today, we’ll look at some of the changes in how we attribute value in SEO, and how we’re increasingly turning to tactics that were previously considered to be the realm of paid search professionals in order to meet client expectations.

Three trends have led this charge:

1. A clear and continuing drop in the value of major generic keywords in natural search (historic data, Google products, use of search).
2. Renewed interest in exactly how the “halo” effect of optimization works and how ROI can be attributed.
3. Speed of results from good optimization.

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Several videos posted to YouTube last week appear to show a strange ball of light hovering above a Jerusalem shrine before disappearing into the night. At first the clips, shot from different angles, seemed convincing — or at least like an elaborate hoax.

It’s beginning to look just as likely that they’re part of a viral marketing stunt for a Hollywood movie, however. Several skeptical YouTube users have pointed out how the UFO clips appear to have been digitally manipulated.

That hasn’t stopped one of the videos clocking up more than a million views, just a few weeks before the release of Battle: Los Angeles.

Official teasers for the alien invasion flick use footage from documented UFO sightings to promote the film, and its marketing team has dabbled in online stunts before.

What are the right questions to ask during an interview of a potential SEO specialist candidate?

Unfortunately, this question was immediately met with a bit of a rude response. Essentially, the first responder said that if you don’t know what interview questions to ask, then you shouldn’t be handling the interview in the first place because you won’t know what the right answers will be.

Granted, in a perfect world, you would always have an accomplished and experienced SEO pro handling all SEO-related interviews, whether they be for an individual candidate or for an SEO provider such as an agency. Unfortunately, this not always feasible. In fact, I would say that in well over 50% of scenarios that I find myself in when pitching my agency’s SEO services, the organization making the decision doesn’t have a single employee with any real experience or expertise in the SEO field.

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It is possible to get visitors to your website today from article marketing, as I will demonstrate in a minute, but it is not possible using the methods recommended by most Internet marketing gurus.

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With this one brokerage firm investing $450+ million in Facebook, it was relying on its clout to attract over investors to boost Facebook’s valuation past its current $50 billion milestone. Because, as we all know Goldman does not invest willy-nilly in any company unless it is able to garner a quick return on its investment. So, while the $50 billion number has been bantered around, already critics are saying that valuation is over-inflated by at least $20 billion.

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