Internet Marketing is an extremely new industry.

Heck, Google is just 14 years old. So what does that mean about me and my two years working in this industry? It doesn’t make me ancient, but it sure doesn’t make me newbie either. Two years is a long time in SEO when you take into consideration the rapid changes, algorithm updates and the evolution of social media. The learning curve also isn’t so steep when you have a dozen of go-to blogs you read on a daily basis, surround yourself with SEO experts and attend Search Marketing and Social Media events with guest speakers like, Danny Sullivan, Rand Fishskin, Duane Forrester and Peter Shankman. With so much information out there, you would be foolish not to take advantage of it as a marketer.

I’ve taken advantage of all of the free information out there and in an attempt to solidify what I’ve learned I started writing. And didn’t stop until I got to 102:

Search Engine Optimization

1. SEO isn’t dead; it’s evolving.
2. The lines between PR, SEO and social media are becoming blurred.
3. SEO is a culmination of online marketing strategies that lets the search engines know you’re relevant, informative and worthy of being ranked.
4. Google wants to rank brands; not websites.
5. It’s not about how pretty your website looks; it’s about how well your website converts visitors to paying customers.
6. Everything on your website that doesn’t contribute to your primary objective should be eliminated.
7. Never stop A/B testing elements on your website. Doing your own A/B tests will give you data on what compels people to click and convert on your site.
8. Don’t count out Bing. With Bing’s social search they might close in even more on Google’s market share.
9. You should be tracking all of your online marketing campaigns through tracking URLs. (We can help you with this, by the way). The great thing about internet marketing is that everything is trackable.
10. Don’t get mad at Google. It’s easy to forget that they’re facilitating an immense amount of free traffic to websites every year. And the better they get at filtering out webspam, the more relevant legitimate sites like yours appear.
11. Even though Google doesn’t look at page descriptions as a ranking factor; your page description is still important because it’s what compels users to CLICK on your search listings!
12. Title tags, or the clickable links that show up on search results, are also really important. Limit them to 70 characters so the whole title will appear without getting cut off in Google or Twitter.
13. Optimize all of your photos! This is one simple thing that most people don’t do. When you upload a photo fill out the “alternative text” and “title” with a brief description of the photo and a call-to-action that will appear when users mouse over the image. Naturally, your description should include keywords.
14. Every single page on your website, and key content elements on those pages, should be shareable on the “Big 5”: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+.

15. Besides the Big 5, keep an eye out for Tumblr and Instagram. Depending on your industry, these niche sites could be where you put the most of effort and time to reach a relevant audience.
16. The 6 major “investment” areas for SEO are: crawlability, site structure, on-page optimization, content development, links and social media. – Duane Forrester at Salt Lake’s Search Marketing Event.
17. Content isn’t everything; there’s still a lot more to SEO that simply involves technically optimizing your site and existing assets).

Social Media

18. Engagement is the most important measure to track when it comes to social media. By keeping your followers engaged, they’ll know exactly where to go when the need arises.
19. You can’t control what goes “viral.” There’s no formula for making content spread virally. All you can do is know your audience and try your best to engage them.
20. It’s not about the amount of followers you have; it’s about how relevant your followers are.
21. “Everything you post, say, tweet or share on social media increases or decreases the credibility of your personal brand.” –Peter Shankman at Salt Lake’s Social Media Club event.
22. Sharing happiness is always good self promotion.
23. Being helpful is the most important thing on social media. This applies to both your personal or business account.
24. Social media rule of thumb: Listen before you speak. Don’t smother people. Earn some street cred before you engage in the conversation.
25. Don’t underestimate the power of your employees. They are the secret to creating great content and spreading that content socially to the right audience.
26. Social signals do affect your SEO campaign directly. They’re a sign of “topical authority” according to Bing.
27. Social signals remain only a few of the thousands of signals that Bing uses to rank websites. But they’re becoming more important every day and are here to stay.
28. At SEO.com we’ve never bought followers, shares, tweets, etc. Buying followers might give you a quick win, but it’s not a long term strategy. If you think Facebook and Twitter can’t determine unnatural social patterns, you’re wrong.
29. Social media’s indirect impact on rankings are more important than their direct impact. When you have people sharing your content, your brand is in front of new people. Plus, you’ll gain more qualified traffic to your website, repeat visitors and leads/sales.

Images

30. Don’t underestimate the power of images to drive traffic and sales. (How’s it going Instagram and Pinterest?)
31. Besides just Pinterest and Instagram, you also need awesome, engaging images for Google+ and Facebook.
32. Images are the hook to your content; the first think people see on a page. Put some effort into them, and make them good.

33. Don’t forget about images on your product pages and blog posts. Visual cues help the reader digest written content and stay on the page longer.
34. If you’re an eCommerce website, consider placing a “pin it” button on every single one of your products for Pinterest. It’s done wonders for Sephora.
35. Place this link in your browser and replace “YourWebsite” with your website to see which of your images are on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/source/YourWebsite (or your competitors…)
36. Pinterest just rolled out Analytics for their site, in preparation to monetize. First you need to verify your business account. Switch to the new look. Click on the Anlaytics tab and viola!
37. Pinterest boards rank in Google, not individual pins. Make your boards as specific as possible and add as much content that relates to that topic as you can.
38. Pinterest and Instagram contests are great, but make sure your end goal is relevant followers; not just “new” followers.

