SEO content marketing roundup, week ending July 3rd

Goodbyes run through this week’s online marketing news, most importantly to a beloved figure prominent in the search community, Warren “Ted” Ulle.

Brett Tabke broke the news of Ulle’s passing with “Tedster – The Community loses a Giant” at WebmasterWorld.

Marketers from all over the blogosphere mark the end of Google Reader, while SEO and search pros note Google’s plans to axe its external keyword tool. Additional farewells are bid to Google Alerts RSS notifications, valuable organic SERP real estate, and the antiquated search engine AltaVista.

Other discussions revolve around link building, Google’s updated SEO advice, evaluating SEO performance, search ranking factors, and the pending compulsory update to Enhanced campaigns for Google Adwords users.

Content marketers discuss the state of the industry, the need for brands to invest in content writers, professionalism in blogging, email conversions mojo, and what customers really want.

The social media marketing community discusses LinkedIn’s new features, how not to use Google+, Twitter’s new initiatives, Facebook’s limitation of pages and groups that can show ads, and optimizing YouTube social links and avatars.

Enjoy this week’s picks!

Content Marketing

James Perrin poses questions to Heather Lloyd-Martin, Joe Pulizzi, Ann Handley, and several others with “The Issues in Content Marketing Today: We Ask the Experts” at Koozai.

Brian Honigman shares “50 Tools to Jumpstart Your Content Marketing Efforts” at KISSmetrics.

Lloyd Faulk breaks down the question, “How Much Does Content Marketing Cost?” at Vertical Measures.

Citing a new report by Custora, Marcus Wohlsen reports “Email Is Crushing Twitter, Facebook for Selling Stuff Online” at Wired.

Taking a slightly different angle on Custora’s report (above), Amy Gesenhues posts “Study: Email Lands More Customers Than Facebook or Twitter, But Still Fewer Than Organic Search” at Marketing Land.

Brafton Editorial posts “Email marketing alert: Use words that fuel clicks.”

Ann Handley interviews author David Meerman Scott on his revised and updated book with “What’s New With the New Rules of Marketing and PR?” at MarketingProfs.

Danny Brown’s Sunday Share features entrepreneur Bruce Kasanoff’s presentation, “Less: What Your Customers Really Want.”

Heather Lloyd-Martin talks conversions with “Your prospects don’t care what you think” at SEO Copywriting.

Arnie Kuenn asks six experts their perspectives with “The Future of Visual Content: 6 Predictions About Infographics” at Content Marketing Institute.

Gabriella Sannino posts “Don’t Be a Marketing Magpie – Avoid Shiny Object Syndrome” at Level 343.

Ian Lurie posts an exceptional rant with “18 Ways You’re Ruining Your Marketing Campaign” at Portent.

Peter Sandeen posts “Make Your A/B Testing Create Results – Not Statistics” at KISSmetrics.

Alice Jenkins shares “5 Top Online Marketing Trends for the Rest of 2013” at Webbiquity.

Chris Boyles posts a video infographic, “It’s Mobile’s Turn”, at MarketingProfs.

Chaviva Gordon-Bennett discusses “Why Brands Really Lose When They Underpay Writers” at The Content Strategist.

Shelly Kramer posts “When People Read Websites And Why It Matters” at V3 Integrated Marketing.

Deb Ng posts “If Bloggers Want to Be Seen as Professionals They Can’t Write Posts Like This” at Kommein.

Barry Feldman discusses “The Unbearable Shame of Being an Unblogger” at Marketo.

Lee Odden posts “7 Steps for Creating an Optimized Content Publishing Schedule” at TopRank.

Sam McRoberts posts “The Definitive Guide to WordPress Security” at Moz.

Alex Chitu shares Google Reader’s official farewell with “Google Reader’s Final Message” at the (unofficial) Google OS blog.

Elisa Gabbert shares a post and infographic, “Google Products Graveyard: Mourning Google Reader and Other Discontinued Google Products and Services” at WordStream.

Barry Schwartz posts “The Big Comparison Of Google Reader RSS Feed Alternatives” at Marketing Land.

