SEO content marketing roundup, week ending May 2nd

Of penguins and pandas…In this week’s latest & greatest Web-writing news, Google is yet again shaking up the SEO and search community with its latest Panda (3.5) update and webspam “Penguin” update. Meanwhile, content marketers run the gamut from the reality of mobile marketing to linking to email, and social media marketers get thoughtful (yet real) about the industry and that social ROI. Cuddle up with your favorite domestic animal and enjoy this week’s web gems!

Content Marketing

The data is in and the web is dead: Great read by Gini Dietrich on the (current reality and) inevitability of the dominance of mobile marketing platforms over the desktop PC with “The Web is Dead! Long Live Smartphones!” at Spin Sucks.

Angie Nikoleychuk discusses smart content marketing with “How to Boost the Success of Your Link Bait Before You Hit Publish” at Level 343.

Lee Odden shares “12 Timeless Link Building Tips for Business Blogs” at Top Rank.

Mitt Ray discusses how to write white papers and how to use them as part of your content marketing strategy at SEO Copywriting.

Roger C. Parker shares “3 Tips for Increasing your Content Productivity” at Content Marketing Institute.

Tim Ash discusses clarity in landing page design and content conversions with “Do Your Site Visitors Push Your Buttons?” at ClickZ.

So “Is Your Message Missing the Mark?” Jessica Collier discusses honing your landing page message for the best possible visitor experience at Ion Interactive.

Ian Lurie posts “10 ways to get into big trouble in marketing” (with skimping on content being #6) at Portent.

Need to feed the beast? Heidi Cohen discusses feeding the content development and marketing beasts with “7 Places to Find Cheap Content” at her blog.

Citing a study by Return Path, Pamela Parker discusses the incredibly promising new world of mobile email marketing with “Email Marketers Better Prepare For Mobile Opens, New Study Finds” at Marketing Land.

Illustrating with great examples, Corey Eridon posts “The 9 Must-Have Components of Compelling Email Copy” at HubSpot.

Running an email marketing campaign? Ashley Zeckman posts “Convert More Customers: Tips & Tricks For Running A/B Tests On Your Email Campaigns” at Top Rank.

Jeanne Jennings discusses a case study in which revising the email welcome message with a marketing message dramatically improved open and click-through rates, at ClickZ.

Smart all-around insights into content sharing and optimization are shared at TopRank Internet Marketing News with “Ask an Expert: How Can I Optimize My Online Content to Increase Shares and Exposure?”

Marketing Sherpa’s weekly research chart is on the imperative of content creation in improving SEO effectiveness.

The value of consistency (in showing up on your target market radar) is discussed by Seth Godin at his blog.

Did you miss BlueGlass LA? No worries – two different posts cover it in different ways:

The first, by Kevin Gibbons, “50 Tips & Takeaways from BlueGlass LA,” summarizes his tweets sharing on SEO and search to content marketing and much more, at SEOptimise.

The second, by Jason Miller, shares part one of two of “Ten Takeaways from Blueglass LA” (B2B perspective) at Marketo.

Events:

• CMS Expo Learning & Business Conference begins next Tuesday, May 8^th and runs thru the 10^th, in Evanston, IL. The conference theme is “ Content Management Meets Content Strategy & Content Marketing.” A whole lotta content going down!
• MarketingProfs University is offering a live, online “Marketing Writing Bootcamp” from May 10^th thru the 23^rd (with on-demand access to the recordings thru April of 2013). Use coupon code SUCCESS to save $200!
• The Content Strategy Conference, ConFab 2012, scheduled for May 14^th thru the 16^th, is completely sold out, but you can catch live coverage via blogs, updates, and the @confab2012 Twitter stream.
• Usability Week 2012 Conferences, hosted by the Neilsen Norman Group, are scheduled for May 14^th thru the 18^th in Washington, D.C., and for June 25^th thru the 29^th in Chicago.
• Marketing Sherpa’s Optimization Summit 2012 will be held in Denver from June 11^th thru the 14 ^th.
• Marketing Sherpa’s B2B Summit 2012 will be held in Orlando, August 27^th thru the 30^th.
• Content Marketing Institute’s Content Marketing World 2012 is scheduled for September 4^th thru the 6^th in Columbus, OH.

SEO & Search

A plethora of posts greets the SEO & search pro with the double-smackdown of Google’s Panda 3.5 (low quality) and Penguin (webspam) updates:

Danny Sullivan distinguishes between the Panda 3.5 (low-quality content) update and the Penguin (outright webspam) update –  including the winners and losers of Panda 3.5, and his correspondence with Matt Cutts – with a clarifying post at Search Engine Land.  (See source, Search Metrics, for the list of SEO visibility winners & losers).

Sullivan’s original post on Google’s Penguin update has some great background information: “Google Launches ‘Penguin Update’ Targeting Webspam In Search Results,” also at Search Engine Land.

Other enlightening posts on Google’s Panda 3.5 and Penguin updates include:

Aaron Wall’s decidedly no-bullshit take, “The Google Penguin Update: Over-Optimization, Webspam, & High Quality Empty Content Pages,” at SEOBook.

Bill Slawski’s “Google Praises SEO, Condemns Webspam, and Rolls Out Algorithm Change,” at SEO by the Sea.

Chris Crum’s “Google Panda Update: 12 Tips Directly from Google,” at WebProNews.

And of course, there’s Google’s own post by Matt Cutts, Distinguished Engineer, on the Penguin (and Panda) update: “Another step to reward high-quality sites,” at its Inside Search blog.

