Link marketing, has evolved into more of a PR function rather than a traditional SEO function. We’re moving away from creating links to manipulate rank and pursuing an unnatural strategy will ultimately leave your site in a bad place.

The devaluation of links isn’t something new, it began years ago as the popularity of SEO grew, and over time things that used to work now don’t. More recently, what was once a highly effective link building strategy – creating blog networks – has been eliminated by Google Panda. For further details, check out some of the background over here.

When developing your strategy, look at what search engines consider to be violations of quality within their guidelines. A lot of these may not be considered ‘illegal’, however they can also negatively impact your overall strategy and have the potential to bring great success or failure to your business. Keep your eyes open.

Disposable Links

People and companies have adopted an SEO strategy where they launch a site, pay a hell of a lot of cash for link building tactics (both clean and dirty), and as long as the site would remain competitive in the rankings and as more venue was being generated from the site than the operational expenses, most people didn’t really care what sort of links were in place to affect Google search results.

Obviously this is a flawed approach and it’s certainly a gamble. Over time, websites would rank higher, eventually get killed off by Google and disappear, then people would simply create a new site and begin the process again.

The logic was that if you spend $25k to develop a website, build links and rank to where it would generate $40k in business revenue before the site was hit, then it made sense that this was a good business decision. Whenever something was killed off the process could begin again.

1) Create the site

2) Spam the site with links until top ranking was achieved

3) Make money from rankings until Google caught on

4) Repeat the process again

This can be difficult to argue, especially if a client has seen good financial success. There isn’t a single solution for every site, and an SEO and link building strategy will vary from large to smaller clients, but it’s all about identifying what the site needs and how you can achieve it. We’re at a point where a lot of sites are getting blown up by Panda updates, so “doing it right”, diversifying and leaning toward more natural link building is now more important than ever.

The majority of the time, for most sites, there are no organic results on page one. The 89% decrease in clicks makes a lot more sense given that 81% of paid search ads are displayed without an accompanying organic result, as an average. In fact, a search ad is only paired with a top ranking organic result 9% of the time. Organic results appear in positions 2 and 4 only 5% of the time, and rankings below 5 appear 4% of the time.

The researchers didn’t dig into keywords in much depth, analyzing branded vs. generic terms, however branded terms are likely to appear higher, which isn’t surprising.

So what if you’re already in a #1 organic position. Why the hell do you need to spend more money? Isn’t it a waste? You may be surprised to know that even if a brand is ranked in a #1 position, if a paid search ad is present, the site will receive 50% more clicks, on average. It may be hard to believe, but the data speaks for itself.

The study also showed that 82% of ad clicks are incremental if a site’s organic result is positioned between 2 and 4. Clicks are 96% incremental should a brand’s organic rank be 5 or below.

When looking at averages and considering the complexities of campaigns, there will be a far amount of variability within the data from keyword to keyword and advertiser to advertiser, which is why it’s important to do your own testing and measurement. Also of importance, the study used clicks for measurement, not tracking conversions, so we are unable to feel out what incremental clicks followed through to a defined conversion.

Is paid search a part of your Internet marketing stategy? If so, how are you using it? If not, does it interest you? Share your thoughts in the comment section below!

Interestingly, Google has chosen to use Twitter for the latest announcement:

As mentioned in the tweet above, Google has estimated that roughly 1.6% of search queries will be affected by the latest Panda update.

While it’s unclear just how substantial the latest update really is, discussions within the Internet Marketing community have highlighted a big impact on interlinked blog networks in the early days.

If you’re unfamiliar with Panda, check out the infographic below, originally posted on Search Engine Land.

Has Panda had a negative impact on your SEO strategy? What are your plans for adaptation? Let us know in the comment section below!

The countdown is on until Timeline is rolled out across all pages, and a company called Social Bizzle has created a video to illustrate what small businesses can do with Timeline.

The video below focuses on Marble Construction’s Timeline, following the steps to upgrade by Social Bizzle, who toured around the U.K. to offer instruction to businesses on how to do so.

