SEO content marketing roundup, week ending June 5th

In this week’s latest and greatest online marketing news, the big fish get even bigger in the W3 ecosystem.

Content marketers take note as Salesforce.com swallows ExactTarget, and discuss the role of SEO in their industry, video marketing strategy, blogging and PR, conversions, curation, and data-driven marketing.

The SEO and search community assess the impact of Penguin 2.0, and discuss the rise of the new link spam in the form of unsolicited guest blogging requests.

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s search ad revenue estimates face a sharp reduction while Google retains the lion’s share of the U.S. market. Other discussions center on Google’s Matt Cutts’ latest video on “SEO misconceptions,” analytics, new Google offerings, and mobile SEO/search.

Social media marketers talk up Google+, as it beats out Twitter as the second largest social media network of choice among U.S. users. Facebook’s verified pages and profiles, LinkedIn’s even richer updates, Pinterest’s rich pins, and Twitter’s pre-IPO ad exchange ambitions are also discussed.

Hope you have a big appetite – enjoy this week’s picks!

Content Marketing

Lee Odden posts “The Truth About Content Marketing & SEO” at TopRank.

Sujan Patel discusses “The Intersection of SEO and Content Marketing” at Search Engine Journal.

Andrew Chen discusses “10 Journalism Rules That Can Teach You Everything You Need to Know About Content Marketing” at KISSmetrics.

Heather Lloyd-Martin discusses “Why your site needs a newsletter. Right now” at SEO Copywriting.

Ritika Puri posts “Your Content Marketing Needs These 5 Things” at The Content Strategist.

Arnie Kuenn discusses “Conducting Data-Driven Content Marketing” at Marketing Land.

“All The Marketing Statistics You Need To Know” are gathered in one place at HubSpot.

Mitch Joel shares several of the more notable presentations from the All Things D event (D11) (including the interview with Apple’s Tim Cook) with “All Things Digital” at Six Pixels of Separation.

Joe Pulizzi discusses “Measuring the Impact of Your Content Marketing Strategy: The Pyramid Approach” at Content Marketing Institute.

Steve P. Young shares “The 4 C’s of a smokin’ hot YouTube marketing strategy” at SEO Copywriting.

Chris Atkinson shares a brief post and infographic, “Which Video Marketing Metrics Matter?” at ReelSEO.

Adam Singer posts “Getting Visual: Your Secret Weapon For Storytelling & Persuasion” at The Future Buzz.

Megan Totka posts “Not All Content Marketing is Created Equal: Location, Size, and Scope” at Marketo.

Barry Feldman posts “Content Marketing: Will You Be Writing Big Checks Or Cashing Them?” at Social Media Explorer.

David Moth discusses “11 things I’ve learned from writing 1,000 blog posts” at eConsultancy.

Ryan Hanley posts “Picking the Brain of a Professional Blogger with Kristi Hines” at his (#30) Content Warfare Podcast.

Lilach Bullock shares tips and tools with “How to make your blog mobile friendly” at Socialable.

Marketing Sherpa’s weekly research chart finds that “84% of marketers consider blogs at least somewhat effective for inbound marketing.”

Good question: Doug Kessler posts “What’s So New About Content Marketing?” at Content Marketing Institute.

Christopher Penn discusses “What Salesforce + ExactTarget means for marketers and PR pros” at Shift Communications.

Lisa Buyer posts “Blogging PR Secrets and Style Guides – What’s In and Out” at ClickZ.

Gini Dietrich takes a look at “The PR Firm of the Future” at Spin Sucks.

Kristen Matthews posts “Blogger Outreach: The Sexy Name for What PR Pros Have Been Doing for Years” at Social Media Today.

Neil Patel shares “30 Quick Conversion Tips Every Marketer Needs to Know” at Quicksprout.

Peter Sandeen posts “How to Make Buying from Your Website Inevitable” at KISSmetrics.

Dustin Sparks discusses “The Most Dangerous Landing Page Mistakes & How You Can Fix Them” at Unbounce.

Tyson Goodridge posts a blog and infographic with “The 6 Types of Digital Consumers and Their Paths to Purchase” at Compete Pulse.

As Reader’s demise nears, Matt McGee reports “Feedly Outlines RSS Roadmap, Touts 68% Conversion Of Testers To Active Users” at Marketing Land.

Anna Pedersen shares “Time-Saving (& Free!) Curation Tools For The Modern Multitasking Content Marketer” at aimClear.

Robin Good shares his Pinterest board featuring different examples of “Content Curation Visualized.”

Heidi Cohen posts “Content Curation: 19 Definitions.”

Mitch Joel discusses “The Inferior Brand” at Six Pixels of Separation.

Seth Godin posts “What does your brand stand for?” at his blog.

Denny Hatch posts “Time to Reevaluate Your Website? Too many Web designers don’t know squat” at Target Marketing.

