Infographic: The Google Panda Update, One Year Later

One year ago, Google launched its “Panda Update” designed to filter low quality or “thin” content from its top search results.

Below, our infographic produced in conjunction with BlueGlass covers how Panda works, what it impacted and the various updates from Panda 1.0 through Panda 3.2 that have happened along the way.

After the infographic, you’ll also find more information about the Panda Update ranging from in-depth analysis of how it works, “winners and losers” and well as recovery tips.

Source: http://searchengineland.com/google-panda-update-112805

Everything You Need To Know About SEO Web Structure & Internal Links

Website structure and internal linking is one of the most inconsistent topics within search engine optimization. Not only are SEO practitioners frequently at odds among ourselves, we must compete with the often conflicting goals of designers, usability experts, and marketing or sales teams. There is a lot of disagreement out there.

Look for yourself. Pick five websites from among your favorite SEO companies or experts. Compare their navigation structures on the homepage, category pages, topic pages and content pages. I am confident you will find noticeable differences.

• Does the top navigation use dropdown links?
• Do sidebar or top navigation links cross sub-categories and topics?
• What type of navigation links do you find in the footers?

What are we to do?

Google says, “Make a site with a clear hierarchy and text links” and, “Keep the links on a given page to a reasonable number.”


Google used to suggest limiting the number of links on a page to 100 or less. As Matt Cutts explained, this assists usability and to prevents web pages from dividing PageRank too thinly.

At any rate, you’re dividing the PageRank of that page between hundreds of links, so each link is only going to pass along a minuscule amount of PageRank anyway. Users often dislike link-heavy pages too, so before you go overboard putting a ton of links on a page, ask yourself what the purpose of the page is and whether it works well for the user experience.

Matt Cutts, March 9, 2009

Both are good points; however I suggest that using 100 links as a benchmark does not work well. Websites with high PageRank can be more liberal with links and content than sites with low authority.

If your website has a lot of authority, say a Blekko Host Rank of 1,500 your pages can easily link to 100 other pages. But if your Host Rank is 50 you probably want your pages to link to only your homepage, category pages and a few important SEO keyword optimized target pages. The more raw ranking strength a website possesses, the more liberties it can take with internal linking.

How Should You Structure Your Website?

The following graphic shows the most typical ways website content gets organized. Structuring with categories, topics and sub-topics provides horizontal and vertical hierarchy.

While you can extend this infinitely, the accepted best practice is for pages to be four clicks or fewer from the homepage.

These are my preferred Strict Navigation Rules for a 0–4 depth website:

• The Homepage links to all Category Pages (down)
• Category Pages
• Each Category page links to the Homepage (up)
• Each Category page links to all Category pages (across)
• Each Category page link to its own Topic pages (down)
• Topic Pages
• Each Topic page links to the Homepage (up)
• Each Topic page links to all Category pages (up)
• Each Topic page links to the all Topic pages within its Category (across)
• Each Topic page links to its own Sub-topic pages (down)
• Sub-topic Pages
• Each Sub-topic page links to the Homepage (up)
• Each Sub-topic page links to all Category pages (up)
• Each Sub-topic page links to all Topic pages within its own Category (up)
• Each Sub-topic page links to all Sub-topic pages within its own Topic (across)
• Each Sub-topic links to its own Content pages (down)
• Content Pages
• Each Content page links to the Homepage (up)
• Each Content page links to all Category pages (up)
• Each Content page links to all Topic pages within its own Category (up)
• Each Content page links to all Sub-topic pages within its own Topic (up)
• Each Content page links to all Content pages within its own Sub-topic (across)

As you grok this internal linking structure, keep in mind two things are happening here.

First, we are pushing PageRank down into the site. What may not be obvious is you are pushing PageRank back upwards. PageRank is a renewable resource.

After search engines measure a webpage’s raw ranking strength, they reuse some that authority by dividing it among the outbound links on the page and sending it along. Since every page links back to the homepage and category pages, this navigational structure gives those pages the most PageRank.

At this point you may be asking, But Tom, if the homepage and category pages are getting all that authority how do I make my content pages rank?


