I come across a lot of good articles each week that I never get to mention, so I thought I’d join some of the other bloggers in the seo community and offer a few links. I’ve hesitated to do this in the past, because I imagine you’ll already have seen some of these, but I decided to give it a shot and see how it goes.
I’ve tried to post links around a few topics that were making the rounds this week instead of just a random list of links. If you like the concept let me know and if you have any suggestions on ways to organize a list of seo and webmaster related links I’ll be happy to listen.
Local Search
Local search still hasn’t quite become mainstream, but it is gaining ground. Recently Google expanded its ‘Onebox’ results to include a map and local results for general searches that include a location.
Graywolf posted the list of interviews he’s been doing with SEOs about local search as well as other local search resources. He also has some tips for promoting your business locally on a low or even no budget. Michael’s even created a custom search engine where you can get results from a variety of articles on local search.
Matt McGhee (with some help from Bill Slawski) has some theories on what it takes to rank well in Google Local. Matt’s probably spent as much time with local search as anyone.
* Local Search Articles and Information
* 13 Ways to Promote Your Local Business for Free
Blogging
What blogger doesn’t want more subscribers and more readers visiting their blog. And how many of us can say we’ve never suffered from writer’s block. Darren Rowse has some good ideas for getting people to subscribe and once they do he’s got ideas for getting them to click through to visit your site. You’ll notice the posts contradict each other with one of the tips, deciding whether to offer full of partial rss feeds.
* 11 Ways to Find New RSS Subscribers for Your Blog
Link Building, Directories, and Other Ways to Bring Traffic
Loren Baker offers some advice on link buying, including paid directories. Aaron Wall gave us a video on how to evaluate the quality of directories and also discussed some possible filters and penalties search engines might impose on a variety of things seo, including directories. Neil Patel and Brian Provost have some ideas on how to build traffic beyond search.
* Guide to Link Buying : Directories, Ads and Reviews
* [Video] Submitting to Web Directories to Build Your Link Profile
* New Directory, URL, & Keyword Phrase Based Google Filters & Penalties
* The Ultimate Guide To Increasing Web Traffic
* How To Generate Targeted Site Traffic Without Search Engines
Brand and Reputation
Rand had some interesting thoughts on branding, including the use of your brand in page titles. (and who’s handsome icon is that I see commenting?) Jill Whalen’s post on title tags also considers brand in page titles. Bill Slawski looks at a Google patent for ranking content creators and assigning them a reputation score and Jennifer Laycock offers her thoughts as a follow up to Bill’s article.
* Neuromarketing & Branding in the Search Results
* All About Title Tags
* Google’s Agent Rank Patent Application
Search Engine News
When isn’t there news from the search engines? This Week Google announced they will be adding quality score information within AdWords accounts and also mentioned they will be making significant changes to the quality score algorithm. Google Reader will begin offering subscriber numbers and is providing tips for rss publishers to get the most from Reader.
Yahoo launched their new ’suggestion boards’ with a Digg style voting system. Naturally some Diggers showed their immaturity in responding that Yahoo was ripping off Digg. Fortunately Muhammed Saleem reminds us that not all Diggers share the mob mentality. Bringing this roundup of the week full circle, Patricia Hursh has a two part article on advertising locally through Yahoo’s new ‘Panama’ search marketing platform.
* Google AdWords Adds Quality Score Column & To Improved Quality Algorithm
* Google Reader Reporting Subscriber Numbers, Offers New Publishers Guide
* Google Reader: Tips for Publishers
* Yahoo Launches Suggestion Boards – Digg Community Upset
* Yahoo Shamelessly Rips Off Digg and Brags About It
* The Digg Mob Claims Another Victim
That’s my first version of some of the seo news of the week. What do you think? Do you like the idea of a Friday roundup of some of the week’s events in the world of search?
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About the Author
Steven Bradley is a web designer and search engine optimization specialist. Known to many in the webmaster/seo community by the username vangogh, he is the author of TheVanBlog, which focuses on how to build and optimize websites and market them online.