Heather Lloyd-Martin calls for a truce with “Freelance copywriters and IT: Can’t we all just get along?” at SEO Copywriting.

Events:

• The Neilsen Norman Group’s Usability Week 2013 conference will be held in Washington, D.C. from July 15^th thru the 19th.
• GigaOM’s Structure conference on the future of cloud computing and internet infrastructure will be held June 19^th & 20^th in San Francisco.
• 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 summarizes the latest Google Webmaster video with “Google’s Matt Cutts On SEO Industry Misconceptions: Updates, Revenue Goals & Link Building Obsession” at Search Engine Land.

Discussing the latest Google Webmaster (Matt Cutts) video, Chris Crum posts “Google Insists Panda, Penguin Not Designed To Increase Its Revenue” at WebPro News.

Based “on years of observation”, Danny Sullivan posts “Infographic: The Matt Cutts Debunking Flowchart” at Search Engine Land.

Adam de Jong posts “In the Aftermath of Penguin 2.0, Branding Is Now a Major Ranking Factor” at HubSpot.

Danny Goodwin discusses “Google Penguin 2.0 Casualties: Why Sites Got Hit” at Search Engine Watch.

Barry Schwartz reports that “’Text Link Ads’ Was Latest Hit By Google’s Actions Against Link Sellers” at Search Engine Land.

Peter van der Graaf posts “Backlink Monitoring: Keeping Track of Your Existing Links” at Search Engine Watch.

Barrie Smith discusses “Identifying a Bad Backlink Profile” at Majestic SEO.

Ann Smarty shares a Google Products forum thread which indicates “For Disavow Analysis all you need is an export from your Google Webmaster Tools” at Threadwatch.

Grant Simmons predicts what might come into Google’s crosshairs next with “Beating a Dead Penguin” at Search Engine Watch.

Chris Liversidge addresses “Big Brand SEO & Penguin 2.0” at Search Engine Land.

Michael Martinez discusses smart guest blogging/linking practices with “How to Drop a Search Sledge Penalty on Your Foot” at SEO Theory.

In a similar tone, Carter Bowles posts “Warning: ‘Real’ Bloggers Don’t Want Your Guest Posts” at Northcutt SEO.

Dave Snyder also discusses the “Post Penguin Wasteland” and attendant “guest posting scourge” with “Defining Authorship: The Difference Between Contributors and Guest Authors” at Search Engine Watch.

Justin Briggs posts “How Does Google Authorship Impact CTR?” at his blog.

Bryanna Baldauf shares “10 Top Link Building Tools to Make Your Life Easier” at Vertical Measures.

A “Big List of FREE Keyword Tools” (23 in all) are posted at Website Magazine.

Gianluca Fiorelli posts an amazing odyssey through the W3 cosmos with “A Universe of Graphs” at The Moz Blog.

Carrie Hill discusses “2 Underutilized Opportunities for Schema on Your Website” at Search Engine Watch.

David Rodnitzky discusses Google evangelist Avinash Kaushik’s presentation on understanding the full value of mobile with “Fifty Shades of Full Value” at Search Engine Land.

Kristina Kledzik discusses “Choosing the Right Mobile Site Platform” at distilled.

Rand Fishkin discusses “Building a Marketing Flywheel” (Whiteboard Friday) at The Moz Blog.

Ginny Marvin posts “New Content Experiments API Launches To Power A/B Testing With Google Analytics” at Marketing Land.

Carrie Hill shares “Tips For Analyzing The Impact Of Your Marketing Activities In Google Analytics” at Search Engine Land.

Ralf Haberich discusses diminishing marginal returns with “Web Analytics: How deep should you dig?” at Web Analytics World.

Aaron Wall has some choice words about industry doublespeak with “Inbound, Outbound, Outhouse” at SEO Book.

Larry Kim posts “News Flash: PPC Is Inbound Marketing” at WordStream.

Timothy Johnson posts the fourth installment of six with “Building Successful Low Budget PPC: Crafting Engaging Ads” at Portent.

George Fischer discusses “How to Dominate the Entire First Page of Google” at Search Engine Watch.

Jeremy Vest posts “LinkedIn Skills Beat-up Your SERPS” at Search Engine Journal.

Rebecca Murtagh discusses “6 Reasons the Website (vs. Social Media) Should Be the Ultimate Destination for the Brand” at Search Engine Watch.

Will Scott discusses “Hyperlocal Social News On Patch” at Search Engine Land.

Peter DaVanzo discusses optimizing an SEO business with “Growing An SEO Business By Removing Constraints” at SEO Book.

Frederic Lardinois reports “Google Will Soon Launch Google Web Designer, A Free HTML5 Development Tool For Creating Web Apps, Sites and Ads” at TechCrunch.

Citing eMarketer’s revised predictions, Ginny Marvin reports “Microsoft Search Ad Revenue Estimates Get Major Downgrade; Google Retains 74% U.S. Market Share” at Search Engine Land.