Google+

39. Google+ is a great way to build your authority within your interests and expertise.
40. Google+ is a better way to engage with influencers in your industry than Facebook or Twitter. Adding a person you’ve never met on Facebook is creepy; circling them on G+ is not. Unlike Twitter you have more than 140 characters to get their attention.
41. Google+ Communities are a great place to promote your work and grow your online network. (Take a look at our booming G+ Community).
42. The fact that Google hasn’t given up on Google+ means that you shouldn’t give up either.
43. Google Authorship is important, if you care about Google.
44. It’s important to build your Author Rank. Google is placing more emphasis on domain and page authority and the Google Authorship markup will help establish trust within your industry (and with Google). 
45. As YouTube, Google+ and Hangouts become more integrated, don’t be surprised if Google+ capitalizes on YouTube’s user base for Google+’s benefit.

Facebook

46. Affinity, Interaction and Timeliness are the three scores that affect your Facebook EdgeRank score. Not every single one of you posts (from your personal or business account) will reach all of your followers or friends.
47. If Facebook is an outlet where you want to reach all of your fans, you’re going to have to cough up some cash and pay to promote posts. Facebook is a business and needs to make money too.
48. Remember how quickly Facebook changed their site in the early years? Change is going to be constant. Facebook’s “Knowledge Graph” is in its early stages, expect quick and rapid updates that will make the search feature more useful. Also don’t expect Facebook to stop changing their Timeline layout.
49. Facebook Knowledge Graph is currently not all that helpful for all industries because we don’t “like” everything on Facebook that we like in real life.
50. The companies that can benefit from Knowledge Graph are in the entertainment, movies, TV, music, restaurant, travel, hotel and activities industries.
51. Just like you can optimize your website for Google, you can optimize your Facebook page for the Knowledge Graph.
52. Sometimes people just want a good laugh, especially on Facebook. Instead of trying to sell them something, try to get them to laugh. The end result will be the same: engaging your audience with your brand.
53. Pay close attention to what fans respond to. Duplicate and amplify your activity across those same lines.

Twitter

54. Tweet- Deck is the most effective way to use Twitter. It lets you organize your followers into lists. For example, at SEO.com we have lists for “competitors,” “influencers” and “engages with us.” For my personal twitter I have lists for “marketing,” “action sports” and “music.”
55. All social media platforms are an extension of your customer service department. This is true especially for Twitter because of its instantaneous nature.
56. It’s okay to post links to your blog a few times a day on Twitter. Understand that not all of your followers are paying attention to Twitter (or you) 24/7.
57. Mix up the title of your tweets that link to blog posts. “5 Ways to Beat EdgeRank,” might not compel someone to click, but “The Best Content to Create for Facebook” might. As a rule of thumb, create at least 5 different tweets for the same blog post.

Content

58. Your content will matter more 6 months from now; not less. Content is becoming the center of gravity for online marketing.
59. If you ever get writer’s block, check your keyword research; you might be targeting a topic nobody wants to search or read about, which means you’re talking to an empty room.
60. Create cool content that people want to share instead of “great” content that just fills up your site and social feeds. Utah based, Zagg is a good example of how to do just that.
61. You don’t need access to the journalist anymore: You are the journalist. Create great content and establish yourself as an authority.
62. By creating great content and establishing yourself as an authority, you’ll build an army of people (your audience) who will spread your content for free.
63. Timely blog posts around the holidays are effective. Who wouldn’t want to share a blog post about how SEOs say I love you on Valentine’s Day?
64. How Tos, Top 5/10/etc., Tips, Reviews, Definitive Guides and Top 102 lists (You’re already at 64!) are good ways to format blog content that’s scannable.
65. Create clickable titles for the user, not for Google. Google is smart enough to understand how the content inside your blog post relates to your title.

66. Bloggers should take note, and act a little bit more like Kanye West.
67. Context (noun): The parts of a written or spoken statement that follow a specific work or passage, usually influencing its meaning or effect. Context is everything in internet marketing.
68. Check your Google Analytics and see which of your blog posts perform well. There might be opportunity to update and re-publish them. (Like we did with 71 Chrome Extensions for Blogging & SEO).
69. Slideshare is a great way to breathe new life into your best content by repurposing it in another format.
70. Google can crawl Slide shares for links, which is why they can be a powerful part of your content/ link-building strategy.
71. We live in a digital world where a lot of information is re-packaged but in a different way. If you’re repurposing ideas, you better make them your own.
72. When commenting on blog posts, G+ Communities, etc. actually adding to the conversation goes a lot farther than a simple, “good post.”
73. Search engines REALLY DO respond to unique, useful content.

Link- Building

74. Links that are the hardest to obtain directly will normally benefit you the most. High-value publications place hurdles to filter out low-quality tactics.
75. Exact-match anchor text isn’t dead but it’s on a feeding tube. Google is smart enough to understand what a link is about without using the exact phrase you want to rank within the link, and it may hurt your rankings if you keep hammering the same phrase over and over.
76. Build links through already existing marketing strategies.
77. Google Instant’s auto-complete feature is great for keyword research.

