SEO Content Marketing Roundup, Week Ending January 5th, 2011

Happy New Year!  We’re wrapping up the old and ringing in the new in this year’s first weekly roundup of the latest and greatest web writing news: the “top” of this and the “best” of that 2010 meld with predictions, tips and strategies for 2011.  Keep your resolutions to stay informed and to stick to your marketing plan with these gems from content and social media marketing, SEO, and search!

Content Marketing:

After a record-breaking holiday sales season, e-commerce marketers have more good news, as J.P. Morgan predicts global e-commerce revenue to grow by 19-percent this year, via Techcrunch.

Website Magazine posts how to beat the post-holiday-rush blues by keeping the boom going, and Copyblogger and Junta Joe Pulizzi share their respective top posts of 2010.

Content Marketing Institute posts a handy content marketing checklist for quality control, explores samples of microsites, and lists examples of cool interactive online marketing tools geared towards reader engagement.

Got a content marketing plan for the New Year?  Take up this content marketing challenge to create an editorial calendar.  Double dare ya.

Conversation Marketing has two great reads:  one to do with the internet skills that marketers should always be learning, and the other showing 10 examples of content-friendly website designs.

SEO & Search:

Not to be outdone with this best of 2010 stuff, Google posts its own top 10 in its 2010 blog summary, while SEOmoz posts another version of its top 10, this one as measured by user comments. Wordtracker lists its best articles of 2010.

Search Engine Journal weighs in on SEO past and future with two posts penned by Alan Bleiweiss: the first recounting SEO’s past “epic” year and the second featuring SEJ reader predictions for “epic” changes in SEO for 2011.

SEO by the Sea examines the impact of content changes on search engine rankings.

Social Media Marketing:

Again, Facebook takes center stage with the news that it beat Google in U.S. web traffic in 2010, and that it has teamed up with Goldman Sachs in a clever workaround investment scheme explained well at Mashable.

This Search Engine Journal post argues that Facebook’s threat to Google is exaggerated, and Web Pro News reports that Stumble Upon betters Facebook in social media traffic.

In the meantime, Facebook fondly recounts its top 10 “moments” of 2010, as shared by users.  Jay Baer of Convince and Convert also shares the top 10 “social media thoughts” his readers liked best.

B2B bloggers may enjoy this Webbiquity compilation of the best business blogging guides and tips of 2010, while branding folks may like these 125 tips – yes, 125 — posted at Copyblogger.

Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz makes the case that Facebook and Twitter aren’t “enough,” and recommends other social sites to look into by traffic volume.

Social Media Examiner announces an online blogging success summit for February, and posts a great read on closing the gap between social media and direct response.

SME also posts 30 social media predictions from 30 social media pro’s, as well as Michael Steizner’s video interview with the CEO of Revision3 on internet television.

Finally, a smart post penned by Andy Beal on the unwritten laws of reputation management is at Forbes.