Last updated on October 27th, 2015
Brace yourself (yet again) for a series of Google algorithm changes that are aimed at “aggressively” going after hacked spam in its SERPs. According to the Google Webmaster blog:
A huge amount of legitimate sites are hacked by spammers and used to engage in abusive behavior, such as malware download, promotion of traffic to low quality sites, porn, and marketing of counterfeit goods or illegal pharmaceutical drugs, etc.
Google revealed in 2013 that hacked sites were the second most frequent cause of manual actions taken by the company. Google seems to be dead set on preventing this ongoing problem, saying:
We are aggressively targeting hacked spam in order to protect users and webmasters.
The algorithmic changes will eventually impact roughly 5% of queries, depending on the language.
You can continue learning about this announcement here, or scan our list below of top headlines, blogs and articles that touch on SEO and internet marketing.
Search Engine Optimization
- BuzzFeed – you know, that website you go on when you’re bored – is valued at a mind boggling $100 million. How? For starters, over half of American millennials are funneled into the site every month. Find out their 3-pronged approach to bringing in unprecedented web traffic – social, mobile and video.
- Organic search traffic takes up the lion’s share of all website traffic (51%) and long tail keywords could be the key that unlocks improved organic search rankings.
- Search Engine Watch contributor Graham Charlton shows how conflicts between a site’s main domain and sub-domains can lead to “internal cannibalization” if not properly fixed.
- Now that it’s been five months since Google’s mobile algorithm update (aka “Mobilegeddon”), data is finally starting to trickle in about which ranking factors are most important for mobile sites.
- What makes a million dollar page? This extensive but fascinating study of some of the web’s best ranking content provides some great insights into why certain pages hit jackpot – and why other pages don’t.
Marketing Statistics
- More than half of all Google searches worldwide happen on a mobile device.
- Duplicate content issues still plague nearly 30 percent of websites, and 80 percent of sites are not currently using microdata according to a recent study.
Content Marketing
- If you want to personalize your content to your audience, first you need to determine what kind of people frequent your website. Surveys can help, but sometimes they don’t cut it. This article offers more creative ideas on how to target individual searchers.
- “Content marketing generations 3x more leads than traditional marketing per dollar spent”; “Sixty percent of people are more inspired to seek a product after reading content about it”; “Companies that blog generate 67% more leads than companies that don’t.” Learn more about these and other surprising stats in this comprehensive infographic.
- What kinds of things are coming up on the horizon in the world of content marketing? This is the question Tom Webster and Mark Schaeffer discuss in The Marketing Companion podcast. Listen here if you’re interested.
- If you are an SEO pro, then you know well how important responsive website design is these days. But what do you know about mobile-first content marketing?
- For WordPress-hosted sites, this shortlist of content syndication plugins can help site managers deliver regular content easier and more efficiently.
- Here are 8 free courses on content marketing and writing for your viewing pleasure. Happy Free Friday!
Social Media
- Who’s using Google+? “Roughly 18% of US adults report having visited Google Plus in the past 30 days, according to a GFK report, putting Google+ on par with Pinterest and only slightly behind Instagram (19%)…”
- With new CEO Jack Dorsey at the reigns, Twitter is making big changes these days with several major announcements. First, Twitter users will now be able to upload and edit videos. In the same vein, Twitter also announced updates to video advertising. In addition, the micro-blogging site just revealed a new tab dedicated to key discussions and global trends, called “Moments.”
- Riding on the wave of feedback about creating a Dislike button, Facebook recently unveiled its plan to add “alternative response mechanisms” to content via emojis.
- Want to sneak a peek into the daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly to-do list of a successful social media manager at Sprout? Check out this infographic.
Analytics
- If you’re considering buying Google Analytics Premium, first check out this comparison between the free and the paid versions.
Until our next SEO roundup, be sure to stay tuned to our blog for topics that matter in the ever-changing world of internet marketing, powered by SEO Advantage. See you next time!