Quora

78. Quora is an underrated social platform.
79. Quora is great for establishing your authority in a particular niche and answering questions that prospects might have which could lead to a backlink to your website.
80. Quora is also a great place to find content ideas. Look at the questions that people outside of your industry are asking. Pay attention to the language they use. Something that’s obvious to you, might not be so obvious to prospect. That’s why you’re the expert.
81. Quora shows up on Bing results as a part of their social side-bar which gives you a huge opportunity to rank on the first page of Bing for particular search queries.
82. Quora even pulls weight with Google. Unlike Bing, Google simply grabs from Quora what they feel is the single best answer, based on their algorithm for any questions you may ask.
83. If you’re providing topic-relevant, keyword-rich questions people are asking on Quora, there’s a good chance you will show up in Bing and Google results, especially for long-tail keyword phrases.

Inbound Marketing Execution

84. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs.
85. Use the language that your customers are using so you don’t lose prospects with jargon; especially in the SEO industry. No one wants to hear you geek out about “meta” keywords and canonical tags.
86. We’re in the middle of a massive culture shift. Don’t get emotionally attached to tactics or platforms.
87. The ability to write, a once overlooked skill, is now one of the most important things a market can develop.
88. Authenticity will always win in the long run; it trumps everything else you do.
89. Don’t abuse sites like PRWeb.com for press releases unless you actually have something to announce. It’s only a matter of time before using press-release services as a link-building tactic will back fire.
90. The same goes for infographics. Use them for social media, not as a link-building tactic, if you want to fool-proof your strategy.
91. Help A Reporter Out (HARO), is worth signing up for. It’s free, and if you keep up on it, you’ll find opportunities to be interviewed by a reporter about a query you reply to which could be featured in an editorial story.

Mobile & Local SEO

92. People of the world are doing two things: they are becoming more social and more reliant on their smartphones. Don’t ignore the mobile space.
93. One key to ranking well locally is to have your business address citation (also known as the NAP- name, address, phone number) added to your website and have this citation appear with the same unique information on multiple sites across the web.
94. Another key to local SEO is receiving high- quality reviews from customers on sites like Yelp, City Search, Google+ Local and Angie’s list.
95. Google+ Local is also a big key to the local SEO game and showing up on mobile results for users in your geographic area.
96. Mobile user intent is very different than desktop user intent. How are people using their mobile device to search for your product? Think backwards, from search to site, when crafting mobile SEO and PPC campaigns.
97. Google OWNS mobile search. Look at what happened when Apple released Apple Maps.
98. Mobile ads are just getting started. Expect to be dished ads based on your location even more in the future.
99. Mobile SEO should no longer be an afterthought. By 2015, 2 billion people worldwide are expected to own smartphones and Mobile local search is predicted to surpass local desktop search by 2015.
100. A responsive website design is not always the best for mobile. It depends on the purpose of your website.
101. Things don’t happen overnight. There’s no quick and easy way to gain a following on Twitter or rank #1 in Google. Internet marketing is a marathon; not a sprint.

102. Companies like SEO.com exist because Internet Marketing is a big mountain for your company to climb on its own. With support from an agency, you’ll have the ability to reach new heights.

What are some quick tips you’ve learned about Internet Marketing that you would add to the list? Leave me a comment and let me know if you would like me to go into further detail.

102 Things I’ve Learned About Internet Marketing is a post by SEO expert Rebecca Babicz. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

Have you ever wondered why some of your friend’s updates show up on your newsfeed, while others don’t? No, it’s not because some friends post on Facebook more than others (although, they do). This occurrence is due to Facebook’s internal algoritm, called, “EdgeRank.”

Simply put, EdgeRank determines which updates show up in a user’s news-feed. As a company, wouldn’t it be nice if all of your updates reached all of your followers? Before that can happen, you’ll need an understanding of how EdgeRank works. Much like SEOs need to understand the different factors that go into Google’s algorithm to rank higher, anyone running a Facebook Fan Page, needs to understand how Facebook EdgeRank works.

Here are the three “scores” that affect the overall EdgeRank of a post:

• 1. Affinity -This score is based on how often (if at all) a user checks your fan page. It also takes into account the time spent on your fan page looking through photos and/or newsfeed posts.
• 2. Interaction – This score is based on user engagement, and increases when a user likes, comments or shares your posts. A comment or share requires a higher level of engagement and thus will increase EdgeRank score, for that post and future posts more than a simple, “like.”
• 3. Timeliness – This score is based on when the update is published and how quickly it receives interaction. The more interaction that an update receives in a short period of time the better chance it has of showing up in other users’ newsfeeds and “sticking,” for a longer period of time.

Unless you work at Facebook it’s hard to know the exact percentages and values that Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm places on user actions. Businesses may be at a disadvantage when it comes to using Facebook fan pages because Facebook hopes to monetize their product by charging money to “promote” posts. If all of your posts automatically show up in all of your fan’s newsfeeds, then why would you pay for it? With all of this being said, marketers can still improve their chances of showing up in newsfeeds (without paying) by simply posting smarter updates. Crafting smarter updates means understanding Facebook psychology, knowing what types of content works and when to post it. Here’s a quick look at Facebook psychology:

[Click To Enlarge]

Infographic sources from Psychology Today and PewInternet.

