SEO Roundup: February 27, 2015

Updated: October 27, 2015

Welcome back to our Friday SEO roundup, where we take a look back at the biggest and best content pertaining to the world of internet marketing published in the last couple weeks!

First, the news. Lately, it appears Google has gone a little color crazy as they test out two new search features. The first is a new red label based on page speed that warns browsers when a website is slow to load. The label looks similar to the yellow Ad label that signifies paid search listing. If rolled out, this ranking factor could make page load time much more important for site developers.

Google’s second change is over the color of the review stars seen in search results. Instead of the usual orange/yellow color, lately users have reported seeing them show up as green. This update mostly seems to be about aesthetics and shouldn’t have any major impact on rankings.

Google has yet to comment about the red site speed label. However, in regards to the green stars, the company told Search Engine Land: “Yes, we’ve been experimenting a bit with colors there.” Adding, “you may see more experiments along these lines going forward.”

Personally, I’m crossing my fingers for some new tie-dye features…

See below for more SEO news, as well as some recently published guides and tips on Google, content marketing, social media and search engine optimization.

Search Engine Marketing

• Can I Yelp you? Google has made hints that SEOs would be wise to consider their clients’ presence on Yelp, a popular source of crowd-sourced online reviews about local businesses. The number of reviews a business has, as well as how positive they are, is being accounted for in the Google algorithm according to Search Engine Watch.
• Have you been experiencing Penguin Panic? If so, relax, take a deep breath, and read these steps on how to avoid getting slammed with a penalty when Google’s Penguin 4.0 is released.
• “Who would cross the Bridge of Death must answer me these questions three, ere the other side he see: What…is your name? What…is your quest? What…” is your SEO strategy? See how this blogger uses a few of the best Monty Python moments to teach SEO techniques.
• Catch up on all the marketing terms and phrases you need to know about with this ultimate A-Z buzzword bible from WordStream.
• See what Google webmasters recently had to say in a forum regarding whether or not titles and H1 tags should be identical.
• Negative SEO is a trending topic right now in the industry. Click here to learn more about what it is and how to recover from an attack.

Google

• For AdWords users who have had trouble keeping up with Google’s non-stop stream of updates, help is finally here. Google’s new Best Practices guidebook, located in AdWords’ Help section, is a handy tool for staying savvy with the paid search service.
• Here’s another AdWords resource about how to set up location targeting, plus advice on using cases and getting results.
• Are you leveraging Google Analytics Intelligence Alerts properly? Avoid making the same mistakes twice by using these tips.
• Fetch as Googlebot is a new Webmaster Tools feature that allows SEOs to test a URL before submitting it to the Google index to be crawled. Learn how to wield this weapon like an SEO master by checking out this post.
• Take this AdWords quiz to see how well you really know the popular Google platform.

Social Media

• We’ve already seen how powerful Google Shopping ads can be when trying to appeal to relevant customers, but now it’s time to see how Facebook’s new, mobile-friendly Product Ads measure up. Here’s a basic rundown of the new feature.
• If you’re a busy social media marketer, Google+ may honestly be pretty low on your list of priorities. However, you may want to check this article on why Google+ Local is an indispensable part of a brand’s local SEO strategy.

Content Corner

• Although your first step should be writing interesting and informative content, the second most important content-related component to a landing page is the call-to-action button—or whatever points the visitor towards an action you want them to take. Read these best practices for writing effective CTAs for more tips.
• Finding the right SEO tools to support your content marketing efforts is like trying to find a needle in a haystack (or like trying to make a comparison without using a cliché). Ain’t nobody got time for that, right? Well hopefully you at least have some time to check this list of content marketing tools from Curata.

That’s all for this week. Feel free to drop us other stories, links or comments below. See you next time!