SEO Content Marketing Roundup, Week Ending April 25th, 2012

Are you a big brand? Good news! Possibly over-optimized? Dubious linking profile? Negative SEO? Not so good news. This week’s Web-writing news is dominated by Google’s favors, penalties and apparent chinks in its armor within the SEO and search industry, while social media marketers weigh the relative strengths of vying platforms and content marketers talk lead generation and conversions. All of these web gems await you in this latest and greatest edition of the SEO content marketing roundup! Enjoy…

Content Marketing

In part 2 of her Wednesday video Q & A series, Kaila Strong continues her lead generation theme by answering “How Can You Use Content Marketing to Generate Leads?” at Vertical Measures.

Jeff Slipko posts “Top 10 Affiliate Tips for Using Content to Increase Revenue Streams” at Search Engine Watch.

Ky Harlin posts an interesting read on “How time of day affects content performance” at iMedia Connection.

Boring products to promote? Lee Odden speaks to this with “Marketing Boring Products is not a ‘Boring’ Problem, It’s a ‘Knowing Your Customers’ Problem’,” at Top Rank.

With his usual acuity, Seth Godin discusses “Selling to people who haven’t bought yet” at his blog.

Content Marketing Institute and Brandpoint conducted a (relatively small) survey on “Digital Content Marketing,” posting a video plus key take-aways at the CMI blog site.

So “How to Fuel the Content Marketing Engine”?  Mike Lieberman addresses this subject smartly at Talent Zoo.

In part 2 of her series on the (B2B) marketing downturn, Liz Smyth talks “…content, content, content” at Marketo.

Marketing Sherpa’s weekly research chart illustrates the “key attributes that organizations seek in marketers.”

Wayne Barker discusses “7 Characteristics of Compelling Calls to Action” at Search Engine People.

Jess Walker illustrates good website designs with examples that incorporate functionality with content and good looks with a “Good Design Roundup” at Portent.

SEO & Search

Pamela Parker delves into the details of Google’s “Brand Activate” initiative with “Google To Back Branding Measurement Standards With ‘Brand Activate’” at Marketing Land.

So why do big brands get all the breaks? Dr. Pete explores Google’s obvious favoritism of big brands at SEOmoz.

By the way, Matt Cutts presents an 8-minute video on how Google search works, embedded on HubSpot via a post by Pamela Vaughan (and also embedded with the YouTube transcription via a post by Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Land). Cute!

David Harry posts “Negative SEO: Looking for Answers from Google” at Search Engine Watch, in which he summarizes the conundrum of regular site owners who may be (obliviously) harmed by malicious linking, then penalized by Google for it.

In a similar thread, with “Google’s Unnatural Links Message: The Shot Heard round the SEO World?” Eric Enge reports on Google’s linking inquisition, sending its dreaded “unnatural links” message to site-owners around the world (1 million thus far) as it shuts them out of search. Also at Search Engine Watch.

So what else should you be wary of? Oh yes, Google’s “over-optimization” penalty. SEOmoz’s “Whiteboard Friday” presentation is on “6 Changes Every SEO Should Make Before the Over Optimization Penalty Hits.”

But wait! There’s more! Distinguished Engineer and Google Spam Combatant Matt Cutts has announced that “web spam” will not be tolerated, either in the form of funky linking or keyword stuffing, with “Another step to reward high-quality sites” at Google’s Webmaster Central blog.

And speculating on the fallout of Google’s “webspam” initiative is Shaun Anderson, with “Google Just Dropped The Nuke On A Lot Of Webspam”  at Hobo.

“Bing’s Search Plus Your World?” Bill Slawski reports that Bing promises its users Facebook-based social results provided they’re signed into Facebook, at SEO by the Sea.

Who knew? At Search Engine Watch: Conductor’s Nathan Safran reports on a Searchlight study which indicates that SEO pro’s still rank anchor text as the most important of all ranking factors, and that internal anchor text “can significantly impact search visibility.”

Avinash Kaushik again blows the mind with his latest post, “You Are What You Measure, So Choose Your KPIs (Incentives) Wisely!” at Occam’s Razor.

Social Media Marketing

Facebook Timeline [for business] Image Changes headlines Social Media Examiner’s

Meanwhile, Lee Odden addresses “The Fallacy of Influence” at Top Rank.

Jeff Bullas posts “10 Top Trends in Social Media” via slideshare, sharing the top two in writing, at his blog.

Nicholas Carlson reports that Pinterest’s “bubble has burst” and that the upstart social media platform is now “actually losing users” at Business Insider.

Neil Patel shares “The Secret to Getting Highly Targeted Traffic from StumbleUpon” at Quick Sprout.

Magdalena Georgieva posts a simple guide for marketers on how to use hashtags on Twitter, at HubSpot.

Greg Finn explains the new shades of the Google+ share button at Marketing Land.

So “Why Bother With Google+?” Robin Neifield explains at ClickZ.

Ann-Marie Jancovich discusses “Public Relations in the Digital Age” at Vertical Measures.

Citing data from the 2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, Phil Mershon discusses findings on how B2B marketers use social media at Social Media Examiner.

photo thanks to Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com