Types of Content You Should be Creating

Gone are the days when it was okay for marketers to post mundane updates like, “It’s SNOWWINGG OUT!!!” or “Check us out!” with a link to the homepage. Now you need a real strategy, and it all starts with one thing: content.

Here are 3 types of content you should be creating for better Facebook engagement:

• Visual Content- Humans are visual creatures, which is why networks like Pinterest and Instagram (for which Facebook plunked down $1 billion) have exploded in popularity recently. Images also stand out on Facebook newsfeeds and receive 39% higher interaction on average than posts without images. Visual content can come in the form of memes, cartoons or just beautiful photos. Another idea is to take a small screen-shot of an infographic and turn it into a micro-graphic. Accommodate image posts with “Caption this photo,” and “fill in the blank,” to get the conversation started and receive better engagement. The Atlantic does a good job posting visual content and getting their fans engaged: 

• Entertaining Content- Facebook is a place where people go often just because they’re bored. They’re looking for a good laugh—something to brighten their day and entertain them. The psychology behind sharing an update on Facebook is simple: people share things that evoke emotion. People are likely to share content that entertains them because they want to share that entertainment with their friends. Entertaining content can come in the form of images or a simple but noteworthy text update, like a joke or a factoid. Updates that link to an entertaining blog post, video, SlideShare or GIF are also highly shareable. It’s important to remember when you create “entertaining” content, you should also strive to remain relevant. For example, a post about who won the Super Bowl is not something followers would expect from SEO.com. But a post about popular search terms on Google during the Super Bowl would be relevant to the SEO.com brand and would be something our followers would find entertaining. Here’s an example of an entertaining post that hit home with some SEO.com fans: 

• Educational Content- Besides just entertaining their friends, people on Facebook also want to share educational content that makes them look smart. Share an image with a compelling statistic or piece of data on it. “Did you know…” and “What do you think about…” are good conversation starters for informational content that will encourage users to engage with your post. The New York Times naturally posts educational content that receives a lot shares. Think about your company as a newspaper. What kinds of  content can you share with your followers that will educate them?

By creating visual, relevant content that adds value to your fans, you’ll earn the right to promote your product or service some of the time without seeming too pushy.

The Best Time to Post

Knowing the best time to post updates to Facebook is half the battle of engagement. If you post at a time when none of your followers are on Facebook, no one will see your updates. If you’re posting when there is a high volume of updates, you risk being in direct competition other posts that will naturally have a higher EdgeRank. So how do you know when to post to updates to Facebook? For starters, if you are managing a business page, dive into your Facebook analytics and see what time your most popular posts were published.

A lot of data has been collected about the best times to post, but in my opinion companies should constantly be testing their theories because every industry and audience is different. Recent studies have shown that “non-busy hours” from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. generally receive a better engagement rate than “busy hours,” from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. (Yes, you read that right! Overnight posts are the ideal time to post.)

Weekends, according to the study, are also great days to post content, especially on Sundays when Facebook users spend more time using the site. I’ve tested that notion for SEO.com’s Facebook page, and it hasn’t really been that effective. As it turns out, the time we receive the most engagement is from 3pm- 6pm on weekdays. For highly newsworthy updates, I’ll publish them within the 9am hour so we’ll show up earlier in the day. Ideal post times are likely different for everyone.

When it comes to the number of updates you should post, be weary of “over-posting,” and being too promotional. People are smart enough to know the different between a post that adds value and a post that is contrived. As long as you have quality, timely updates (think: like newspapers do) it’s okay to post several times a day to keep fans updated with fresh content in their feed.

That being said, there’s no right or wrong when it comes to marketing on Facebook, as long as you can prove it works for you. Competitive analysis can also help you gauge your audience’s tolerance. Test different theories until you have enough data to understand what works best for your brand and industry.

Pro-Tips

Marketers walk a fine line when it comes to social media, and the line is thinner on Facebook. On one side, you want to drive traffic to your site and improve your ROI by letting your fans know about your offerings and steer them to your product. But you need to do that while not intruding on their personal space with too much promotional content. It’s annoying to have updates show up on your newsfeed that you don’t really care about. A fan will hide your updates or “un-like” your fan page if you’re not relevant, entertaining or informational.

In my opinion, engagement is the most important measure to track on Facebook because, at the end of the day, it’s what fuels revenue. Without engagement, you’ll never have the chance to build your brand and advocates. By keeping your fans engaged, you won’t fall off their newsfeeds. And when the need arises (i.e., a need your product or service), they will know exactly where to go.

How have you increased Facebook engagement? I would love to hear your comments below.

How to Become More Visible on Facebook’s Newsfeed is a post by SEO expert Rebecca Babicz. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

2013 Is Here… Is Your Search Marketing Strategy Ready?

From multiple Panda and Penguin updates, and the exact match domain crack down, 2012 turned out to be quite a stunning year in the world of search engine optimization.

In this video, Ash Buckles, President of SEO.com will briefly highlight 13 predictions you should be aware of for 2013

Topics Covered In This Video:

• Author Rank
• Co-occurrance
• Facebook Edgerank
• Local SEO
• Google+ Communities
• Link Earning
• Link Removal
• Mobile Search
• Site SEO & Page SEO
• Social Signals
• Repurposed Content and Video Infographics

It will be interesting to see how Ash’s predictions stack up this time next year.

