SEO content marketing roundup, week ending August 15th

Busy is the word for this week’s latest & greatest Web writing news. Content marketers discuss conversions, SEO & search professionals digest Google’s latest (and largest) search quality algorithm updates – focusing their attention on the “Emanuel” update penalizing serial copyright infringement offenders – while social media marketers note Yahoo’s ambition to be part of the social scene, Klout’s makeover, and Google+ ‘s move towards vanity URLs.

Roll up your proverbial sleeves, as this is just a sample of the marketing labors captured in this week’s best of the Web. Enjoy the good works!

Content Marketing

Brian Massey discusses conversions and his upcoming book, “Your Customer Creation Equation: Unexpected Website Formulas of The Conversion Scientist”, in an interview featured at SEO Copywriting.

Gabriella Sannino talks conversions and the many ways to improve your sales funnel with “Conversions Are All That Matter | And We Are Sticking To That” at Level 343.

Seth Godin posts “Converting viral traffic” at his blog.

Stoney deGeyter posts “10 Ways To Create Engaging Content For Action” at Search Engine Land.

Marketing Sherpa’s research chart of the week features the survey question: “Is value proposition testing part of your lead gen[eration] strategy?”

Bernie Borges posts “4 Marketing Paradigm Shifts: Embrace Them Or Perish” at Find and Convert.

Pamela Vaughan shares “13 Ways to Spice Up Your Marketing Content With Data” at HubSpot.

Angela Stringfellow posts “[How To] Master Inbound Marketing – Just Copy Hubspot” at Unbounce.

Jodi Harris shares “17 Techie Shortcuts for Content Marketing” at  Content Marketing Institute.

Hugo Guzman posts the thoughtful “Learn how to test and reject your own marketing intuition” at his blog.

Dan Schawbel interviews Lee Odden about “the secrets behind ranking high in Google” with “How to Outrank Your Competition in Google” at Forbes (Entrepreneurs).

Lauren Foley, discussing the power of humor in content marketing, posts “It’s OK to Pet the Puppy” at The Sauce.

Drew Hendricks shares an infographic depicting “The History of Marketing Channels“ at Social Media Today.

Discussing “terms of service”, Klint Finley posts “Putting An End To The Biggest Lie On The Internet” at TechCrunch.

Corey Eridon shares “10 Tempting Email Promos Your Prospects Can’t Resist” at HubSpot.

Events:

• Marketing Sherpa’s B2B Summit 2012 will be held in Orlando, August 27^th thru the 30^th.
• Content Marketing Institute’s Content Marketing World 2012 is scheduled for September 4^th thru the 6^th in Columbus, OH.
• iMedia Brand Summit is scheduled for September 9^th thru the 12^th in Coronado, CA.

SEO & Search

Matt McGee reports on Google’s search quality algorithm June-July updates (86 changes – it’s biggest ever, since it skipped its July announcement), with “Site Clustering, Sitelinks Changes & Focus On Page Quality,” at Search Engine Land.

Danny Sullivan discusses one of the more significant of Google’s 86 search quality updates with “The Emanuel Update: Google Will Penalize Sites Repeatedly Accused of Copyright Infringement,” also at Search Engine Land.

Sujan Patel posts “25 Ways to Get Penalized in 2012” at Search Engine Journal.

Jeff Bercovici pens “Google Buys Frommers. Can We All Just Agree It’s A Media Company Now?” at Forbes.

Joe Warner posts “Exploring The Semantic Web: How Schema Impacts Today’s SERPs” at aimClear.

So “What is SEO Spam?” Aaron Wall posts a truly informative infographic, “How is Search Spam Defined?” (“A Look At Google’s Editorial Guidelines”) at SEO Book.

Kristine Schachinger posts “Extreme Negative SEO: Know Your Vulnerabilities” at Search Engine Watch.

Jakob Neilsen discusses “SEO and Usability” and how “…overly tricky search engine optimization can undermine the user experience” at his Alertbox.

Echoing Jakob Neilsen (in fact, citing him in the post) is AJ Kohn, with “It’s Not What You Say, It’s How You Present It” (“Readability And SEO”) at Blind Five Year Old.

Blogging from SES San Francisco (day 1), Molly Ryan posts “I Spy…Some Killer SEO Competitive Analysis Tips & Tricks #SESSF” at aimClear.

Level 343 posts “Search Engines Working for You | Selling Online” for search beginners, with resource links to help the inexperienced internet business owner/layman to use as a jumping off point.

On the other end of the spectrum, for the search-savvy, Nathan Safran discusses “3 Ways To Advance Maturity In Your SEO Metrics” at Search Engine Land.

Chris Davies, referring to Google’s experimental inclusion of Gmail in search results, posts “Calm down, Google’s Gmail Search won’t flaunt your sexy emails,” at SlashGear.

Rick DeJarnette posts “The SEO’s Guide To Adding Content For SERPs & Sales” at Search Engine Land.

Steve Beatty discusses Google+ performance with “Google+ Report Card: Plus or Minus for SEOs, Users?” at Search Engine Watch.

Ashley Zeckman reports from SES San Francisco with the opening keynote from Avinash Kaushik, “Business Optimization in a Digital Age,” at TopRank.

Greg Sterling reports on a study which “…Suggests Search Engines Not As Popular On Mobile Devices” as they (clearly) are on desktop computers, at Search Engine Land.

SEO Copywriting shares its top 3 video posts on SEO copy editing, plus a bonus video post on how to create an editorial calendar.

Ian Lurie offers a detailed how-to for identifying broken links with “How to: Mine server logs for broken links” at Portent.

Events:

• SMX (Search Marketing Expo) East is returning to New York, October 2^nd thru the 4^th.
• PubCon Las Vegas 2012 is on for October 15^th thru the 19^th at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Social Media Marketing

Charlie Warzel reports that Yahoo is planning to launch #HashOut, “a Social Media Talk Show,” at Adweek.

In a follow-up to their data research on Limited Run’s allegation of Facebook Ad bots, aimClear’s Merry Morud posts “Facebook Ads 80% Bot Claim, Examined! Why You Shouldn’t Lose Faith Just Yet” at Search Engine Watch.

Matt McGee posts “Ugly URLs Be Gone! Google+ Opens Vanity URLs For Certain Accounts” at Marketing Land.

Citing Klout’s “radical” makeover, Mark Schaefer posts “Klout overhauls its business model, but does it answer its critics?” at Businesses {grow}.

Clever, indeed: Trackur CEO Andy Beal posts “Trackur: 5 Clever Ways You’re Probably Not Using Social Media Monitoring” at TopRank.

So “Are You Making the Right First Impression on Twitter?” Smart read by Jack Martin at Portent.

Brian Solis posts “Why The Olympic Games Social Media Policy Failed.”

Debra Ellis posts “Social Media: The Next Frontier for Yellow Journalism Embroils Chick-Fil-A, Ford and Celeb Boutique” at Target Marketing Magazine.

Gini Dietrich posts “PR Pros Not Keeping Up with What Journalists Want” at Spin Sucks.

Ryan Kim reports that “Social lags search and email in driving ecommerce conversions, revenue” at GigaOm.

Adam Singer presents “4 Ideas for Better Social Media Measurement” at ClickZ.

Michael Stelzner interviews Mari Smith with “Facebook Mobile for Business: What You Need to Know” at Social Media Examiner.

Events:

• Social Examiner and the Online Marketing Institute will be hosting the live, virtual event, Digital Marketing Strategy Summit, September 17th thru the 28^th.
• SMX Social Media Marketing 2012 will be in Las Vegas, December 5^th & 6^th

photo thanks to Karen Roe