As the summer draws to a close, we know that you don’t want to spend all your time searching searching the Internet high and wide for the best articles. That’s why we gather up each month’s highlights from the worlds of social media, content marketing, and SEO for your convenience. Here’s our favorites from July. If you’re looking for the same great content in between roundups, don’t forget to check in with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
SEO
Panda Pummels Press Release Websites: The Road to Recovery
Many of us in the search industry were caught off guard by the release of Panda 4.0. It had become common knowledge that Panda was essentially “baked into” the algorithm now several times a month, so a pronounced refresh was a surprise.
A survey carried out back in 2010 found that 97% of consumers research online before purchasing at a brick-and-mortar store. I’ll admit, the world has changed a bit since then. There’s more of a focus on digital shopping than ever before, and the number of channels through which consumers research their purchases has expanded considerably. Users now look not only to search engines and digital storefronts, but also to social media and promotional emails.
For those of you who haven’t already heard, Google in late June acquired mDialog – a video advertising firm that specializes in helping large media companies measure and deliver video content to a wide range of connected devices. The implications of this purchase seem to be quite clear. Google’s looking beyond the PC to other platforms; it’s hoping to expand its large marketing arm to smartphones, tablets, and video game consoles.
I’ve said on several occasions that the world of search engine optimization has changed a great deal over the past few years. With the rise to prominence of social media, we’ve seen an entirely new paradigm take hold. Rather than being about the search engine, today’s SEO is far more focused on the people using it.
We know everyone is trying to get out of the office early to start their July 4th weekends, so we won’t waste too much of your time getting to the roundup. If you’re new to this, each month we gather up the best articles from the worlds of social media, content marketing, and SEO for your convenience. Here’s our favorites from June. Feel free to enjoy them on the beach or by the pool, and if you’re looking for the same great content in between roundups, don’t forget to check in with us on 
It’s no secret that online marketing has been suffering in recent years. The use of ad blockers is on the rise, fueled primarily by poor advertising practices. That’s bad news for webmasters who draw most of their revenue from advertising partnerships – and even worse news for marketers.
I’ve said it before, and it bears mentioning again: search engine optimization has changed. Back in its early days, when the Internet was still in its infancy, SEO was all about manipulating search algorithms; it was all about nailing down the most successful ranking tactics. Content was often a secondary concern.
In last month’s roundup we declared that it had been a calm month in the world of SEO, that “there were no major Matt Cutts declarations or Google updates that sent the industry scrambling.” Then, about two weeks ago, Mr. Cutts fired off this tweet, “
Like any field with a technical aspect, search engine optimization plays host to a wide range of different misconceptions, half-truths, and falsehoods. With digital marketing in particular, this problem is exacerbated by the fluid and rapidly-changing nature of both search and the Internet itself. What held true last year might not necessarily be valid next year; this year’s tactics could end up obsolete with a single update to Google’s algorithms.