HootSuite CEO Ryan Holmes posts “RSS Jedis: May the Force be With You” at LinkedIn.

Ginney Soskey shares “15 Phenomenal TED Talks You Need to Watch Today” at HubSpot.

Seth Godin discusses “The cycle of media attention (fans to feeders)” at his blog.

John S. Britsios posts “Marketing: Why do we Try to Hide a Forest Among the Trees?” at Search Editors.

Events:

• The Neilsen Norman Group’s Usability Week 2013 conferences will be held in Washington, D.C. from July 15^th thru the 19th, New York City from August 25^th thru the 30^th, and Minneapolis from September 9^th thru the 13^th.
• Content Marketing World 2013 returns to Cleveland, OH, September 9^th thru the 12^th.
• MarketingProfs B2B Marketing Forum 2013 will be held October 9^th thru the 11^th in Boston.

(John Hall lists a number of great conferences for online marketers, businesses, and entrepreneurs at Forbes).

 

SEO & Search

Barry Schwartz reports that with the end of Reader, “Google Alerts Drops RSS Delivery Option” at Search Engine Land.

Lee Odden posts “RIP Google Reader, External Keyword Tool is Next” at TopRank.

Jennifer Slegg posts “With Death of AdWords Keyword Tool Near, Google Pushes Users to Keyword Planner” at Search Engine Watch.

Aaron Harris discusses “How Google is Killing Organic Search” at Tutorspree Blog.

Jenny Halasz posts “Google’s PR Problem Is Bing’s Opportunity” at Search Engine Land.

Danny Sullivan pays homage to the search engine of old, AltaVista, with “A Eulogy For AltaVista, The Google Of Its Time” at Search Engine Land.

SearchMetrics has released its “SEO Ranking Factors – Rank Correlation 2013” (Google USA) study.

Rand Fishkin posts “Google’s Updated SEO Advice is Almost Correct” at his Moz blog (‘Rand’s Blog’).

Jason Acidre posts “Creating Great Experience for SEO” at Kaiserthesage.

Lyena Solomon shares a resource-rich post, “Top Tips for Measuring Your SEO Company’s Performance” at Search Engine People.

Danny Sullivan discusses “The Evolution of Search” via Whiteboard Friday at Moz.

Carrie Hill discusses “Measuring The Effect Of Semantic Markup On Your Search Traffic” at Search Engine Land.

Eric Enge posts “After Google Panda, Standout Content is Essential” at Search Engine Watch.

Nathan Safran posts “Content Creation & Organizational Empowerment Key To Search Success” at Search Engine Land.

Heather Lloyd-Martin posts “New SEO content writer? How to conquer fear and land clients” at SEO Copywriting.

Krist Kellogg posts “Calling All Local Business Owners New to SEO: Start with Google Places for Business” at Bruce Clay, Inc.

Rae Hoffman posts “Link Building with the Experts – 2013 Edition” at The Sugarrae Blog.

Addressing webmasters and site owners, Jon Ball discusses why “Real link building requires sales” at SEO Copywriting.

Christy poses questions to Ann Smarty, Daniel Smulevich, and Jason Acidre with “Ask the Experts: Top 3 Link Building Strategies in 2013” at Techwyse.

Tad Chef posts “How I Got Authority Links from the Most Trustworthy Search & SEO Publications” at Mass Media Design Blog.

Sharing a potential client checklist for link builders, Jon Ball posts “It’s Frickin’ Hard to Build Links if Your Site Sucks” at Search Engine Watch.

Barry Feldman posts “Click to Convert: Why People Do and Don’t Click Your Links” at Social Media Today.

Brian Massey posts “What’s The One Thing That Keeps Searchers From Converting On Your Site?” at Search Engine Land.

Greg Habermann posts “My Top 5 Most Used Custom Reports in Google Analytics” at Search Engine Watch.

Avinash Kaushik discusses “Two Amazing Bar Charts: % Content Consumption, % Share of Search” at Occam’s Razor.

Purna Virji posts “Top 5 SEO Leading Indicators: The Best Way to Enhance Your Monthly Client Reports” at Search Engine Watch.

