SEO Content Marketing Roundup, Week Ending February 2nd, 2011

Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, and spam.  Sound like your search results? Monty Python’s famous skit is most applicable to this week’s latest and greatest web writing news: SEO, search, and content marketers alike chirped up Google’s algorithmic change aimed at hammering the spam churned out by content farming giants – and it seems there’s fallout affecting legit folks, too.

And breaking news whirls around the “copygate” drama, in which Google is alleging that Microsoft/Bing copied its stuff…meaning, its users’ search data.  Read the latest and greatest news and links about these hot topics, as well as social media highlights, the clear and present reality of mobile marketing, and so much more, here.

Content Marketing:

Let’s go straight to the Google-Bing buzz first, with great posts all around:

Copygate? Just as we’re digesting Google’s crackdown on content mills, the Big G shook the search engine world again with allegations that Microsoft/Bing is copying their search results, as reported by Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land, and that it can prove it, as further reported by Quentin Hardy of Forbes.

Hardy also references Microsoft’s rebuttal of Google’s claim, via its post at ZD Net.

For a detailed, ongoing account of this unraveling saga, check in with Search Engine Land (which also covered Bing’s Future of Search Event via live blogging where a lot of this went down).

Onto other intriguing things… Content Marketing Institute posts a couple of notable pieces, one on what to do after you’ve created compelling content, and the other on content marketing in foreign languages.

The related subject of integrating online and offline marketing efforts is at State of Search.

Brian Solis posed the question:  Are you a content consumer or creator?

Great post at Hubspot about what Angry Birds has to teach marketers about online content, as well as a summary of the week’s big marketing stories that may have fallen through the cracks.

Several posts about mobile marketing to mention, as it is has widely been declared “the year of (this time for real)”…posts at Hubspot and iMedia Connection share different takes on the subject.

iMedia Connection posts how to keep the app from destroying the mobile web, as well as top technologies that marketers need to know.

eMarketer offers two articles of tech interest, one discussing the heated competition between the Android and the iPhone, and the second on figuring out the best fit for your online video needs.

Neuromarketing  posts a couple of interesting articles,  one about how it really does pay to schmooze and the second about Iowa State University’s new neuromarketing laboratory.

Copyblogger posts its weekly wrap, and Ian Lurie explains how he learned about marketing from dungeons and dragons at Conversation Marketing.

SEO and Search:

So, Google’s killed the idiot star? A comprehensive look at the rise and fall of the content farms is at Search Engine Land, as is Danny Sullivan’s humorous yet thoughtful perspective: The New York Times, Demand Media Edition.

Jeff Bercovici (of Forbes) takes on Demand Media in a number of posts, including clear evidence of plagiarism, as well as this priceless Congratulations Demand Media: You’re Still Pretty Dumb.

Reported fallout from Google’s anti-spam initiative is that numerous websites have been “hit,” although they generate quality content.  See Search Engine Roundtable for advice on how to fix the problem.

A smart perspective on “copygate,” as well as the Demand Media et. al. drama, is at SEOmoz.

Onto other SEO and search news:

Search Engine Journal published two great posts: one discussing how SEO is a writer’s (rather than technician’s) profession now, and the second exploring whether digital asset optimization will be the new SEO.

Web SEO Analytics posts a sweeping how-to on the fine art of SEO, while Aaron Wall posts a smart read on correlation analysis at SEO Book.

Search Engine Guide warns against letting duplicate pages and bad urls destroy your SEO, while iMedia Connection posts tragic SEO oversights and case studies of search marketings’ best and worst.

Social Media Marketing:

So where are small marketers seeing the most success? eMarketer reports – and no, it’s not Facebook.

eMarketer does discuss what makes Facebook fan pages successful, however, and in a related post, Chris Brogan shows examples of “compelling” Facebook fan pages.

Lee Odden posts a great read on developing a smart social media marketing strategy for commerce at Top Rank.

Hubspot posts a video of Dan Zarrella’s (Harvard) presentation, The Science of Social Media.  A second Hubspot posts how to leverage current events to get more blog visitors.

Social Media Explorer posts a smart piece on what CMO’s (Chief Marketing Officers) think of social media, while this link-gorged post at The Social CMO argues that the new reality is that we are all chief marketing officers.

Sexy Social Media takes a good look at the new reward-based social networking service, “Karmaback.”  Interesting read.

iMedia Connection posts ways to make SMO work in the “post-Google age,” and Jay Baer of Convince and Convert explains why your special offer isn’t.

Finally, Social Media Examiner posts its weekly wrap of what’s hot in social media news.