While I was checking my daily RSS feeds, I ran across an article on lifehack.org entitled “11 Causes of Procrastination and Their Cures”. As someone who falls into the procrastination trap every once in awhile I clicked on the link. The site isn’t actually the source of the article, but gives visitors a quick blurb about the post and then provides a link to the site where the article was written (johnsplaceonline.com). The article is worth your read, but the reason why I’m pointing it out to you doesn’t have anything to do with content of the article. Take a look at this screenshot from lifehack.org – the site that links to johnsplaceonline.com:

At a quick glance, do you see the link to the article or did you pause for a second, unsure which link will take you to the post? Even after all the articles I’ve read about AdSense ad placement and the time I’ve spent optimizing my own AdSense layout, I had to stop for a moment and make sure I was clicking on the right link. For lifehack.org, this is a standard post. Find an article with a hook, write a synopsis of the post and surround a similarly-formatted link with AdSense ads. Google has pretty strict guidelines about using AdSense code and in opinion lifehack.org is really pushing the boundaries of what’s allowed under Google’s TOS. I can’t help but feel just a little manipulated, but at the same time I admire the creativity lifehack.org employs here. I wonder how much money they’re making from webmasters who are paying for clicks from visitors who had no intention of clicking on the AdSense ad? By the way, I’m not knocking lifehack.org. I read they’re site daily and enjoy many of the articles they find about personal productivity that I wouldn’t have come across otherwise. But how do you feel about they’re use of AdSense code – brilliant marketing or an underhanded feint?

Not all links are the same. And each search engine gives slightly different weight to each type of link. As Google attempts (once again) to crack down on paid links now is a perfect time to refresh your free link strategy. Of course reciprocal linking, unless its with a partner in the same industry/market, is not effective as it was a few years ago. These days you have to focus on requesting one way links from authority sites in your market, link baiting, and social networking. Today, searchenginejournal.com posted a good article that breaks down the separate link types you should understand while implementing your link building strategy. From the article:

1. Link popularity: simply links coming into any website from any and all sources. This is a broad term as other popularity types will fall under the effect of Link Popularity because the link is the method.
2. Industry Popularity: the relationship of a site in its known industry to the industry, so are the big industry sites pointing to the site. There are always a few blogs in every industry that stand out, and become celebrity blogs. Matt Cutts, Graywolf, Shoemoney, these are celebrity blogs they gain high industry traffic and link out to their some of their industry. The “BlogRoll” becomes the popularity factor and passes far more power than any directory. Industry popularity focuses on a sites’ prominence in the industry, it can be effective, but it tends to make a group popular and misses the larger core of the industry, so this popularity needs to be factored appropriately. Problems with Industry popularity include blogroll spam, now very common and a potential cause for future devaluation of blogrolls.
3. Social Popularity: very similar to Industry popular, except here it is values passed from social sites like digg and del.icio.us. Multiple instances of a site on a social site are factored in the algorithms.
4. Click Popularity: used lightly and in conjunction with analytics data to determine bounce rates. Since this is the least accurate measurement, it is believed to be used lightly in its importance for ranking. Click popularity is pulled mainly from the main search index and clicks are counted. Click popularity tends to me more of a theory and is definitely used in PPC campaigns to track and determine traffic patterns on sites.
5. Blog Popularity: this one is a “throw in” and is related to Google more than other engines, Google places more emphasis and trust in blogs, mainly because they have almost grown up on them and because they feel the human element is there. You can negotiate this till the cows come home, but there is more than enough evidence to say that Google favors blogs and blog links over the more traditional website. So, in summary, Blog Popularity is the ration of incoming links solely from blogs – in theory.

Read the full article on link types here.

