Updated: February 28, 2019
It’s been over a month since our last SEO Roundup and a lot has transpired in the world of internet marketing and search engine optimization. For starters, on Monday (Aug. 10), Google made a massive announcement – the world’s most popular search service will be restructuring, creating a new parent called Alphabet and separating its Google search and advertising product from the company’s other initiatives.
“The new structure should accelerate improvements in user experience across all Alphabet products, including Google search,” said one SEO VP. “This is all good news for companies investing in SEO. Better user experience means more users and more potential conversions. Greater rewards for quality website content means companies that do SEO right will be better rewarded.”
For more news on Google, the latest SEO strategy, content marketing and more, browse the headlines below.
SEO
- Whether you own your own local business, or you manage internet marketing for one, these 6 stats on local SEO should play a part in shaping your marketing priorities and strategy.
- After checking out the numbers, next you’ll want to see this extensive guidebook to local SEO rankings.
- Are your SEO landing pages running dry? Discover how to squeeze more juice out of your key landing pages with this helpful guide.
- If you want a refresher course on the fundamentals, browse our recent blog post on SEO Basics: Brought to You by the Letters A – J.
Search Engine News
- Google pinky swears that they do not give the Dot Brand a search engine ranking advantage over other top domain names. Why are some people skeptical then? Read about it here and here.
- Microsoft and AOL have recently joined forces in a move to become a serious challenger to Google in the world of paid search. “Combining the best of AOL with the best of Microsoft will give us scale and allow us to compete at the Google and Facebook level,” boldly declared Jim Norton, global head of media sales at AOL Advertising.
- This article discusses about how “micro-moments” – small bursts of interaction users have with their phones across search, social, video and email, as opposed to prolonged periods in front of a desktop – are changing the way Google is doing search and thus altering the search landscape as we know it.
- Search Engine Land’s Amy Gesenhues sat down with Bing’s Head Design Manger Michael Kroll to interview him about the search engine’s homepage and search experience.
- In an effort to maintain fairness, Search Engine Land also recently asked Google a few questions about the mid-July Panda update (Panda 4.2) and the Panda updates in general. (Sorry Yahoo, no interview for you…)
- In a bit of ironic news, Google appears to be on the hunt for an SEO expert. Yep, that’s right. A new job posting for a “Program Manager, Search Engine Optimization” was seen on the Google job board. Don’t worry, we’re scratching our heads too…
Analytics
- Spam is becoming a serious problem for SEO analysts. No matter how many filters you put up, the deluge of spam keeps coming in. A vast majority of these unwanted hits are from ghost spam. Fortunately, the pros at Moz offer a possible solution via Google Analytics’ Measurement Protocol
- Are you taking advantage of Google Analytics alerts? Learn how to configure automatic alerts to be sent to you whenever your sites have significant traffic changes.
Social Media
- Beginning on August 12, Twitter has removed the 140 character limit on direct messages (DMs) for all users. For businesses, this means more opportunity to market a bigger slice of your company on the micro-blogging site. The change only affects DMs though, not public tweets. Learn more…
- Facebook can be a powerful advertising platform when seen as more than just a branding and customer engagement tool. This complete guide from WordStream takes you step-by-step on how to create effective Facebook ad campaigns.
Content Corner
- Selling a product or getting a searcher to click on that signup link takes much more effort than merely inserting a big, flashy button. Content creators must learn the art of making a unique value proposition (UVP) if they want their company to stand out from the crowd. Visualize how to write an effective UVP with this infographic.
- Last but not least, check out these 12 inspirational quotes from Sprout about content marketing from experts, famous authors and even a rockstar. Here’s a quick taste: “Content is of great importance, but we must not underestimate the value of style.” – Maya Angelou
That’s enough for one post! Don’t worry, we’ll be back in a couple weeks for the next SEO Roundup. Until then, stay tuned to our blog for SEO trips, tricks and trivia.