Each month, we like to collect the most interesting and relevant articles from the fields of SEO, content marketing, and social media. This time around Google dominated the news cycle with their two announcements, one regarding HTTPS and the other marking the end of Google authorship. Mixed in among these major news items, we’ve also included a number of well-written and informative industry posts that caught our eye in August. If you’re looking for the same great content the rest of the year, don’t forget to check in with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
SEO
A Real World Negative SEO Case Study
Yesterday, someone explicitly threatened to launch a negative SEO attack against our website. Unless we pay a sum of money in the next 24 hours, our backlink profile will be flooded with toxic links.
HTTPS as a Ranking Signal
Security is a top priority for Google. We invest a lot in making sure that our services use industry-leading security, like strong HTTPS encryption by default. That means that people using Search, Gmail and Google Drive, for example, automatically have a secure connection to Google.
Video SEO in a Post-Rich Snippet World
This post can be considered a sequel to this post from 2012. Back in July, Google rolled out a bunch of changes in the way they treat rich snippets in the search results.
14 Ultimate Link-Building Guidelines to Keep Safe in 2014
How do you know what link-building is safe in 2014? Is there such a thing? That’s a question most SEOs, marketers, and business owners have been trying to answer since Google Penguin first hit in April 2012.
Google Stops Showing Authorship In Search Results
Google today announced that it has stopped showing the names of authors in its search results.
How to Prepare Yourself for the Next Penguin Update
Algorithm updates from Google are like thunderstorms; they always begin with visible brewing and hit with force. Just recently, Google revealed the latest Panda 4.0 update, and now there is a buzz about the next update brewing on the horizon: Penguin 3.0.
Google: Slowly Moving Back to 10 Blue Links
Last night Google’s John Mueller announced on Google+ that “authorship” had been removed completely from the search results. Just like Google has recently removed most video snippets, this is another step towards Google’s search result pages going “back” to being 10 blue links.
Developing an Effective SEO Strategy in 5 Easy Steps
Nowadays, most people know what SEO (search engine optimization) is and the role it plays in helping make a business successful.
Content Marketing
The Future Of Content & SEO: How To Stay On Top
Do you ever look back on SEO and long for the simpler days? SEO has always been content-driven, but the meaning of optimized content has changed drastically over the years.
Why You Must Change Your Content Marketing Approach
Now that pretty much everyone on the planet gets the importance of content marketing it’s time to throw a wrench in the works. To remain effective with your content marketing efforts you must constantly evaluate, change and evolve!
Why You Should Hire Journalists to be Content Marketers
In the digital age, journalists have to find alternative career paths other than writing for the traditional newspaper or a magazine.
Why You Need to Stop Neglecting Your Old Content
Raise your hand if this sounds familiar… As an inbound marketer, you work hard to keep your content engine going. You publish new blog posts, launch new ebooks, and produce new webinars regularly.
How to Get Started With Visual Content Marketing
Do you want to use visual content in your social media marketing? Do you need help getting started?
Social Media
A Day in the Life of a Successful Social-Media Strategy
Social-media marketing has become so pervasive that 93 percent of marketers utilize it. The problem isn’t whether it’s important and whether to integrate it into our marketing plans.
Top 5 DON’Ts of Social Media Marketing
For the small business owner just getting started in social media, the landscape can be overwhelming. Follow the tips and examples below to avoid common pitfalls and start your social media marketing strategy on the right path!
8 Simple Tips That Can Help You Stand Out on Social Networks
It’s not easy to stand out among a million posts and messages on Twitter and Facebook these days. And it actually gets harder each day as these and other social networks continue to grow.
Beat Facebook’s New Clickbait Crackdown with These 4 Tips
I’m sorry. I couldn’t help myself. An article about clickbait deserves an equally clickbaity title. First off, I lied to you, I can’t really beat the algorithm.
What Facebook Doesn’t Show You
When you spend a day with something that knows you in ways you don’t know yourself, you learn that maybe you aren’t quite as interested in the things you think you are.
We generally end our roundups with Matt Cutts answering questions, but since he’s on vacation, we figured we’d switch it up. Enjoy seven years of selfies in under two minutes.
Image: Flickr/TheCreativePenn