Have you seen any innovative ideas when it comes to Timeline content? Have you upgraded your Page yet? Share your thoughts in the comment section below!

Even brands that have customers that tend to do a lot of product research, Twitter will likely remain a place for customer service, trend information, and news tips. If a user does choose to further their research on Twitter, they’re more likely to search hashtags or visit shared articles rather than visiting a Twitter brand page.

Some of the proposed changes include features such as contest and eCommerce that may turn brand pages into a digital storefront. Twitter originally launched a limited version of their brand pages back in December, and the latest round is partly a response to Facebook’s new Timeline for Pages, which was released in early March.

It’s fantastic to know that Twitter is working to make brand pages more engaging, especially due to the reach and engagement within the feed itself. Creating an on-site destination can only help with relationship building, continuing the development of those ‘strong ties’.

However, there are a few things to consider when projecting success. For one, consumers spend considerably less time on Twitter than on Facebook, as an average. Twitter users are also considerably more likely to access the network via mobile. Users also check their feeds for quick messages, not for in depth engagement. This is distinctively different from Facebook, however it shouldn’t be viewed as something detrimental. It’s an asset.

Given measurability, Twitter has far more reach and is much easier to track due to the open nature of the network when compared to Facebook and the new Google+. This is great for social reputation management, getting an idea of what users are saying about a brand. The idea of being able to “pin” a tweet to the top of a brand page isn’t a new one, but it will be interesting to see how it’s implemented should Twitter choose to adopt it.

Unless something drastic happens with brand pages, it’s unlikely that it will be any sort of strategic game changer. It will create a better first impression for Twitter users, sure, but not much beyond that. Should eCommerce and contest features arrive, we should see brands investing a lot more time and money.

Would you engage through a Twitter brand page? How do you think the pages will stack up against Facebook’s variation?

Given the fact that more than one in four brands have chosen to upgrade to the new layout, it’s certainly helping Facebook’s reputation given the strong criticism faced by regular Facebook users. Data to back up strategic decisions is always a help. Unsurprisingly, brands are already seeing engagement improvements through Timeline and new ads.

Ben & Jerry’s used Facebook’s Reach Generator solution to push its regular reach forward to 98% of people who liked the page, doubling its Page engagement rate during a 28 day period. For those that may be unfamiliar with Facebook’s Reach Generator solution, the idea is to create an ‘always on’ strategy that reaches 75% of Page fans using content from the Page. The focus is on brands creating content within the Page while Facebook ensures that the content is pushed to fans.

At the moment, Facebook estimates that the average Page reaches 16% of total fans per week. With the Reach Generator, Facebook guarantees that you will reach 75% of fans per month, averaging 50% of fans per week. Fans will see your message as a sponsored story within the right hand sidebar of their homepage, or in their Facebook news feed on desktop or mobile.

Ford has also said its Ford Mustang page engagement has improved significantly, specifically in the number of people talking about the page and engagement as a whole since adopting Timeline February 29^th. It also plans to use logout ads in the very near future.

Have you seen any innovative Timeline strategies by brands? Share your stories and strategies below!

Google’s goal is to turn ads into content. It sounds odd, but if we consider the relevance, a recommendation from a friend related to a particular restaurant wouldn’t simply be an ad, it would be what you’re looking for.

Google has also said that during times when we’re socializing online, it’s not the right time to display ads. The right time is when there’s a moment of commercial intent, and this can be captured by search. When you’re looking for that new restaurant to check out, that’s when Google wants to display your friend’s recommendation. Given that Google has such a broad reach across the web for a variety of online activities, it has the ability to save the social ads for cases where they’re most applicable.

A massive amount of purchases begin with a Google search. Google can tell whether you’re using it for shopping, and it can identify exactly what you’re shopping for, therefore creating opportunity to show you that friendly social recommendation.