What do you think 2013 will bring to the world of SEO? What will the all mighty Google do next? Will other search engines finally rise to the occasion?

I’d love to hear from you in the comments or questions in the comment section below.

Until next time…

PS: To get even more information, you should check out this blog post: SEO Tips for 2013: Author Rank, Co-occurrence and More

13 Predictions You Should Be Aware Of For 2013 – Video is a post by SEO expert Darin Berntson. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

Facebook is rolling out a new single-column design for users in New Zealand, almost one year after launching the timeline layout for personal and business profiles.

According to blogger Mari Smith, the new profile design incorporates a number of additional change, including the ability to organize specific sections of the profile and a redesigned “About” section.

The new timeline is housed on the left, and is reportedly wider than the current left column, leaving the right column smaller.

Current Facebook Timeline Layout vs. New Layout
(Image credit: thenextweb.com)

Facebook Cover Photos

With the timeline redesign comes a possible change in cover images. Currently, the Facebook cover image dimensions are 851px wide by 315px tall. Smith says the profile photo container is in a slightly different position, so users may need to alter their cover photo to accommodate the change.

From “Subscribers” to “Followers”

As reported by Mashable in December, Facebook recently changed the “Subscribers” nomenclature to something more Twitter-like: “Followers”. The feature allows people to to see your public updates in their news feeds.

The New “Poke” App

Facebook users can now send video, a photo or a text with the new “Poke” messaging app, Hayley Tsukayama with The Washington Post reported in December. The app is available on the iPhone as a free download.

Social Media Network ACSI Scores 2012

These changes come on the heels of the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index ratings, which shows Facebook received the lowest score of all compared with other social networks.

Google Plus and Wikipedia were the consumer favorites, scoring a tie at 78, while YouTube and Pinterest came in second and third place respectively.

Dan Richey is an SEO manager at SEO.com, and says while social networks continue to evolve, social media should be a part of a well-balanced Internet Marketing campaign.

“Many businesses do not even have a social media strategy,” Richey points out. “As search engines are increasingly incorporating social media signals into their search results, business owners need to be guided by someone who is aware of the changes and how to utilize the changes best. When you hire an SEO firm, you get the added benefit of not just one person learning the changes, but the knowledge of an entire team of people learning and testing the social media changes.”

Facebook Tests Single-Column Timeline Design is a post by SEO expert Andrew Johnson. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

As Google continues to enhance the functionality of Google+, their newest feature gives profiles and pages a way to curate content around a particular topic or interest. Google+ Communities are here, and the company says they are a “gathering place for your passions.” According to Google’s official Communities page, Google Plus Communities offer:

• A place to share your interests, and give each of your different groups a home base.
• An arena to post photos and videos, as well as hold discussions in a hangout.
• A forum to share news, ideas and passions around topics across public or private communities.
• The ability to post to a community from any +1 button on the web.

 How to start a Google Plus Community

Step 1: Log in to Google+, and click on the “Communities” icon on the left.

Step 2: Click “Create community”, and you can choose whether your new community will be public or private.

Step 3: Now you can name your community. In this example, I created a community called “Healthy Living”.

Step 4: Add the communities information, including:

• Tagline
• Description
• Location
• Photo
• Discussion categories

Step 5: Invite people to the community

Here is the finished “Healthy Living” Google+ Community.

Examples of other Google+ Communities

There are some great Google Plus communities out there, even though it’s a relatively new feature. Check out these examples:

• SEO and Internet Marketing Professionals
• Chelsea FC Fans
• Ford Photo Community
• GoPro Community
• Signage

Leveraging Google+ Communities for SEO

As you begin the process of cultivating relationships for the purpose of guest blogging outreach, you can create and maintain these relationships within the communities.

Communities may also be a factor that Google will use to determine your AuthorRank. With the development of Google Authorship markup and Google+ itself, building up your authority around specific topics through high quality content, and sharing that content with relevant communities will be crucial moving forward.

Since Google+ Communities are a new concept, it remains to be seen how or if they will positively affect an organic search campaign. However, there are a number of distinct advantages to joining and participating:

You can engage with your target market - People who join communities are passionate about those topics, and are willing to engage on posts here more so than on personal or business profiles. Answer their questions, participate in discussions and get to know the people in the community. What are their challenges or problems? What are their successes? By treating the community like a focus group, you’ll be able to create better content for your blog and more focused calls-to-action on landing pages.

You can drive relevant traffic back to your website - Through insightful and helpful content, adding a link to your blog post now and then will benefit the community, as long as it doesn’t come off as spammy.

In today’s world of search engine optimization, relationship building is absolutely necessary. That’s why Google Plus communities can be extremely beneficial for the outreach process of content marketing.

How To Set Up Google+ Communities is a post by SEO expert Andrew Johnson. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

Once upon a time, before online marketers seized upon them as vehicles for SEO and viral marketing campaigns, infographics were actually data visualization tools (Crazy, right?). It’s time to get back to those roots, as evidenced by the really bad infographics out there that could be fixed by following some simple principles in research and design.

