SEO

21 May 2013
In SEO
By Usama

What is an Advertorial and How Can It Be Used?

An advertorial is, simply put, an advertisement under the guise of an editorial piece. They are designed to promote and advertise a product/service/brand, whilst doing so in the layout of other content on the website.

advertorial

Advertorials have been around for quite some time, originally used in newspapers/print media, dating back to the 1940’s, eventually transitioning over to the web. This post will look into why advertorials are used, past controversies and what should be taken into account if you plan on running an advertorial campaign.

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17 May 2013
In Search Engine Weekly Roundup, SEO
By Usama

Search Engine Weekly Round-up #26

The Search Engine Weekly Round-up is where I look at the finest articles, talking points and general news from the week, all from the worlds of SEO, Marketing, Social Media, etc. This week features blogs about converting from 404 pages, viral email marketing, speaking to non-technical clients, and breaking the news of Penguin 2.0 to your clients.

Valuable 404 Pages
Ben Cook

I’m sure that we’ve all seen 404 pages that are entertaining, creative or funny, but you seldom see 404 pages that can convert, which is what this post is all about.
Ben Cook ended up implementing a contact form into the 404 pages of his client’s website, which also contained a small apology, stating that the user can send an email and receive a link/file in regards to what they were looking for originally.This can help create a rapport with the user, whilst showing a fine level of customer service.

Ben’s idea ended up proving profitable, as said rapport opened further talks, which eventually led to sales. This is a fantastic post, offering a very simple, actionable idea which can be a huge boon for your company.

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15 May 2013
In Link Building, SEO
By Usama

Google’s Penguin 2.0 Update: What We Can Expect

It’s been just over a year since the first Penguin update and many websites are still shaking at the sound of the word. The Penguin update affected a huge number of websites, including some high-profile brands that were engaging in all sorts of spammy link building techniques. Matt Cutts has now confirmed on Twitter that Penguin 2.0 will hit the search engines within the next two weeks:

 

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23 April 2013
In SEO
By Usama

WordPress SEO Tips: Get the Most Out of Your WordPress Blogs

With over 40 million new posts created every month, and with it holding host to the likes of CNN, UPS, Reuters, et al, it’s safe to say that WordPress is the premier platform for you to build your site upon.

On top of using it as a content management system/blogging platform, it can be massive in your SEO strategy.

A vanilla WordPress site can be well optimised for search engines, but there are an absolute plethora of methods and plugins out there which can vastly improve your WordPress SEO, and help get the most out of your site.

This post will run through a list of methods that you can introduce to your WordPress website/blog, and as well as that, I’ll also mention various plugins which can play a big part.

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19 April 2013
In Search Engine Weekly Roundup, SEO
By Usama

Search Engine Weekly Roundup #22

The Search Engine Weekly Roundup is where I give you a list of the finest blogs from the week, revolving around SEO, Social Media, CRO, Marketing, et al. This week, we look at creative link building and link building resources, as well as what to think about when building a landing page, and how to build an online community.

The Second Most Creative Link Building Post Ever
Jon Cooper

The Most Creative Link Building Post Ever was one of the most popular posts of the past few months, and is currently the highest rated article on Inbound.org. Jon Cooper of Point Blank SEO asked a group of SEOs “What was the most creative way you, or someone you know, got a link?”, and listed their responses in the aforementioned post. This post is a follow up to that, due to the sheer flurry of responses that he got, and the popularity of the post. This is a fantastic read, which contains very creative, inventive link building methods from some of the finest SEOs around.
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12 April 2013
In SEO
By Usama

Search Engine Weekly Roundup #21

The Search Engine Weekly Roundup is where I give you a list of the finest blogs from the week, revolving around SEO, Social Media, CRO, Marketing, et al. This week looks at building Google+ authority, social media strategies, link building and seasonal campaigns.