And for those who believe they’ve been wronged by the Penguin Update, there’s:

Danny Goodwin’s “Google Penguin Web Spam Algorithm Update Feedback Form Now Live,” where Matt Cutts is quoted announcing that you can plea your case or report a site that you think is spammy (“negative SEO”), at Search Engine Watch.

Pamela Vaughan’s “What to Do if Your Search Rankings Were Hurt by Google’s Penguin Update” at HubSpot.

And for those who believe they have been hacked by web spammers:

Citing Matt Cutts, Chris Crum reports that included in Google’s Webspam/Penguin update are sites that have been hacked by spammers (“The other kind of spam Google is dealing with”). An explanation and resources for help are at WebProNews.

Crum also reports on Google’s unprecedented move of sharing about the “human raters” in determining its algorithms, at WebProNews.

Asking what we all may be wondering, Bas van den Beld posts “Can We Still Trust Google?” at State of Search.

So how does the Google search engine actually work? Brad Kuenn explains at Vertical Measures.

Another great SEO 101 tutorial, on how to use HTML meta tags, is posted by Kristine Schachinger at Search Engine Watch.

For the more advanced, Ian Lurie shares “4 tips for technical SEO” (“for starters”) that every technical site audit should include, at Portent.

Lyena Solomon posts smart considerations for 1^st quarter website spring cleaning, from SEO and PPC audits to cost-effective social media strategies, at NetSprinter.

Lars Lofgren discusses the four types of Google Analytics goal types that are essential to businesses, at KISSmetrics.

Beyond SEO lies WPO? Krista LaRiviere discusses the all-inclusive “WPO” with “The Hierarchy of Web Presence Optimization” at gShift Labs.

Tim Schmoyer posts the ReelSEO summary for the week with YouTube Changes, Google Indexing Embeds & Adwords for Video – with a video about Google addressing “discovery problems” on YouTube.

Vanessa Fox discusses the expansion of search query data to 90 days using Google’s Webmaster Tools, and kindly offers a refresher, at Search Engine Land.

Josh McCoy discusses SEO competitive analysis with “3 Pillars of SEO Competitive Analysis” at Search Engine Watch.

Julie Joyce posts “Why Link Builders Need To Do More Than Just Build Links” at Search Engine Land.

Sujan Patel posts “Social Shares: The New Link Building” at Search Engine Journal.

Garrett French posts “How Limiting Your Google Queries Makes You a Better Link Prospector” at Search Engine Watch.

Ian Lurie discusses enterprise SEO with “Easy SEO Wins For Big Sites” at Search Engine Land.

Events:

• SMX (Search Marketing Expo) Advanced Seattle 2012 is scheduled for June 5^th and 6th. Workshops are on June 7^th.
• SES (Conference & Expo) Toronto is scheduled for June 11^th thru the 13^th. Register before May 11th to save up to $300!
• MozCon 2012 is scheduled for July 25th thru the 27th (in Seattle, of course).
• SES (Conference & Expo) San Francisco is scheduled for August 13^th thru the 17^th. Register before June 16^th for the best rates!
• PubCon Las Vegas 2012 is on for October 15^th thru the 19^th at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Register now for early bird rates!

Social Media Marketing

Mark Lazen pens an insightful read, “Right-sizing your Social Media Management Process,” at Social Media Today.

Level 343’s Gabriella Sannino discusses community building and “friends” with “Stop Everything You’re Doing In Social. You’re Fired.”

Sam Ford posts “6 New Maxims For Social Marketing” at Fast Company.

Josh Peters posts “60 Minutes to a More Efficient Social Business Strategy” at Mashable.

Kate Rose posts “5 Reasons Social Media Isn’t Working For You – And How To Fix Them” at business2community.

Bas van den Beld asks if social media activity can really boost rankings, sharing a fun infographic, at State of Search.

eMarketer posts “For Brands, Social Media Shows Returns but Measurement Hurdles Remain.”

Brian Solis discusses Frank Eliason’s book, @Your Service, with “Do Customers Really Matter to Your Business? Prove it.”

Rachelle Ayala posts the “Seven Sins of Social Networking” at Rachelle’s Window.

Mike Lewis posts “Evolving Social Media Analytics: Insights from Marshall Sponder” at Social Media Today.

If you can’t beat ‘em? In an interesting twist, “Flickr Teams With Pinterest For Easy Sharing & Proper Attribution,” reports Greg Finn at Marketing Land.

So Facebook is about to raise $5 billion from investors. It gets even more interesting with Jeff Bullas’ “20 Interesting Facts, Figures and Statistics Revealed by Facebook.”

Brittany Darwell reports that “Facebook says it sent more than 160 million visitors to Facebook-integrated mobile apps last month,” at Inside Facebook.

Hide and go Facebook tab seek? Nancy McCord posts “Facebook Business Pages – The Hidden Tabs – Can You Find Them?” at SiteProNews.

Ann Smarty discusses how to analyze your tweeting style from the readers’ perspective with 3 “addictive” tools at Internet Marketing Ninjas.

Dan Zarrella discusses the free Twitter tool, TweetCharts, which allows you to analyze Twitter data for any search term (and more), at HubSpot.

Nisha Kaushal posts “Why Twitter Needs to Change to Keep Up with Social Media Marketing” at Webbiquity.

Harry Gold posts “27 LinkedIn Social Media Marketing Tactics” at ClickZ.

Stephanie Sammons shares “5 Tips to Build and Grow Your LinkedIn Network”  at Social Media Examiner.

Events:

• BlogWorld & New Media Expo 2012, NYC is on for June 5^th thru the 7th in the Big Apple.

photo thanks to cnystrom (Chris Nystrom)