Kara Swisher reports “Microsoft Ponders Major Restructuring, Amid Renewed Wall Street Focus on Stock” at AllThingsD.

Josh Constine reports “Yahoo Shuts Down Mail Classic, Forces Switch To New Version That Scans Your Emails To Target Ads” at TechCrunch.

Events:

• SMX Advanced Seattle 2013, June 11^th and 12^th, is sold out and the wait list has been closed. Workshop and networking passes are still available. Save on each option by registering online by June 10^th!
• SES Toronto 2013 is on for June 12^th thru the 14^th.
• MozCon 2013 (SEOmoz) 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.

 

Social Media Marketing

eMarketer reports “Google+ Trumps Twitter, Earning Second Place for Total US Social Account Holders.”

Mark Traphagen posts “Google Plus Redesign: What It Means for Business Users” at WindMill Networking.

Amie Marse posts “5 Reasons You Can No Longer Afford to Ignore Google Plus (for Business)” at Small Business Trends.

John Anyasor compiles the “Top 20 Blogs to Help You Become a Google+ Expert” at UpCity.

Ramsay Taplin shares “29 Essential Tips from the Top Google Plus Geeks” at Blog Tyrant.

Charles Arthur sees Google+ through an Orwellian lens with “Google+ isn’t a social network; it’s The Matrix” at The Guardian News.

Lee Odden discusses social content curation with “Social Media Hubs for Brands – Best Practices & 9 Examples” at TopRank.

Gerald Weber most favorably reviews the social sharing tool Viral Content Buzz with “Under the Hood; Viral Content Buzz” at Search News Central.

Brian Solis posts “Plugging into the Future of Humanity: Exploring the Human API” at his blog.

Anita Li shares Mozy’s infographic condensing the history and current anatomy of “What’s in a Meme?” at Mashable.

“Facebook Verified Pages and Profiles” headlines Social Media Examiner’s weekly news.

Tim Peterson reports “Twitter Prepping Online Ad Exchange to Rival Facebook’s” at Ad Age|digital.

Big data visualized: John Koetsier posts “Twitter paints the world with your geo-tagged tweets” at Venture Beat.

Drew Olanoff posts “Twitter Redesigns #Music To Further Highlight Charts, Offering A Hint Of What’s To Come Site-Wide” at TechCrunch.

Brad Knutson shares “6 Steps to Organically Increase Your Twitter Following” at his blog.

Ann Smarty shares “7 Free Tools to Find Twitter Influencers Who Interact with You” at Small Business Trends.

Jennifer Horowitz discusses Pinterest’s launch of “rich pins” at Level 343.

Stephanie Buck interviews Pinterest Data Scientist John Rauser with “Building a Better Pinterest Through Data” at Mashable.

Kristi Hines posts “How to Use Pinterest Rich Pins: What Marketers Need to Know” at Social Media Examiner.

Barry Schwartz discusses a new Pinterest search feature that allows you to “Search Your Own ‘Pins’ On Pinterest” at Search Engine Land.

Citing research by Curalate, Ryan Tate posts “This Is the Perfect Pinterest Picture, According to Science” at Wired.

Greg Finn reports “LinkedIn Updates Get Richer: Upload Images, Documents & Presentations In A Post” at Marketing Land.

Jeff Bullas shares “39 Awesome Tools and Resources for Blogging and Social Media Marketing” at his blog.

Jamie Turner shares “5 Mobile Social Media Marketing Ideas to Grow Your Business” at Social Media Examiner.

Jeff Ogden posts “How the famous marketing expert Guy Kawasaki Manages Social Media” at Fearless Competitor.

Rachel DiCaro Metscher posts “Ensure That Strategy, not Tactics, Drives Your Social Media” at MarketingProfs.

Ken Yeung discusses “How Facebook could turn Home around by expanding integration with its own feature set” at The Next Web.

Based on Social Media Examiner’s 2013 Industry Report, Heidi Cohen posts a blog and infographic on “B2C Versus B2B: The Most Important Social Media Platform.”

Also citing research by Social Media Examiner (and Technorati Media), Jonathan Espinosa posts “Brands allocating most of social marketing budget on Facebook, uncertain of worth” at Inside Facebook.

Competing with the big boys: Ken Doctor discusses digital advertising dollars with “The newsonomics of climbing the ad food chain” at Nieman Journalism Lab.

Michael Brito discusses the recent “Altimeter Report: The Collaborative Economy Is Disrupting Business” at Britopian.

Events:

• Social Fresh West 2013 will return to San Diego August 22^nd and 23^rd.  Save $100 when you register by June 19^th!
• Social Brand Forum 2013 will be held in “Iowa’s Creative Corridor” in Coralville, October 24^th and 25^th.  Be among the first 100 to register to save $100 and get free copies of books by Jay Baer, Gini Dietrich, and Lee Odden!

(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 Taro Taylor (tarotastic)