If you consider what other social sites are doing, such as Facebook and Twitter, they’re forced to resort to throwing ads in your social streams. In order to monetize Google+, Google doesn’t need to push ads to you within the social section at all. It saves the social data that’s gathered there and applies it to search ads when you’re searching to potentially buy something.

Some interesting data that was shared with the New York Times shows that the strategy is working. Google is seeing a 5-10% click-through improvement on ads that have a social annotation through Google properties. If you consider the significance of a 10% increase in CTR, it’s massive, and shows that social strategies can’t be ignored.

There has been a lot of talk about the value of social search, but seeing how it’s being integrated and improving the user experience, it’s certainly more helpful than people think.

Do you support Google’s approach for a more social and relevant search experience? Will Google+ stay ‘ad free’ or will we see new forms of social ads being introduced?

Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Don’t worry just yet: 61% of Facebook pages have a virality rate of 2.5% or less, as reported by EdgeRank Checker. The median rate came out at 1.9%.

To arrive at these figures, EdgeRank Checker analyzed more than 375,000 individual page posts across 10,000 separate pages, dating through from February 3^rd to March 3^rd of this year. The total number of fans and post frequency varied across the sample pages.

EdgeRank Checker decided to move ahead with the analysis in response to a question on Quora regarding the average virality rate. When looking at the average rate, it’s actually 2.97%, however Cad Wittman, EdgeRank Checker’s founder, noted that figure to be an average of average, making the median more accurate.

Using the median, it shows a single average due to the various page sizes and posting frequencies.

Finally, what it all comes down to: Pages on Facebook have room to increase the number of fans sharing posts.

The reality is that the majority of messages that tend to spread the furthest throughout Facebook are very rarely commercially related. Given the data, expecting larger percentages of fans to share content won’t come easy. There will clearly need to be a strategy in place in order to do so, which is where content marketing can play a beautiful role.

Are you working to improve Facebook page post sharing as part of your marketing strategy?

People have even claimed that SEO doesn’t work. Oh. Well, it’s 2012 and we’re optimizing content for search engines. Sounds like SEO to me, and guess what? People even want help doing it. The reality is that SEO isn’t going to fade away into nothing, but it will evolve, just like any good piece of technology. Here’s why SEO isn’t going anywhere:

1. SEO Is Profitable

Google is still driving a serious amount of traffic through search. Therefore, a massive amount of money is at stake. Where there’s money, there will always be competition and a willingness to spend money to win.

2. SEOs Bridge the Gap

SEO best practices aren’t intuitive (know rel=canonical? Explain it to someone who doesn’t know a thing about SEO). There will forever be a need for communicating best practices to those who don’t live in the SEO world. Rather than viewing search algorithm changes as a threat, view them as an opportunity. A company’s reliance on your knowledge will grow as search engines continue to change the rules. You’re an asset. Embrace it.

3. SEO Speaks to Customers & Prospects

Developing strategies aimed at scaling keywords across an organization digital landscape will always be important. It’s also important to remember that keywords aren’t an SEO thing, they’re a marketing thing.

The first rule of communication is to speak to your audience in a language they can understand. Keyword research is really user research into how language is most often used by a prospective and present customer base relating to your content topics, services, and products. Hint: do not ignore this.

4. SEO Works For The User

Activities related to SEO are also beneficial to the user experience:

• Keyword research and content relevance
• Meaningful, keyword focused page titles
• Specially crafted meta descriptions with keyword focus
• Proper spelling
• An easy to use site with keyword optimized global navigation
• Social media integration to follow a company off-site
• Pages are error free
• There are no broken internal links
• Internal content linking to the most relevant pages when applicable
• Click path analysis to help improve the user experience and reduce bounce rate
• Elimination of duplicate content
• Elimination of content that cannot be indexed (Flash, JavaScript, AJAX)
• The use of analytics to help improve site performance
• Optimization of both videos and images for indexing and meaningful, keyword optimized titles
• Ensuring that out of date/discontinued pages redirect to replacements
• Reducing page load speed wherever possible

SEO Will Be Around For Years To Come

The larger the company, the harder it is to do these things on a consistent, ongoing basis. It requires a focused effort, and requires a guiding hand that ensures activities are executed properly.