By keeping infographics about information more than marketing, you can ensure that users find content in them worth sharing and that the time and effort invested in your graphics is worthwhile.

You can see how infographics are done right by looking at how print media use them (and have been for a long time, page 43). After all, magazines and newspapers have limited real estate, and they won’t waste it on mediocre visuals. But online, we have seemingly unlimited visual space to fill. That combined with the fact that infographics are resource- and time-intensive marketing properties to generate, has made poorly researched, lazily designed graphics the norm in online marketing. It ends up being a waste of time and resources for everyone involved.

What An Infographic Is (and Is Not)

Here’s something ironic: a crappy infographic trying to warn you against crappy infographics. It’s hard to tell what exactly the joke is, the punch-lines or the design. But this example gets to the heart of a big source of bad design: Infographics are meant to portray data visually, not just display images with text (those are called web pages). Without getting too sarcastic about it, let’s look at the way that the infographic format gets abused.

• Infographics aren’t replacements for blog posts. You’ll see a lot of top-10 lists and such turned into infographics, but that’s just text and images; there’s no data present, and it certainly isn’t visualized in a compelling way.

• Timelines that don’t really illustrate anything. As that Spy Magazine infographic linked to in the introduction shows, timelines can be extremely information-dense when done correctly. They can also be just a jumble of barely connected facts from a certain historical category. Infographic timelines should be more than just snapshots of different eras; they need to dig deeper into a subject and show an interesting progression on a certain subject over time.
• Graphs are not infographics. If all you have is some bar graphs, pie charts and scatter-plot data, you don’t have an infographic. This is mostly a failure to visualize the data, a vital infographic design principle which we’ll go over later.
• Maps that don’t add anything to the data. Another failure of visualization, here. If you want to map something out, it should show how geography affects, or is affected by, the data you’re presenting. But many graphics use it as a crutch to simply compare data from different locations. There’s often a better way to display that information.

A lot of these problems stem either from the fact that the designers were trying to create an infographic without any information, or they chose a design that was entirely divorced from the data they were presenting. Compare those with infographics that are information-dense, designed around the data and just surprisingly creative (like the one below), and you’ll realize that the bad examples fall way short of what an infographic can and should be.

Battling Research Laziness

The root of most bad content, whether it’s infographics, blog posts or drunken wedding speeches is lack of preparation. Research can be tedious and time-consuming; it’s always more satisfying to start collecting some vector graphics, slap them into Photoshop and hope for the best. But that’s not a good recipe for any good finished product, whether you’re talking web pages or car engines. You have to take more time in choosing your topic, collecting the data and making sure you have enough to support a full infographic in the first place.

Smart Topic Selection: The topic really can be anything. I don’t buy the argument that you can’t turn a survey or any other statistical data into a compelling graphic, as long as you have enough information to make it worth the reader’s time and a smart design that does justice to the underlying questions that the data raises.

Getting Enough Material: Sometimes, though, a particular data point will make a great section for an infographic, but the idea couldn’t support an entire graphic on its own. You have to know whether you have enough data to make it visually interesting, and if you can’t find it during the research phase, it may be that you just have to mothball the subject and pick something else.

A Shareable Payoff: Nobody wants to share an anemic graphic, and readers will actually resent you wasting their time if they clicked on a link and didn’t get what they bargained for. Spreading the information out to make it seem like there’s more of it is like trying to spread your peas out on the plate so you can get dessert. Everybody knows what’s going on here. But with enough material, smartly designed, you’ll be more likely to hit the mark with readers and get them to share.

Tell Me A Story

Theme is everything for infographics; the raw data has to be put into context in an appealing way that surprises, entertains or inspires the viewer. We’re talking about creating a visual narrative that “tells a story” about the information you’re representing. Without a unifying theme, all you have is a large image with a collage of graphs and vector graphics plastered onto it. The theme unites the data in a smart way that’s more than just matching colors and playing with fonts.

The flow of a graphic is part of the theme. Too many graphics don’t seem to have any overall organization to them; the different sections could be completely rearranged without any effect, and that’s a bad thing. Think of this concept as a visual story arch; you have a beginning, a middle, and an end to your graphic, and the reader is intuitively guided from one section to the next. And the flow doesn’t have to be linear. A lot of beautifully arranged graphics aren’t funneled into the 600-pixel wide, blog-friendly format.

Bringing Back Data Visualization

There is a reason that there are sites like Information is Beautiful curate and award well-designed infographics; it’s because some designs definitely stand out, and these curators are sifting the wheat from the chaff. Good design can make insightful connections in even the most (seemingly) mundane statistical data. Bad design (see below) can make even interesting topics seem unimpressive and boring.

There are clichés in data visualization, and you learn them in elementary school: bar and pie graphs. A creative infographic design will have few (preferably none) of them. If your client’s want graphs and charts, they can use Excel; they don’t need a designer. A designer’s job is to find creative ways to make the data come to life and make connections between the data and real life that people otherwise wouldn’t see. On the other hand, playing with fonts and typography is not a substitute for actually visualizing the data in some way.