Being an Authority on Google+ Directly Impacts Search Results
Jeff Sauer

Starting things off this week, Jeff Sauer has constructed a case study based on the importance of Google+ to SEO (spoiler: it’s rather important). Jeff’s study is the culmination of a 3 week test, where he looked at the impact of Google+ on a set of new websites, by isolating it from all other factors, by only using Google+ promotion. The post details the entire process of what he did and what happened, and is all wrapped up with 8 key points to take away from the whole situation. Essentially, the crux of the matter is: Google+ can have a huge effect, and can help a site rank quickly and indeed help retain those rankings.
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11 April 2013
In SEO
By Usama

The End of Google Reader: 3 Alternatives

Recently, Google announced that they were retiring Google Reader, nearly 8 years after its inception. The reasoning behind this is provided by Alan Green, a software engineer, via the Google Reader blog:

“There are two simple reasons for this: usage of Google Reader has declined, and as a company we’re pouring all of our energy into fewer products. We think that kind of focus will make for a better user experience”

Although, Brian Shih, a former Google Reader Product Manager, has said that its downfall may have stemmed from Google+. More on that can be found here.

It’s going to be completely gone from July 1st, with Google giving us a few months to say our goodbyes, and of course, find an alternative feed reader. In light of this, I’ve been researching and using a plethora of RSS readers recently, and I’ve chosen three Google Reader alternatives.

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22 March 2013
In Search Engine Weekly Roundup, SEO
By Usama

Search Engine Weekly Roundup #20

The Search Engine Weekly Roundup is where I give you a list of the finest blogs from the week, revolving around SEO, Social Media, CRO, Marketing, etc. This week looks at outsourcing, must-have SEO tools, how somebody got a link from CNET, and a very creative new website.

The Big Guide to Outsourcing
Matt Beswick

The first post this week looks at outsourcing, where Matt Beswick has collated his thoughts on the matter, and sources to help your own outsourcing. He says that its importance comes from taking the dull tasks that we all have to sift through, and ensuring an efficient way of getting them done. This post covers the key areas of this topic: Research, content, design, outreach and coding. In each of these sections, there are various tools related to each area, such as the usage of oDesk in regards to outsourcing research, and 99designs for design work, as well Matt’s success with these sources. A very helpful article, seeing as, well, we’d all love to get those redundant tasks out of our hair, and this is guide on doing it.
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15 March 2013
In Search Engine Weekly Roundup, SEO
By Usama

Search Engine Weekly Roundup #19

The Search Engine Weekly Roundup is where I give you a list of the finest blogs from the week, revolving around SEO, Social Media, CRO, Marketing, etc. This week, we look at a new Panda update, how to explain what SEO is, how SEO changed somebody’s life, and how a company saw a 262% conversion rise.

Matt Cutts Confirms Panda Update Coming This Friday
Search Engine Journal

At the very recent Search Marketing Expo, Google’s head of spam Matt Cutts announced that the latest Panda update was to be released very soon – likely to be sometime around Friday the 15th – Monday the 18th of March.
The last Panda update occurred on the 22nd of January 2013, which saw 1.2% of search terms affected by it.
Also, looking at this article, it seems that Panda updates will be integrated into Google’s overall continuous algorithm updates. One massive point that Matt Cutts made during this conference is that there will be another Penguin update at some point this year, and it’s gonna be a big one.
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8 March 2013
In Search Engine Weekly Roundup, SEO
By Usama

Search Engine Weekly Roundup #18

The Search Engine Weekly Roundup is where I give you a list of the finest blogs from the week, revolving around SEO, Social Media, CRO, Marketing, etc. This week, we look at a new SEOmoz tool, how to get reviews from your customers, native marketing, and a link criteria.

Getting Low Hanging Links Using Fresh Web Explorer
Bill Sebald

On Wednesday the 6th of March, SEOmoz announced a brand new tool – the Fresh Web Explorer, which was described as “an easy way to track all of your links, social mentions, and web citations in one place”, and has been released as a beta to SEOmoz PRO subscribers. People have already had a play around with this new tool, and Bill Sebald of Green Lane SEO has already written something about the Fresh Web Explorer. He’s written about how this tool can search for several terms, and provide very quick findings, as well as how he wrote a review not so long ago, and can use this tool to find sites in which he can attain a link from regarding said review.
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