SEO Roundup: This Week's SEO News & Updates
A recent study released in the Salesforce 2014 State of Marketing Report indicates that SEO is currently being used by 73 percent of the companies surveyed with an additional 17 percent stating they intend to add SEO to their marketing strategies in 2014. I think we can safely say SEO is not dead or dying.
Matt Cutts confirms that back links are not going away as a ranking factor any time soon. In his latest video Matt is asked if Google has a version of search that discounts back links and he says that the search results discounting backlinks are much worse than current results. Long live link building.
Bing announces that they will be considering grammar and spelling as part of their ranking algorithm. In his blog Duane Forrestor says "Like it or not, we're judged by the quality of the results we show. So we are constantly watching the quality of the content we see." He also provides a couple links to sites for writers to brush up on grammar in his blog post.
Marketing Resources
On page SEO is sometimes pushed to the back burner by the next big trend, trick, or strategy. Rock-solid on-page SEO is crucial to the success of your website. The team over at Web Gnomes put together a detailed post on what a true SEO audit entails and how to do it. You can also find a good article about URL structures and SEO written by Michael Garrity for Website Magazine.
Keyword research is another less than glamorized part of the SEO process. Recently Brian Dean released a guide covering several ways to find keywords that generate traffic and convert well. If you are looking for keywords (everyone should be) then his keyword selection guide is worth reading.
Monitoring your progress is sometimes a challenge. It is often hard to know what data to track to determine the success of your SEO marketing campaign. While several tools exist to assist you with this I have found Raven SEO Tools to be particularly helpful. If you are not using any software to track your campaigns, I recommend giving their free 30-day trial a try.
The Toolbox
Online marketing requires countless hours of work and can be monotonous without the right tools.
This week I want to talk to you about Klout, a social influence measurement application that got an awesome makeover. The new Klout allows you to easily curate content based on keywords that you select and schedule them for posting on Twitter. It now also offers suggested times for posting based upon peak Twitter activity.
The recent social media starter guide from Moz indicates that the average tweet is visible for about 18 minutes. If you want to stay in front of potential followers who will share tweets and even possibly link to your page, you need to curate great content, share your content regularly, and reach out to people who engage with your posts.
Using Klout to Get Links
In order to take full advantage of Klout for SEO, try the following. Log into or sign up for Klout. Once you have had an account for long enough for data to accrue, you should click on the "measure" link. Aside from giving you a potentially ego boosting (or disheartening) score it will also list who has engaged with your Tweets.
Scroll through the list and look for the piece of curated content that was the most popular with your followers, create a guide or article that is closely related to what people have shared and make sure it offers added value. Tweet the link to your new article or guide to the Twitter users who shared your previous tweet and Voila, you will get shares and links to your new content within minutes of publishing.
I want to mention that several other tools exist that allow you to monitor Twitter and schedule posts so even if you don't use Klout, the content distribution strategy will still work. I think Klout is awesome and they are adding even more features in the near future such as click tracking and added insights, so this tool should just get better with time.
If you want to dominate social media, try using Klout and Buffer to schedule posts at the perfect times to stay visible.
SEO Tip
This week's SEO tip comes from Jon Cooper of Point Blank SEO.
"The foundation of all my link building activities for both new & existing sites is intensive competitor research, which is some of the lowest hanging fruit. When investigating backlink profiles, don't stop at just main competitors. For ecommerce folks, look at sites selling other related products, as well as competitors solely in specific sub-areas. For local folks, look at sites in other local markets that perform the same business functions. For lead gen folks, find sites in other markets with the same site structure & business model. Once you've investigated existing competitor links, make sure you're keeping tabs on their new ones via tools like Ahrefs fresh index."
Looking Ahead
Next week we are going to take a look at one of my favorite back link analysis tools and how you can find great link opportunities with it, check back next week so you don't miss out!
In the name of good fun, I will conduct a (free) complete SEO audit for one lucky commenter if this post reaches 100 Tweets!
P.S. Please Tweet this page!
Author Bio
Travis Bliffen is the founder of Stellar SEO, a search marketing firm near St Louis, Mo. Travis enjoys researching and writing about SEO and search marketing. He has been featured on several industry related sites and enjoys sharing actionable marketing advice. Connect with him on Twitter or Facebook.