We also want to see as little text on an infographic as possible; words are meant to be labels, and the images should speak for themselves. A good infographic design makes it easier to quickly digest and share complex or interesting information in a visual way, not through reading. If the information could be more easily described in words, you shouldn’t be using an infographic. You should always show, not tell, whenever possible.

Better Infographics Through Better Planning

Not everyone who is developing infographics for clients needs to be a designer. But by understanding how these graphics can go wrong, we can make sure that we do the groundwork (research, planning, etc.) so that whoever does design it will hit the mark more often, make readers take notice, and you’re your infographic shared by people who curate and spread data that’s displayed elegantly.

Infographics vs. Infocrapics: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly is a post by SEO expert Paul Sanders. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

On November 14th Pinterest made the announcement that they are finally allowing businesses to set up official business accounts and that they are also rolling out a business-specific terms of service that’s totally separate from the regular terms of service that you and I have to abide by.

In their announcement they stated that their reasoning for moving to business specific accounts was the increased contribution of quality content from the business community:

“Thousands of businesses have become a part of our community, giving great ideas, content, and inspiration to people on Pinterest. Whether it’s Anthropologie sharing awesome clothes, Whole Foods sharing tasty recipes, the Smithsonian sharing fascinating collections, or Amazon making products easy to pin, many of us have been inspired on Pinterest by businesses.”

If you are like one of the many businesses who’ve been using a personal account as a business account and would like to convert your account to an official business account, then follow along as I walk you through the step to do so. We will also cover how to set up a business account if you’re setting up a Pinterest account for the first time.

Converting To A Pinterest Business Account

1. Go to business.pinterest.com and click on the big red ‘Convert your existing account’ button.

2. Select your ‘Business Type’ and update your ‘Contact Name’ and your “Email Address’ if you have changes that need to be made.

3. Fill out your profile information. Note that none of this needs to change unless you skipped past this part when you first set up your account or if you want to make edits.

4. Scroll all the way down to the ‘Agreement’ section and read the agreement, or not .

5. Click I agree to the ‘Business Terms of Service and Privacy Policy’.

6. Then, click on the big red ‘Convert Account’ button.

That’s it! You’re done! Super easy, right?

Setting Up A Pinterest Business Account

For those who are interested in setting up a Pinterest business account for the first time, the process is almost identical to the process outlined above for converting an existing account. The first thing you will need to is click on the ‘New to Pinterest? Join as a business’ link instead of the big red convert your account button. Once you are inside, you will need to add a profile image and fill in the ‘About’ section. Other than that, everything is the exact same.

If you have any questions or concerns about the process, please feel free to ask in the comments section below. If you are wanting to learn more about marketing on Pinterest, please read our awesome three part series (part 1, part 2, part 3) and this gem on launching successful Pinterest marketing campaigns.

How To Setup Or Convert To A Pinterest Business Account is a post by SEO expert Greg Shuey. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

Hubspot Teams Up With SEO.com For FREE SEO Crash Course Video Training

From SEO basics to advanced strategies, this 3-part video series has it all.

>> Enroll In The Crash Course TODAY

Search engine optimization is a critical part to any business marketing strategy, and it is important to keep up to date with all of the changes happening with the Google algorithm, as well as other search engines.

If you want to be found online, you must be aware of all the critical steps that will help your business succeed.

IN THIS COURSE YOU WILL LEARN:

• Introductory: How to improve on-page SEO
  Featuring Rebecca Babicz 
• Intermediate: How Social Media Impacts SEO
  Featuring Darin “Doc” Berntson 
• Advanced: Deep Dive Into Google’s Algorithm Changes
  Featuring Preston Van Dyke 

WHO SHOULD ENROLL?
Business owners and marketing professionals wanting to learn more about SEO

Embed our SEO Crash Course Infographic:

<a href="http://www.seo.com/blog/seo-crash-course-3-part-video-series/"><img src="http://www.seo.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/SEO-Crash-Course-Video-Series-Graphic-500x1024.jpg" alt="SEO Crash Course – 3-Part Video Series - Infographic "width="width="500" height="1024" border="0" /></a>

We are thrilled to be a part of this SEO crash course video series with Hubspot.

Each course has a short video that is delivered via email each week. You will also receive some great action items, best practices, and additional resources from Hubspot.

What are you waiting for?

>> Click Here To Enroll In The Crash Course TODAY!!

When you have completed the course, or any time before then, we would love to get your feedback in the comments below.

SEO Crash Course: 3-Part Video Series is a post by SEO expert Darin Berntson. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

Recently, our friends at Hubspot reached out to me and asked if we would like to be a part of a new ebook they were putting together called SEO Tips From Industry Experts… and of course I said “absolutely, we would love to!”

Our topic to cover was Mastering On-Page SEO, and for this we had our VP of Client Services, Greg Shuey provide the content.

Other topic covered in the eBook are:

• Keywords: Understanding Fundamentals by Rebecca Churt, Hubspot
• The Right Way to Build Links by Stephanie Chang, Distilled
• How Social Media Influences SEO by Darmesh Shah, Hubspot
• How To Increase Clicks In SERP by Rand Fishkin, SEOMOZ

After the Infographic below you will have an opportunity to download the new 61-page eBook.

We are honored to be a part of this revised guide that Hubspot has published, and to be in great company with Distilled, SEOmoz and of course Hubspot.