With search evolving and becoming fragmented into hyper niche channels, and as voice based searching becomes more prominent, there will always be a need to understand the technology behind the searches. Searching technology will always need to be able to find, process and interpret the data and information it’s looking for. These protocols will still need to be communicated to businesses and sites that want their information to be found.

It’s always important to understand the language that potential and present customers are using to find you, and for you to ensure that your keyword strategy scales across the entire digital landscape.

So, is SEO dead, dying, or stronger than ever?

Well, there is certainly beauty in simplicity, and as for it being a fad, it’s hard to say. Who knows how design will change even over the next couple of years. The great thing about minimalism is that you can learn a hell of a lot from it and pursuing it will significantly improve your skills.

Number one, consider the purpose of minimalism. Remember the crazy and wacky 90’s websites? How about the 2000’s with Flash popping out of everything, excessive photoshopped pages and a bunch of other on-page clutter that didn’t need to be there. As things evolved, we now have a calm. Whisper. Welcome, minimalism. People have had enough with bad sites that were confusing and extremely user unfriendly.

Minimalism embraces the user; it provides a lighter, friendly environment. Everything that needs to be on a minimalist site is there, nothing else. No clutter, no confusion. Users can grasp it at a glance.

Well, when done correctly, of course.

So, how can web designers jump in and design a minimalist site the right way?

Add focus to a main element

Minimalist designs don’t have a lot of elements incorporated. Remember, there’s no clutter, there’s nothing that is not essential to the website’s goal.

As a result, designers only need to focus on a single element, something that will become the focal point of the entire site.

So, the element, what is it? That depends on the site’s goal, but as an example, we’ll say you’re designing a site for an online service.

In this case, your main element would be a signup form. This will be a button, a couple of screenshots, and some short copy. Don’t include anything that doesn’t absolutely need to be there. Focus on the essentials. Shifting to a minimalist perspective will really make you think twice about the importance of elements on the site and what can be booted.

Anyone can fill a site with a bunch of stuff, but good designers are ones who can identify the few important elements and reject the rest.

Get the important few right

Given that minimalist designs use only a handful of elements to convey a message, visitors must be convinced to take action. This means that the few elements have to be just right.

Minimalist design is about using as few elements as possible to attain a goal. Every element has a purpose in a minimalist design.

You know you’re on the right track if there aren’t any elements that can be removed without impacting the site’s ability to achieve its goals.

Typography is beauty

Typography is huge in minimalist designs; this is definitely a major one.

Given that there’s not a lot to show on a minimalist site, text becomes an element all its own. Be sure to choose the right font; both size and decoration are crucial to balance.

If you’re thinking that Arial may be the perfect fit, forget it. It rarely is in minimalist designs. Don’t neglect choosing a proper font. It does take time, but it’s important to understand the basic rules of typography and how it can take your design to the next level.

Loving and using whitespace

Whitespace is something that more experienced designers welcome using. A lot of beginners are under the impression that every bit of the page needs to be occupied, which obviously isn’t the case.

Whitespace is crucial when it comes to minimalist designs. The great thing is that minimalist design forces the spacing of elements across the site evenly; they can’t simply be clumped together.

Minimalist designs will certainly help you improve your use of white space, which will ultimately come in handy for any piece of design work imaginable.

Believe in your opinion

Believe in your work.

If you’re freelancing, you may think twice about handing back a simple design. Don’t think that your client won’t be as eager to pay for only a handful of elements on the site and if the form is simplistic.

Stick to minimalism and stand behind your designs. Being able to explain the “why’s” behind the design will add extra value for the client.

5 Minimalist examples

Check out these power 5 minimalist designs for a little inspiration.

fellswoop.com

madewithlove.be

soulwire.co.uk/hello

rodrigogalindez.com

theconsult.com