Ok, my article may not make you a millionaire, but writing effective headlines, whether its to start a link baiting campaign or convincing a visitor to buy, is a skill that does have a measurable impact on traffic and conversions. Don’t fool yourself into thinking all headlines are created equal. Writing good headlines is a skill, and its skill you can teach yourself. For this post I searched my archive of SEO tips to find the best links on writing headlines and to my surprise nearly every single one was from copyblogger.com – and that leads to my first tip:

1. Read Copyblogger.com

If you don’t already subscribe to the copyblogger RSS feed you’re really missing out on a tremendous resource for writing persuasive headlines and copy. With a stable of authors churning out new tips daily, copyblogger continually publishes articles that WILL change the headlines and text you write for your websites and blogs. Copyblogger recently had and entire series that covered how to structure powerful headlines. Here a few links to copyblogger posts that will improve your headline I.Q.:

– 10 Sure-Fire Headline Formulas That Work

– 7 More Sure-Fire Headline Formulas That Work

– The Cheater’s Guide to Writing Great Headlines

– Do These Headlines Work For You?

– Why Your Best Headline Could be Too Powerful

– Writing Headlines for Regular Readers, Search Engines, and Social Media

– Why Magnetic Headlines Attract More Readers

2. Advertising and Marketing Books

Though you can end up spending a lot, there are many books available that cover writing headlines and marketing copy. Ask 10 SEO/SEM experts which are they’re favorites and you’ll get 10 different answers. I can only personally vouch for four, but do your research and browser the selection of your local bookstore and you’ll find many more.

– Words That Sell by Richard Bayan

– More Words That Sell by Richard Bayan

– Advertising Headlines That Make You Rich by David Garfinkel

– The Adweek Copywriting Handbook by Joseph Sugarman

3. Imitation

Finally, the easiest way to write great headlines is to pay attention. Which headlines made you click a link or order a product? Jot them down or copy them to a text file. Use the basic template to formulate your own headlines. By using what works, you won’t wonder if the headline you wrote will succeed – it already has.

Also, as crass as it may be, don’t ever forget that sex sells. If you can figure out how to sexify your headline stand back and watch the traffic flow. Good luck and keep learning!

If you don’t already know, Search Marketing Expo Advanced is currently underway in Seattle. Hosted by Danny Sullivan, all the usual suspects are there like Rand Fishkin, Aaron Wall, Bruce Clay, Greg Boser, Vanessa Fox and Matt Cutts. One of the most interesting blog posts that have come out of the expo so far is on Search Engine Roundtable, which covered a question and answer session with Mr. Cutts. What Matt answers isn’t as nearly telling as what he doesn’t. One immediate thing stands out for me is acknowledgment that Google, using its access as a domain register, does take into consideration the quality and nature of all the sites an individual owns. Of course Matt wouldn’t answer exactly how the ranking of a particular site is affected by the ranking of other sites managed by the same person  -nor whether registering your sites with Google webmaster tools or analytics helps Google in this regard. Read the full SMX Q and A with Matt Cutts here.

Today’s New York Times published an article that takes an insiders look at the Google search team headed by Amit Singhal, and discusses the challenges and changes the group has gone through over the years. From an SEO standpoint, the article doesn’t cover any unknown aspect of the algorithm (as if Google would suddenly decide to open their code to the Times), but it does show a small snapshot of what its like to work at Google on the search engine itself. For general readers, it’ll be an eye-opening read about the technology and methods behind search. Hopefully, that will mean a lot fewer quizzical looks from friends and family when we try to explain how SEO improves the ranking of a website. Two things that stood out for me from the article were, first, a look at recent algorithm changes to improve ‘freshness’ – the speed at which topical content is indexed, and second, the revelation that head search engineer, Mr. Singhal, shares an office with two other Google employees – one of which is Matt Cutts! Read the New York Times article on Google and Search here. 

Yesterday, I watched a video at lifehacker.com that showed blogger Robert Scoble demonstrating how he kept up with over 600 web feeds a day. Scoble, who became famous for his blog Scobleizer during his time as ‘technical evangelist’ at Microsoft, uses Google Reader to quickly scan for interesting articles to write about on his own blog. What I found interesting from an SEO perspective was the three attributes of a blog post that gets Scoble’s attention and causes him to take closer look. Those three things were:

1. Post Author
2. Number of Links in Post
3. Image in Post 

Unfortunately, becoming recognized as a trusted blogger only comes through quality content and time. However, including several links in your post and adding an image or two are simple, but often overlooked, things you can do for every post to increase readership. Scoble said that a link-dense post indicated to him that a post was well researched. And an interesting image is simply an attention grabber that will slow down a reader who is scanning through lots of text. Keep these basic tips in mind while implementing your blog strategy. If you’re not using blogs then get started. Blogs are content rich and search engines love them. Google’s purchase of Feedburner is an indication of their interest in blogs. The only caveat I’ll add to these tips concerns those of you who use automatic blog generators. Blogger.com, also purchased by Google, may flag a blog as a possible spam blog if it has too many links in its posts. If you use automatic blog software, limit yourself to three links per post. Wordpress.com doesn’t seem to be as strict, but better safe than sorry.