If you would like to get your hands on this new Learning SEO from the Experts ebook, download it now. This will be one eBook you will not want to miss!

And be sure to let us know what you think in the comments below.

>>Download The Guide Here

SEO Tips From Industry Experts: An Infographic And Ebook is a post by SEO expert Darin Berntson. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

Will Bing Out-Social Google?

Does the average Joe or Jane REALLY prefer Bing to Google’s search results?

Let me start with a side note. Last Thursday was Google’s 14^th birthday. Did you notice, did you care, and did you send Google a present for being your favorite search engine? Since you probably did not… Bing and Klout sure did, in what could be more of a shot across the bow of sorts, letting Google know they are coming up right behind them.

Yes, Bing aligned with Klout… You know the “we stalk you online and give you an online credit score” site. I joke a little here, as Klout is an online influencer site that people either love or hate. Either way, Klout is one of the best and well-known “people graders” on the web. Sure, they have competition and a lot of criticism, but Klout has their own “clout” in that they have many brands that love working with them. Their list now includes Microsoft and Bing.

What does all this mean to you? You will now see Klout information on the Bing sidebar showing results in the People Who You Know section. Not only will you get search results, Bing and Klout will try to connect you to “experts” on the subject you are looking for. Time will tell if this is a big deal or not.

Bing It On – Take The Search Engine Challenge

Those of us in the industry pay the most attention to Google when it comes to search engine optimization and pay-per-click, and we typically use Google for all of our own searches. However, should we start to take notice of Bing?

According to Bing, “people choose Bing web search results over Google 2 to 1 in a blind comparison test”. The question is, will preferring Bing in a sidewalk test, coupled with some fun advertising, make people actually switch to Bing?

Granted, Bing is now branding themselves better, but they have much larger hurdles to jump over. It is not like Coke vs. Pepsi where a shopper goes into a supermarket and grabs the soda they just tasted. Bing needs to convince users to change their computer (and minds) away from their Google default settings.

Google is the search engine version of Kleenex, while Bing is the off- brand. Not that it is a bad thing, but if people want to know something, they “Google it”. Sure, you can Bing it, but all of the other verbs of Bing sound funny. “I’m Binging it now honey”, “I just Binged that Dave”, or would you say, “When I Bang that, I found these 2 shirts for $15.00 each”? It is just odd. OK, the verbs thing was more of a goofy rant, but you get my point on branding right. Google has a leg up, and apparently, Microsoft and Bing do not care. They say, just go to ‘Google’ it on Bing.

Does the average consumer really care what results they get? Will they scroll and scroll until they find what they want? Or is everyone only happy with the first page results?

Let’s Do This Bing!

Let’s see how the Bing it On Challenge worked for me. Here is my own test on subjects I like (don’t judge me):

#1: Best Disneyland Restaurant: The trained eye can pick out Google like Lindsay Lohan in a mug shot.

Gotta give this one to Google. #1 reason is the Rel=Author photo in the first result and the rest are from popular Disney fan sites that I know as well as popular foodie blogs and Yelp. What Bing serves up unfortunately nothing of interest to me.

#2 Best Movie of All Time

The results on the right look like Google, only because of the Rel=Author again. Not to mention, the results just look correct. These sites make the most sense to me. How about you?

#3 Start Trek’s Best Villain (I said don’t judge me!)

WOW, this one is a draw for me. A few of the same results in different rankings, but on the left has some video in the results (Bing BTW). It is too close to call. Qapla’!

#4 Mazda vs Hyundai – I own one of each, so what do the SERPs have to say?

I think I prefer the one on the right as it has some Yahoo Answers callouts. Otherwise, I am somewhat bored with both results actually. I think I would refine my search.

#5 Social Media Management Tools – Well, it is what I do? No I’m not a tool. I use them.

The right wins easily! Pictures draw the eye baby! For me, seeing that real people are reviewing these helps me want to click.

Here is my final score.

Damn you Google, you won this time. I did some other tests as well, not so much on the long tail search, but more with just one keyword… such as boogers (yes I’m a little childish) and Bing served up better, photo-centric results for that. Check it out for yourself, if you are not squeamish.

In the end, my results may not be the same as yours, and I have more of a trained eye as to what to look for, so maybe my answers are a bit biased. I think Bing is doing a very decent job. Bings search volume continues to climb, and a very large chunk of the population uses it daily for search (including my dad). Therefore, to ignore Bing from a marketing play would not be a good idea.

Wrapping This Puppy Up!

Was this “birthday present” Bing sent to Google really a present after all or did the “shot across the bow” backfire? Or did Bing make a huge advancement into the social search engine battle with their affiliation with Klout and their new “Bing it On” marketing play?

As Bing continues to improve its offering, I feel as if the Microsoft search engine will gain more in popularity. Bing is making strides to be a great alternative to Google, as well they should. And to advertisers and internet marketers out there, you best pay attention and take advantage of what Bing has to offer, this is something that Google is NOT always getting… eyeballs!

What do you think? Have you taken the Bing it on challenge? What did you think about that Klout announcement last week? Feel free to leave comments below.

Until next time…

Doc

What the Bing! Should You Make The Switch? is a post by SEO expert Darin Berntson. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.