Why Google Wants to Know About Small Websites That Aren't Ranking Well

Do you have a small website that isn't performing as well in Google's search results as you think it should? If so, you could have the opportunity to have someone on the Google webspam team look at it personally. Google's Distinguished Engineer Matt Cutts has asked small website owners to submit their site via a Google Docs form detailing why you think your website deserves to outrank the curr

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New on Twitter: Lead Generation Cards for All Advertisers; Conversation View

Twitter was busy this week with two announcements that included the availability of Lead Generation Cards to all advertisers, and an easier way to follow conversation happening on Twitter. Lead Generation Cards Available to All Back in May, Twitter announced “Lead Generation Cards” that allowed a select group of advertisers to experiment with capturing emails right in a tweet. This week, Twit

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Link Building 101: How to Conduct a Backlink Analysis

Every day, individuals who are new to SEO need to learn the basics of link building and important concepts and strategies within a campaign. This link building 101 post will continue the education of new link builders, this time on the topic of how to perform a backlink analysis. Being able to perform a thorough backlink analysis is a fundamental element to any link building campaign. What's

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Making it easier to discover new features in AdWords

You're busy, and we know it's not always easy to stay on top of every innovation and change in AdWords. To keep you informed about the latest and greatest, we wanted to share how we are making it easier to stay updated on important AdWords improvements and changes with the new look and feel on the Inside AdWords blog. Product update shortcuts At the top of this page on the right you will see “

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Exciting new fonts in AdSense

An important element of a user’s experience on your site is how they rate its overall appearance. You’ve been asking for more customization options in our ad units so that they complement the design of your site. Today, we’re pleased to let you know that we’ve added five new font options for you to choose from when customizing your ad units. We looked at a combination of your requests for spe

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Correlation, Causation & Coincidence in SEO

A recent blog post on Moz by Cyrus Shepard caused quite a stir in the SEO community. This stir was rooted in part over lack of understanding of the difference between correlation and causation, and in part because the author clearly tried to bridge the gap himself in his writing and imply causation where there was no evidence of such. Before we dig into that, as well as a couple more example

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Let Your Audience's Interests Guide Your Content Strategy

One of the keys to unlocking the virtuous cycle that exists between search marketing and social discovery is publishing content that is worthy of a Facebook like, a tweet, or a LinkedIn share. As advertisers are encouraged to think and act more like publishers, writer's block is an increasingly common and pernicious problem. Creating an ad for a captive audience like the people who tune into

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Facebook Revamps Contest Rules for Businesses

Facebook drastically changed its contest rules for businesses this week. Businesses can now run contests and promotions freely on their own timelines without the use of a third-party app, Facebook announced. What was once against the rules is now permissible by allowing Facebook users to like, comment, or create posts on a page as a voting mechanism or entry into a contest. “We want to m

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Twitter Buys Social TV Analytics Company Trendrr

Twitter has bought social TV analytics firm Trendrr in a bid to capitalize on users discussing television shows on its social network. Trendrr CEO Mark Ghuneim announced the news on the company's blog, saying Twitter was the ideal platform to benefit from its services. "What makes Twitter uniquely compelling among these platforms is its connection to the live moment – people sharing what's hap

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Keyword Stuffing & Hidden Text Manual Action: Google on How to Fix it

Author's Note: This article is part of a series detailing specific spam warnings that webmasters might find displayed in Google Webmaster Tools manual action viewer, the types of things that are flagging each warning, and what webmasters should do to fix it to see the warning removed. Hidden text and keyword stuffing isn't as common today of it once was, but Google is still warning webmasters

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After Being Crushed By Google Panda, Voucher and Car Classified Sites Recover

After unprecedented numbers of sites recovered from Panda as a result of the last confirmed update, many people stil have questions about what sites need to do to escape the wrath of the algorithm. The answer: the same things as before, regardless of how many other sites are seeing a return to the SERPs. The 10 day update is still in full flow, and with so little data around Panda recoveries it

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How to Write Great Content: Because Awesome Content Won't Write Itself...

You know what's probably really unhelpful for a client or business owner? Being told to write "great content." Because what does that mean? How is that actionable? It isn't. We've all been told that creating unique, awesome content is our key to visibility gold and customer loyalty. But how do we do it, consistently? Awesome content isn't going to write itself. It doesn't just happen. You ha

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