SEO News

The hashtag, or '#', is a regular feature on Twitter and is making its way into the daily conversations of people who actually say things like "hashtag: awkward" out loud. No wonder then that it is "word of the year". Source: Search Engine Watch

The fast pace of business in the digital age means that businesses (and business models) are shifting more rapidly than ever. New technologies and innovations can quickly sweep away well established and seeking solid business models within just a few years. There are plenty of such examples from the digital age, Blockbusters and Kodak to name just two. In the latter case, Kodak failed to adapt to the growth of digital photography and the concurrent decline of photographic film, and a company which had traded for more than 100 years was forced to file for bankruptcy. Blockbuster, which had itself been a disruptive company which saw the growth in home video and bui…

Google had been offering users a warning if they searched for terms including "Freedom", and whenever someone in China had made such a move would tell them that their internet connection could be interrupted. Such warnings ceased in early December. Source: Search Engine Watch

Marin Software conducted research that sought to answer the question of whether search and social advertising campaigns managed together produced better results. What it found was positive results in the areas of conversions and revenue. Source: Search Engine Watch

The technology industry is lagging behind many other sectors when it comes to the proportion of women taking up entry level positions. This is according to US research by McKinsey in their new report: Women in the Workplace The study surveyed 132 companies which collectively employ more than 4.6m people. It shows that while 75% of CEOs in corporate America are saying gender equality is a top ten priority – and in the wake of the high-profile Gamergate controversy – tech is still woefully behind. Women entering the tech industry are far outnumbered by men and they lose ground on every step of the ladder The McKinsey report separates out key industries in the …

Brands that learn how to evolve their approach to SEO and content to fit this new world will emerge on top. Here�s how to take an SEO perspective on content and merge it with content strategy, editorial, distribution, and planning. Source: Search Engine Watch

Vic Gundotra, the driving force behind the Google+ platform, has announced he is leaving Google, which has many people pondering the future of Google+. Gundotra, who has been with Google for eight years, is leaving the company effective immediately. Source: Search Engine Watch

We don’t generally think of paid search as a great channel for personalisation, but increasingly, it’s becoming one. Caroline Reynolds, VP of Paid Search at iProspect, gave a presentation at the Content Marketing Association’s most recent Digital Breakfast explaining exactly how personalisation and paid search can work together. It’s never been easier to reach people through the myriad marketing channels at our disposal, and yet it’s also never been harder to make a real connection with them. Marketers are discovering that personalisation is key to this: it allows them to build an emotional connection with consumers in a way that was never possible before. “It’s …

Clever use of videos can tremendously help your SEO efforts and make good content more digestible and engaging. Get ahead of the competition and give your link building a boost by reaching consumers where they already are � watching videos online. Source: Search Engine Watch

Launching a Dynamic Search Ad (DSA) campaign through Google AdWords takes work and refinement, but over time, if created and optimized correctly, this campaign can become your very own gold mine. You can use these tips to get started. Source: Search Engine Watch

In the movie Her, Joaquin Pheonix plays a lonely and heartbroken man who develops strong romantic feelings for his mobile operating system. “Samantha,” as he calls it, speaks to him, listens to him, and ultimately becomes a major part of his life. As technology stands right now, we may not be at the point of making real “human” connections with our mobile devices, but we do talk to them. We talk to them a lot. Mobile technology is progressing quickly, and soon, speech recognition software will become even more advanced and far more prevalent than it is now. Ultimately, improved speech recognition software will have a significant impact on how the public uses sear…

In order to develop successful persona profiles, you need to know where to get the information and the right questions to ask. Here�s all the information you need to gather about your customers' behavior to create detailed customer personas. Source: Search Engine Watch

Use the Google Analytics Solutions Gallery to find custom dashboards created by experts to speed up the time to insights. You donât have to be an analytics guru to use these dashboards, but you can monetize the data and make better decisions faster. Source: Search Engine Watch

Google announced on its Analytics blog and at SMX East the launch of some intriguing updates to its Analytics platform. Notably a free version of Optimize 360 and a new metric, Session Quality Score. Optimize: what is it? Optimize 360 was launched as an enterprise-level product in March this year, and is essentially a landing page testing tool that allows site owners to test page layouts and copy without changing a page’s source code. This new version, for which users can sign up to trial now, will be available for anyone with an Analytics account worldwide, free of charge. How will it work? The functionality is similar to the likes of Optimizely (as…

It can be easy to overcomplicate content strategy and keyword research. There�s lots of great ways you to create a content strategy, but to really make it a success you have to get to know your audience and find out what it is they want to see. Source: Search Engine Watch

Nothing can compare to launching a new website. There's a lot to get done and all the checklists in the world probably won't prevent you from missing out on a big opportunity. Never fear. By thinking ahead, you can avoid these five common scenarios. Source: Search Engine Watch

What tools do you have in your toolkit to help you find prospects? LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, an email subscription list, etc.? All of these are great, but wouldn’t it be good to automate the process, and bring in more targets? Of course it would! Basic tips to increase leads Before investing into tools, make sure you have some basic things in order: Make sure your pages are super fast. A slowly loading page is one of the most frequent reasons for a bounce. Use Page Speed tool to find what’s slowing your site down. Make sure your pages are hosted reliably. Downtime means your site will not even have a chance to convert. Use Uptime Report that monitors upt…

More brands are hopping in bed with Instagram and statistics show the relationship just might work. If your brand is buying Instagram shots for everyone, here�s how to track every move, filter, hashtag, keyword, Like, comment, and user. Source: Search Engine Watch

Too much emphasis is placed on web analytics to determine what changes to make to improve a website's conversion rates. Here's why conducting a knowledge gap analysis should be your first step to find ways to increase your conversions. Source: Search Engine Watch

A complete introduction to all the meta tags a webmaster may need when creating or optimising a webpage for SEO. Everything will be covered here, including: Title Tag, Meta Description, Alt-Text for images, Canonical Tag, Noindex, Nofollow, H1 – H6 tags, Robots Meta Tag and the various tags involved in Google News. But first, let’s answer the question… What are meta tags? Meta tags are HTML elements that provide information about a web page for search engines and website visitors. These elements must be placed as tags in the <head> section of a HTML document so therefore need to be coded in your CMS. Some are easier to implement than others, especial…