First, through the nature of the Google algorithm or by human manipulation, Wikipedia articles began to rank at the top of nearly every search. A few weeks ago, Google, implemented ‘Universal Search’, pushing organic results further down the page. What’s the latest difficulty for SEOer’s? It appears that ‘Google Trends’, a Google Labs project that shows the popularity of a search term over time, is now showing up in the SERP’s. Aaron Pratt of SEO Buzz Box has written about this change on his blog.  Instead of battling each other for rankings, we may find ourselves in a war with Google itself, and guess who will be on the losing side.

If you’ve tried linkbaiting, you know what a traffic and ranking windfall it can be – and you also know how difficult it can be as well. Don’t let anyone tell you that SEO hasn’t gotten harder over the past five or six years – it has. As the web evolves and new SEO strategies are developed, old tactics lose steam. Linkbaiting is one of those new strategies taking place of old standards that don’t work well anymore. I wish I remember where I read it but an SEOer recently said ‘Linkbaiting is the new reciprocal linking’. Unfortunately, pulling off a successful linkbaiting campaign is not nearly as easy as trading links. To help you out, check out the article ‘Golden Rules of Linkbaiting’ on smashingmagazine.com (a web development blog). The article covers the basics of linkbaiting and provides some good tips that help maximize the chances of making a link popular.  Smashing Magazine is not an SEO resource so it’s interesting to see linkbaiting techniques move from SEO to the wider world of general website promotion.

You have probably already noticed that Google recently implemented what it calls “Universal Search”. Now related image, video, and news results show up before website results. How is this going to affect you? Just being on the first page of the SERP’s will not work as well as it has. The first, second, and third results are now effectively the sixth, seventh and eighth result. Consequently, leveraging and optimizing image and video content will become more and more important. If image and video content are not important components of your site, now is the time to start figuring out how to integrate new media into your layout.

Google’s not going to dilute they’re bread and butter, though. Despite the hit organic search optimizers are going to take – PPC campaigners will still find their adwords ads showing up above universal and organic search results. Many SEO experts recommend combining PPC and natural search together. If you’ve avoided PPC until now, universal search is a further reason to take a serious look at adding PPC to your search tool bag. To read more about universal search and SEO you may want to check out pandia.com’s interview with SEO guru Kalena Jordan. 

I’m more convinced than ever that as search engine algorithms improve SEO is becoming SEM. As we watch the importance of link baiting and social media tactics increase, how can anyone in SEO believe that sustained success can be achieved without utilizing well thought out marketing strategies. Unfortunately, unless you come from a marketing background and spend a lot of your free time keeping tabs on the current marketing industry, picking up a copy of “Idiots Guide to Advertising” isn’t going to cut it. Using traditional marketing techniques aren’t effective because traditional marketing itself is undergoing radical changes in methodology and theory. The good news for SEOer’s is that the changes going on in advertising are driven by the instant communication and interactive culture the Internet has birthed.  In some ways the playing field is level for both marketers and techs.

Such a situation won’t last for long as successful strategies become specialized and closely guarded secrets. If you’re not staying on top of marketing and advertising trends now, you may lose out in the future. Subscribe to marketing blogs and browse the business section of your local bookstore for interesting reads on innovative marketing techniques. One place to start that I recommend is Seth Godin’s blog. Author and marketing guru, Seth is the founder of Squidoo and Yoyodyne – a direct marketing firm bought out by Yahoo in 1998. Seth’s a true free thinker when it comes to managing and promoting a marketing campaign. Check out Seth’s books and read his blog. He frequently posts on topics that are of great interest to the SEO community.