Darrell Stern posts “How to set up Google Author Rank/Authorship and Boost your WordPress SEO” at SternDMB.

Steffan Aquarone posts “Video SEO: optimizing video for search is the trick most brands are missing” at Econsultancy.

Guillaume Bouchard discusses “How to Maximize Your Video Marketing Strategy With Google Hangouts On Air” at Search Engine Watch.

Kathleen Barth posts “YouTube Views: Three Simple but Important Ranking Factors” at ReelSEO.

WordStream has established an “Enhanced Campaigns Resource Center” in advance of Google’s automatic updating of all advertiser accounts to Enhanced formats on July 22^nd.

Dave Schwartz posts “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Enhanced Campaigns” at Search Engine Watch.

Events: 

• MozCon 2013 will be in Seattle (of course) from July 8^th thru the 10^th.
• ReelSEO’s Video Marketing Summit 2013 will be held along with Liveclicker’s Video Commerce Summit 2013 for a two-in-one offering July 25^th and 26^th in San Francisco.
• Search Exchange 2013 will be held July 29^th thru the 31^st in Charlotte, NC.
• TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2013 will be held September 7^th thru the 11^th (in San Francisco).  “Extra” Early Bird pricing available through July 15^th.
• SES San Francisco is set for September 10^th thru the 13^th. Big savings with Pre-Agenda rates thru July 11^th! Early Bird rates kick in July 12^th thru August 15^th.
• SMX East 2013 returns to New York City, October 1^st thru the 3^rd.  Save with Super Early Bird rates thru July 27^th!
• PubCon Las Vegas 2013 is on for October 22^nd thru the 25^th.  Early bird savings schedule of up to $800 thru July 31^st, then $600 thru September 15^th, then $400 thru October 20^th!

 

Social Media Marketing

eMarketer reports “Social Usage Involves More Platforms, More Often.”

“LinkedIn Adds New Features” headlines Social Media Examiner’s weekly news.

Ingrid Lunden posts “LinkedIn Gets A Little More Watchful, Now Tells You Who’s Viewed Your Updates, And Where You’ve Been Looking” at TechCrunch.

Aviad Pinkovezky posts “3 Million LinkedIn Company Pages and Counting [Infographic]” at the LinkedIn Blog.

Cynthia Boris posts “Fire up PhotoShop! Facebook Removes Text Restrictions on Page Covers” at Marketing Pilgrim.

Ben Woods reports “Facebook to review which Pages and Groups can show ads after complaints about inappropriate content” at The Next Web.

Citing a study by Syncapse, Jessica Lee posts “78% of a Brand’s Facebook Fans Are Already Customers” at ClickZ.

Stacey Acevero shares “The Ultimate Facebook Page Insights Cheat Sheet!” at Vocus.

Ann Smarty discusses “How To Delete An Old Facebook Account: Online Reputation Clean-up” at Internet Marketing Ninjas.

Mike Allton posts “How Not to use Google+” at The Social Media Hat.

Corey Eridon reports “Twitter Starts Highlighting Websites That Embed Tweets” at HubSpot.

Jon Russell posts “Twitter is testing automatic in-stream image previews on Twitter.com” at The Next Web.

Tim Schmoyer discusses “Optimizing Your Social Links and Avatar on Your YouTube Channel” at ReelSEO.

Jeff Hoffman posts “How to Ease Your Sales Team Into Social Sales” at HubSpot.

Saya Weissman posts “Brands Try For Some Personality” in their attempts for social connectedness at Digiday.

Nick Kellet shares “10 Strategies to Maximize Event Participation (not just Attendance)” at Listly.

John Bonini discusses “How to Turn All Those Conference Takeaways Into Tangible To-Do’s” at HubSpot.

Events:

• Social Fresh West 2013 will return to San Diego August 22^nd and 23^rd.
• Social Brand Forum 2013 will be held in “Iowa’s Creative Corridor” in Coralville, October 24^th and 25th.

(For an all-in-one listing and description of social media, content & inbound marketing events, check out Neal Schaffer’s “The 12 Best Social Media Conferences to Attend in 2013” at Social Media Today.)

photo thanks to woodleywonderworks