Search Engine Weekly Roundup

Search Engine Weekly Round-up #38

The Search Engine Weekly Round-up is a quick collection of the finest articles from the online marketing world that have been released throughout the week. In the 38th edition of this content round-up, we have articles which look at how to build a top blog, a white hat SEO case study, how to mine user data and Youtube outreach.

How I Built A Top 100 Blog In 12 Months & How You Can Do It Too!
Matthew Woodward
Follow @MattWoodwardUK
The first post in this week’s round-up is via Matthew Woodward, and is definitely one of the finest posts which I’ve seen in quite some time. Matthew goes into meticulous detail regarding the entire history of his blog, from how and why he initially started writing and promoting the blog, to the status it’s at now, with actionable tips on how it can be replicated.
This post is a superb resource to have, seeing as it covers so many areas, including Youtube videos, affiliate sales, increasing email subscribers, site speed optimisation, which tools to use, et al.
Tweet Matt’s blog: Tweet

Search Engine Round-up #37

The Search Engine Weekly Round-up is a quick collection of the finest articles from the online marketing world that have been released throughout the week. In the 37th instalment of this content round-up, we have articles which look at White Hat vs Black Hat SEO, getting more reviews, an analysis of the SERPs and the verdict on some of the most common link building techniques.

Black Hat vs White Hat SEO
Martin Macdonald
Follow @searchmartin
Something which caused a bit of a stir in the community earlier this week is the re-emergance of the black hat/white hat discussions, primarily started by our very own Charles Floate in a thread on Inbound. So, in somewhat of a rebuttal, Martin Macdonald whipped up this post on the whole black hat/white hat ordeal. Martin wraps the post up by stating that in order to really be a top dog in this industry, you’ll have to don the white hat.

There have definitely been plenty of contrasting opinions on the matter, with one particularly interesting comment coming from Barry Adams, who says that black hat/white hat is superficial, and we should do whatever we can for the client, as well as Charlie himself saying that black hat is the only way to ensure that the big bucks start rolling in, in a short amount of time. What are your thoughts on the matter? Feel free to leave them in the comments below.
Tweet Martin’s blog: Tweet

Search Engine Weekly Roundup #36

The Search Engine Weekly Round-up is a quick collection of the finest articles from the online marketing world that have been released throughout the week. In the 36th instalment of this content round-up, we have articles which look at the current state of SEO, link building in 2006, getting links when you’re releasing a new website, and a massive list of free SEO tools and resources.

Revealed: The New SEO
ViperChill
Follow @ViperChill
The first post in this week’s roundup has certainly been the most discussed over the course of the week, as Glen of ViperChill has written a lengthy post regarding the state of the SERPs. The crux of this post looks at plenty of examples in which the SERPs have taken a bit of a battering, for various reasons, such as Google’s efforts to maintain “freshness”, meaning that possibly more relevant, valuable content gets left behind, and how spammy content is dominating some of the SERPs. Here’s a direct quote from the post, summing up his thoughts on the situation:

Not every single search phrase out there is being gamed so openly or easily, but there’s enough happening for me to comfortably say these are the worst search results I’ve seen in years.

Tweet Glen’s blog: Tweet

Search Engine Weekly Round-up #33

The Search Engine Weekly Round-up is where I look at the finest articles, talking points and news from the week from the worlds of SEO, Marketing, Social Media, etc. This week looks at the value of long-tail keywords, tools mentioned at Mozcon, the results of a link building survey and alternatives to the Google Adwords Keyword Tool.

The Value of Long-Tail Keywords
Tom Roberts
Follow @tjproberts
Whilst a lot of SEOs put plenty of effort into going for the big terms in order to bring in traffic and conversions, Tom Roberts tells us how targeting long-tail keywords can prove to be much more efficient in the long run. Though a long-tail term will bring in a fraction of searches as opposed to what a short-tail term brings in, as Tom states in this post, they’re much easier to rank for, and can be done on a much larger scale, and can certainly convert.
This post looks at the conversion funnel, a seasonal example of how targeting a long-tail term is infinitely quicker, easier and overall better than targeting a similar short-tail term as well as how you can find these long-tail terms through tools such as Ubersuggest.
Tweet Tom’s blog: Tweet

Search Engine Weekly Round-up #32

The Search Engine Weekly Round-up is where I look at the finest articles, talking points and news from the week from the worlds of SEO, Marketing, Social Media, etc. This week focuses on evergreen content, experts’ link building thoughts, some link cloaking and fake branding.

An Evergreen Content Case Study
Christopher Fielden
Follow @ChrisFielden
Evergreen content refers to a piece of content which is essentially timeless, and will continue to remain relevant to your niche/audience, as opposed to a piece of content on a topic which will see interest fizzle out.
The first post in this round-up takes a look at evergreen content, as Christopher Fielden has written up an in-depth case study on the matter, proving how effective some top-drawer evergreen content can be for your site. Christopher goes through his entire process of creating this content, which ended up being a list of short story writing competitions.
This post looks at the research that went into the creation of this post, the actual content, the links that were used, et al, and finishes by running through the metrics which prove that evergreen content is greatly beneficial.Tweet Chris’ blog: Tweet

Search Engine Weekly Round-up #30

The Search Engine Weekly Round-up is where I look at the finest articles, talking points and news from the week, all from the worlds of SEO, Marketing, Social Media, etc. This week looks at the confessions of a $100/month client, the best AdWord features, growth hacks, and excellent content promotion.

Confessions of a $100/Month SEO Client
Andrew Shotland
Follow @localseoguide
The first post in this week’s round-up is an interview provided by Andrew Shotland. Now, most interviews that are posted online are usually of industry leaders and such, but this is an interview with Paul Breaton, owner of a small business in San Ramon, California. The interview looks at the company’s best source of leads, Paul’s history with marketing, as well as his thoughts on social media and the value of keyword rankings. Andrew mentions at the end of the post that having a small business as part of your clientèle can be tough, as they don’t have the time or budget to be provided with anything substantial.
Have any of you worked with small businesses? If so, has your work proved fruitful?
Tweet Andrews’s blog: Tweet

Search Engine Weekly Round-up #29

The Search Engine Weekly Round-up is where I look at the finest articles, talking points and news from the week, all from the worlds of SEO, Marketing, Social Media, etc.
This week looks at the effects of Google Authorship on CTR, the metrics that matter, Penguin 2.0 “recoveries” and why you should re-purpose content.

How Does Google Authorship Affect CTR? 
Justin Briggs
Follow @justinrbriggs
The first post in this week’s round-up looks at Google Authorship and its affect on CTR, which has certainly been debated recently. After somebody posting on their blog about Authorship being responsible for a sizable drop in their CTR, there has been plenty of discussion on the topic. Matt Cutts has also had his say on the matter, claiming that the Penguin update was responsible. This post on Justin Briggs’ eponymous site talks about social annotations, how user behaviour is changing, analysing how users scan the SERPs, et al. It’s really fascinating to read how things are changing, plus the analysis of how people scan the results via heatmaps is particularly interesting.
Tweet Justin’s blog: Tweet