Posted by Sam Niccolls

 

 

 

This week’s roll up mixes a little bit of awesome with a little bit of awesomely bad. But regardless of whether or not you threw a Windows 7 launch party at your house, from Talk Like a Pirate Day to actionable SEO tips, the search industry had no shortage of entertaining headlines over the last couple weeks of September.

• 69 Free Tools to Improve Your Website:
  The Grok, Brian Eisenberg, who rolled out a self branded site, shares a great list of usability and marketing tools.

• Google Launches DoubleClick Ad Exchange:
  95% of Google’s revenue still come from search ads, but with the new DoubeClick Ad Exchange Google is poised to increase their display ad business.

• Matt Cutts – Meta Keywords Not a Google Ranking Factor:
  Matt Cutts or Jay-Z? (If I had a nickel for every time I asked that.) In the video on the Google Webmaster Blog, Matt Cutt’s breaks it down like Beyonce’s beau: Google’s got 99 ranking factors, but a meta keyword ain’t one.

• Maintaining Visual Consistency During A/B Tests:
  Testing competing features can move the conversion needle, but at what detriment to user experience? In a post about maximizing the effectiveness of split tests Andrew Chen talks about the importance of having a central visual design.

• SEOmoz Linkbuilding Guide Updated:
  Thanks to Eric Enge’s hard work, an updated version of the Professional’s Guide to Linkbuilding (free for paying PRO members) is now live on the site. Notable updates include adaptations for the inception of Bing, changes in nofollow, and more detailed explanations in select areas.

• Seth Godin’s Brands in Public:
  Though Godin’s Squidoo powered tool was beaten up for how it was rolled out, he promptly did some damage control and changed the tool from being opt-out to opt-in.

• Delving into the Long Tail:
  Rand talked about long tail searches the other week, but Seer Interactive’s blog post on the long tail serves as a great visual guide to conducting keyword research to identifying your greatest long tail opportunities.

• Top Web Analytics Pain Points:
  Integrating web analytics with other marketing solutions and verifying data accuracy topped the list in Unica’s survey of most common analytics headaches.

• Google Analytics API – Event Tracking:
  You may use the the Google Analytics API to push data to your CRM system. Now, for those with video content, the analytics API can also be used for event tracking.

• Bing Continues to Increase Market Share:
  Google may still be the 800 lb gorilla, but Bing has definitely gained some traction over the last couple of months.

• Introduction to AdWords Bidding Tutorial Video:
  Hal Varian, Google’s Chief Economist, lays out some great tips for beginner’s on how to get started with bid price management.

• Most People Don’t Like Being Ad Targeted:
  The study cited by the NY Times stating that two thirds of people don’t like being ad targeted sparked several follow up posts from both Greg Sterling and Matt Cutts. Regardless of your take on how the study was conducted, the article is worth a read.

• Go For it on 4th Down:
  The statistics support always going for it on 4th down, yet football coaches rarely do. The fascinating New York Times article begs the question of how similar thinking can be applied to your business.     

• Great Linkbait From The Guardian:
  The Guardian released several map infographics that give insight into the global recession.

• Pirate SEO Advice:
  Reading the SEO Skeptic post by Cap’n Long John Keyword is a humorous way to enjoy a belated celebration of Talk Like a Pirate Day.

• New Google Keyword Research Tool in Beta:
  Google rolls out a new and improved keyword tool that has advanced filtering and also pulls in data from Google Insights.

• Ways to Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonment:
  The Marketing Experiments Blog shares a list of seven things you can test on your site to reduce shopping cart abandonment.

• Yahoo’s New Search User Experiece:
  Yahoo search rolls out a revamped look and feel with increased performance and more personalization.

• Searches for Linkbait Ideas:
  Anne Smarty’s list of ways to uncover linkbait offers several useful queries you can use to identify possible linkbait opportunities.

Top YOUmoz entries:

1. * Examining the Top 150 In-Linked Posts at SEOmoz by MikeTek (Promoted to the main blog)

2. The Zeroth Law of Writing for SEO by  Gil Reich

3. Startup or Corporation? The Life Changing Decision by Mgete

4. Parable of the Lost Link by interactivevoices

• Windows 7 Launch Commercial:
  Just when you thought it didn’t get any better than Songsmith the Windows 7 marketing team reminds us that Microsoft research is not the only Redmond team with an ad campaign that belongs on a VH1 awesomely bad list. And for those who have seen the original, the parody is fantastic, too. 

• Bank Emails Sensitve Information to Wrong Emails:
  All PR is good PR… unless of course you are the Rocky Mountain Bank and you emailed social security, password, and other info to over 1,300 of the wrong Gmail users. Oops!

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