SEO Content Marketing Roundup, Week Ending June 15th, 2011

Looking for answers? Need some expert advice? Well you’re at the right place, because this week’s latest and greatest web writing news is positively crammed with counsel.  From improving the quality of your content to making search sociable and social searchable, it’s all here, dear reader, whatever your preferred venue: social media, content, SEO, and/or search.  Go on now and get some answers, hand-selected just for you.

Content Marketing:

Need a cure for the boring, useless content blues?  Check out this post from Copyblogger. It might help.

Speaking of useless, what (if any and under what conditions) is the role of content farms for content marketers?  Read more at Content Marketing Institute.

Lee Odden presents a five-step model for a killer B2B content marketing strategy by combining search and social at ClickZ.

HubSpot posts five ways inbound marketing drives B2B e-commerce.

Five tips for improving your headline click-through rates are at Content Marketing Institute.

The top five reasons why mobile sites fail are at iMedia Connection, and avoiding mobile site “suckage” is posted at ClickZ.

Six Revisions addresses the significance of smart design and strong content for website conversions, and HubSpot discusses the “science” behind website redesign and shares a handy “cheat sheet.”

eMarketer reports the relative stat’s of search and video advertising spending, saying that U.S. online ad spending is poised to grow by 20-percent this year.

Mashable reports that online display (banner) ad spending jumped 14.6-percent in the first quarter of 2011.

On the subject of online ads, Content Marketing Institute posts a step-by-step guide to using Facebook ads for content marketing.

Do you consider yourself a content strategist? Or is that just a new term for an SEO copywriter?  Join the discussion at SEO Copywriting.

Seth Godin pens a smart read about the inevitable trend towards free content at his blog. (It defies a brief description. You’ll just have to read it).

And by the way, a most favorable review of Sherpa’s 2011 B2B Marketing Advanced Practices Handbook is posted at Top Rank.

SEO & Search:

Vertical Measures discusses the whole concept behind Schema.org (itself covered in some detail in last week’s roundup), explaining that it is a way to tell search engines what your content means.

SEOmoz addresses whether Google uses Facebook shares to influence search rankings, while Bernie Borges posts why shareable content is the new SEO king at Find and Convert’s (Optimize This) blog.

Search Engine Land posts an interesting read about using personas and scenarios in SEO, while Search Engine Watch notes the significance of social SEO with “Getting Creative with SEO.”

Heather Lloyd-Martin (guest) posts the delightful and educational “Ten SEO Myths, Mistakes and Conversion-Sucking Monsters” at WordStream.

Gabriella Sannino (Level 343) draws a tasty allegory between fast food and clients’ SEO expectations with “SEO Fast Food: I’ll take #1 ranking with that, but hold the long tail.”

A truly exceptional read on whether SEO is “irreducibly complex” is at SEO Book

A few notable reports from last week’s SMX Advanced Seattle: Matt McGee of Search Engine Land reports that Google’s Panda Update 2.2 is coming soon (scrapers beware) and gives a liveblog account of social data search with Bing Director Stefan Weitz.

Also from SMX Advanced, Lauren Litwinka reports on actionable local SEO tactics at aimClear.

More recently, from SES Toronto, is this intriguing piece on keyword forensics at Top Rank.

Ian Lurie discusses website quality as a ranking factor at Conversation Marketing, and Search Engine Watch posts SEO for small businesses.

Website Magazine features an article on inbound link prospecting, while SEOmoz discusses link building management.

Finally, Mack Collier ponders the relative impact of blog post frequency vs. keywords in posts on search traffic.

Social Media Marketing:

Mashable reports that Facebook growth actually slowed in the U.S. and Canada over April and May, but the up side is that its IPO (coming in 2012) could be worth $100 billion, says Search Engine Land.

Mashable reports that Facebook turned on facial recognition for tagging by default, and Sexy Social Media discusses the resultant pr fallout for the social media behemoth.

Facebook’s default facial recognition initiative is also covered in Social Media Examiner’s weekly news, as is Twitter now automatically shortening links for users.

Social Media Examiner also posts the “ultimate” bloggers guide to SEO, as well as new research supporting why your company should use brand advocates.

In a related post, Mack Collier uses Delta Airline’s latest pr episode to illustrate the need to engage your brand advocates.

How Southwest Airlines is connecting with consumers via social media is posted via interview at Social Media Examiner, and {grow} examines the anatomy of a truly social business.

Are you on LinkedIn?  Then according to Mashable, you’ve got klout.

Website Magazine reports a survey in which 60-percent of respondents indicate that LinkedIn is the “most important” social network.

Citing the sad case of Congressman Anthony Weiner, Heidi Cohen posts social media guidelines in the age of exposure.

Twitter’s been handed the keys to the Apple iOS kingdom, as discussed at TechCrunch.

Copyblogger posts steps to client prospecting on Twitter, while eMarketer reports that Twitter users want businesses to “answer them” on that platform.

Finally, Mack Collier posts why social media is not a contingency plan for having a shitty product.