Friday Catch-Up: Most Important Posts and News on SEO and Online Marketing This Week (1)

News and Events

Google Goes Secretive on Panda

Google is no longer going to roll out manual Panda refereshes and nor is it going to provide any news regarding Panda from now on. The changes made to Panda in the future would be through rolling updates, which are expected to be sent out gradually. This does mean that marketers and webmasters are in a kind of a blind spot with regards to what to expect from Google’s Panda in the days to come. Sadly, nothing can be done about it. Read more at Search Engine Roundtable.

Google Trends to Support YouTube Searches

Google recently made it known through Google+ that they have begun supporting YouTube search data on Google Trends. This means that if you are looking for the emerging trends online, you can also find out what people are searching for the most on YouTube. The great thing about this move from Google is that they have incorporated YouTube searches going back to 2008. Users can limit the scope of their searches on Google Trends to exclusively YouTube search using the left-hand panel. Read more at Search Engine Land.

Google Accidently Penalizes Digg.com

Google has been on a penalizing spree the past few weeks. Several websites found violating Google’s regulations for online marketing have been penalized and Google is going increasingly strict about it. However, this time around a comedy of errors resulted in Digg.com being completely delisted from the Google index. The team at Google was trying to counter a spammer but ended up penalizing Digg.com accidentally. Thankfully, it was a popular site like Digg and the matter was dealt with quickly. Read more at Search Engine Roundtable.

Article on BBC’s Website Penalized

Speaking of penalties, the BBC website was latest to be penalized by Google. According to the official statement, they found unnatural links present on the website in one article. Google took the required action by penalizing the said article. The rest of the website was not affected whatsoever by the penalty. This does mean that Google is going to take specific action even if only one page of a large website is found to be using artificial links or committing any other violations. Read more at Search Engine Land.

Twitter’s Ad System Becomes More Equitable

Twitter has made it possible for the small advertisers using the website for marketing to employ the same tools available to the larger advertisers. This makes the ad system on the social network more equitable. Previously, only the large advertisers had access to certain tools and resources which helped them target more ads. Now, the smaller advertisers on Twitter would be able to use them. Among the major features being opened up to them is the Advanced Dashboard. Read more at Marketing Land.

Useful Posts worth Reading and Bookmarking

Enhancing Your Internet Marketing Funnel

It takes more to boost your online marketing efforts than just creating a funnel. You need to know the best ways for enhancing the results you get through using your internet marketing funnel. From tracking the leads you have generated to using storytelling as a promotion method, there are some great ways you can enhance your online marketing funnel. Read more at Eloqua.

How to Create a Killer Page for Capturing Leads

Sometimes driving traffic to your landing page doesn’t deliver the results you are looking for. You need to offer your visitors that something extra to convert them into genuine leads. Thankfully, there are some great tips and tricks you can use to create a killer page for capturing leads. Following the right steps ensures that you capture the maximum possible number of leads to pursue. Read more at Unbounce.

Best Ways to Employ Automation in Marketing

It is possible to put your online marketing efforts on autopilot given all the tools and resources available. However, you need to make sure you are using it in the best possible way. Else, you wouldn’t be able to get the results you are looking for. There is no doubt that marketing automation can reduce the hassle and efforts you have to put in considerably. But, you should know the 5 best ways to make use of marketing automation. Read more at Eloqua.

 Increasing Your Email List Exponentially

One of the most effective methods for capturing leads and online marketing is creating an email list. However, you might find it difficult to increase the number of people you are able to add to that list over time. Some of the most successful email lists have subscribers running into five digits and you can do the same by following the 7 best tips for increasing your email list exponentially. Read more at Kissmetrics.

Boost Your Link Tool Repertoire with 20 Great Resources

Link building is one of the best tools to drive traffic to your website. There are many tools and resources available which you can use to add links around the cyber space to get people to visit your website. Yet, you still need to make sure you are using only effective tools that will provide the results you are looking for. You can find out about 20 great resources for finding link tools that will boost your efforts. Read more at Search Engine Land.

Using Content Marketing to Generate Links

The importance of content marketing is growing and it has become one of the most crucial tools for online marketing. However, most marketers are unaware of how to use content marketing to generate links. It seems fairly innocuous and most of them assume that using keywords in the content they publish around the internet is all it takes to generate links but this is not the case. There are five main ways in which you can generate links through content marketing. Read more at Search Engine Journal.

A Great Tip for Analytics

Creating custom reports on Google Analytics is simple and most marketers feel that they can trust the data they find there. However, this is not correct. On the contrary, there are some common mistakes made by marketers who generate the custom reports. This isn’t a problem which cannot be rectified but for that you need to follow the right steps. Read more at Kaushik.net.

Creating an Ideal Infographic

There is no doubt that a well-made infographic is perhaps the best way to communicate dry and boring information and statistics. Yet, the bombardment of infographics over the internet has meant that most of them are fairly substandard. There are some specific things you need to be careful about when creating an infographic. Following the right steps would enable you to create an ideal infographic that has the desired effect on the viewers. Read more at eConsultancy.

Videos and Infographics of the Week

ShortCutts to Google SEO Videos

Webmasters and marketers are familiar with the videos posted by Google’s Matt Cutts from time to time. He provides advice and answers questions frequently asked by those using Google. Now, a catalogue has been set up to make it easy for users to access all of Cutts’ videos about Google SEO. You can simply check out TheShortCutts.com to find the 500+ videos created by Matt Cutts so far. View the video about ShortCutts at Search Engine Roundtable.

Importance of Tagging in Analytics

There are times when Google Analytics fails to detect the source of the traffic coming in to your website. Hence, it routinely categorizes it alongside the other direct visits your website has been attracting. There is a way in which you can get better accuracy on your referrals which is through tagging. You need to understand the value of Tagging in Google Analytics to make the most of it. View the video about the important of tagging in Analytics at SEOmoz.

404 Pages Which Will Impress You

There are few things more frustrating than to click on a link and be directed to a 404 error page. There are some websites though which have employed their creativity to come up with great error pages (if you could call them that). Looking at a well-designed error page takes away some of the frustration you experience right away after discovering the page you are looking for cannot be found. View an infographic containing 12 great examples of well-designed error pages at eConsultancy.

Making Clickable Calls-to-Action Effective

Using a call to action on your website is a great tactic to convince visitors to perform the desired action. However, sometimes including a clickable call to action may not deliver the results you want. There are some critical dos and don’ts of clickable calls to action which you need to keep in mind when designing and creating them. Find out 20 such dos and don’ts in the slideshow at Hubspot.

What You Can Learn from Great Presenters

There are presenters who can capture the attention of the audience from the get go. Then there are those that cause the attendees to doze off within a few minutes of going on. There are many things which you can learn from the great presenters. Steve Jobs is one such man who was known for his great presentations. You can take the lessons from their presentations and apply them to yours. View the slideshow about 7 great lessons to take from great presenters of our time at Hubspot.