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

This week’s web writing news focuses on the fundamentals. Content marketers discuss conversions, search and SEO folks emphasize basic SEO and link building practices, while social media marketers talk influence. Get back to the marketing basics with this week’s picks:

Content Marketing

So which brain is your website selling to? Smart read by Tim Ash at ClickZ.

Is your content getting boring? Five ways to bring “sexy” back are shared at Content Marketing Institute.

Stoney deGeyter addresses the need to “give a little” information to get conversions at Search Engine Guide.

Gabriella Sannino discusses conventional wisdom and branding (“3 Tricks No Hooker Should Try”) at Level 343.

Jonathan Morrow posts six ways to sell online without “selling your soul” at Copyblogger.

PR Web posts an interesting read on making “meme” marketing work for you.

Tips to better listening (for better content marketing) are posted at Content Marketing Institute.

SEO & Search

In the first of a series on basic SEO, George Aspland posts a read on organic keywords (“the first step in SEO”) at Search Engine Land.

Melissa Mackey discusses elemental PPC with “The 4 Pillars of a Successful PPC Campaign” at Search Engine Watch.

Vertical Measures posts seven criteria to consider when building links.

Neil Patel discusses the seven habits of highly effective SEO’s at QuickSprout.

SEO-friendly website features (that developers often miss) are posted at Search Engine Watch.

Vanessa Fox reports that Google’s Webmaster Tools now provides details on duplicate content (URLs) across domains via a new alert at Search Engine Land.

aimClear posts a fun read by Lauren Litwinka on the 66 worst search marketing books you’ll never read (“bookshelf of horrors”).

An SEO Q and A with Search Engine Land/Search Engine Roundtable’s Barry Schwartz (“Rusty Brick”) is posted by Dave Cain.

Josh McCoy pens an immensely helpful piece on “Agency SEO Pain Relief” at Search Engine Watch.

Social Media Marketing

Social media and small business headlines Social Media Examiner’s weekly news.

Marketing Sherpa posts a how-to on interactive email, with “six tactics to leverage the influence of social reinforcement.”

Mack Collier takes an honest look at being a social media consultant.

In the spirit of Halloween, Top Rank posts five social media marketing “tricks,” while Heidi Cohen discusses five social media marketing “monsters” via scare charts at ClickZ.