After all, the content pages are where you optimize for most keywords, right? This is where search engine optimization gets interesting. Your site architecture and internal link structure create the framework within which you optimize, but there is much more to SEO.

Taking Site Structure To The Next Level

Beginning with the top of your website, seasoned optimizers dislike generic categories such as products or solutions. Why waste all that ranking authority on generic pages when employing keywords as categories makes for a far stronger SEO strategy.

Can your turn your product lines into categories?

For example: Wedding Gowns, Bridesmaid Dresses, and Flower Girl Dresses are ideal categories for a bridal shop. Look at how www.amazon.com and www.zappos.com sets-up their categories. Try to emulate this.

Exceptions create high ranking opportunities. Cross-link to create SEO hub-pages. Send extra PageRank to important SEO pages.

If you have a Gasoline Powered Chainsaws page, each time you mention this, link to that page. Use sidebars or content windows to feature and link to your chainsaw page. Write multiple pages or supporting content that can link naturally to it, for example a tutorial on chainsaw safety or guide to properly cutting down trees or article called How to Survive the Upcoming Zombie Apocalypse will all work well.

The problem with creating cross-links to hub-pages is if you create too many links to too many pages, you eat away at your internal linking structure. Avoid this by limiting which hub-pages to cross-link to from your home, category and topic pages. Keep supporting content on the same level or lower in your website organization.

Make category, topic and sub-topic pages content rich. If your category pages are nothing more than links to sub-pages you waste ranking authority. Target these pages to keywords and fill them up with relevant content.

It always seems to come back to creating link-worthy content and having a strong link building and social media program to get off-site links, mentions and shares. The last thing you want is for all your off-site links to point to your homepage.

Yes, PageRank gets reused. But search engines limit or dampen the amount of authority with each re-pass. Having off-site links to many different pages not only sends ranking authority to the target pages, it extends the amount of PageRank which gets passed throughout your website.

Besides that, links to many pages is a basic signal of website quality, it increases a website’s search spider crawl budget, and extends the number of pages the search engines will index and include in their rankings.

Final Thought

Using internal linking to create a vertical site architecture is like setting-up a Monopoly board for game play. You still need to buy properties and add houses and hotels to have a chance at winning.

However, if you never open the box, put the game pieces on Go, lay out the Chance and Community Chest cards or set-up the bank, you cannot play the game.

Source: http://searchengineland.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-seo-web-structure-internal-links-110994

Infographic: Social Media Networking Site Cheat Sheet

Do you know your Twitter from your Facebook? Your Google+ from your Tumblr? Designed for small businesses, the “cheat sheet” below might still be useful to anyone trying to get familiar with some of the social media networking sites out there.

The infographic is from the folks at Flowtown and provides some basic tips, lingo and relative audience size for various social networking sites, though Pinterest was too new to be included, apparently:

Want the infographic for yourself? You’ll find it here: The Small Business Social Media Cheat Sheet

Source: http://marketingland.com/infographic-social-media-networking-site-cheat-sheet-5927

Guide to Finding Link Building Targets on Social Media Sites

There’s been a lot of debate in the SEO community lately regarding social media versus traditional linkbuilding methods. While some SEOs argue that social media links are the wave of the SEO future, traditionalists staunchly maintain traditional, authoritative links from quality sources are still the best way to go.

Whatever your stance, I think it’s easy to agree that gaining links from trusted authorities is desirable for any site — but that doesn’t mean the rise of social shouldn’t affect our outreach methods.

We’ll start with the obvious: social sites allow you to network and build relationships with industry players and authorities. Someone who’s gotten to know you over social media is going to be more receptive to a link request than someone receiving a random email from an outside party.

Further, social media offers a quick way to see that you’re a legitimate source with an active interest in the field — you’re not just out to spam any email address or Twitter account you can get your hands on.

However, social media also offers an ideal way to find and target industry users for specific linkbuilding outreach campaigns, too. Of course, before you can start targeting, you’ve got to identify who you’re trying to reach.

Courtesy of Hubspot.com

Identifying Your Target Audience

There are three main strategies for choosing your linkbuilding targets:

1. Industry Players: These are the active, trusted people who rank well in your industry and can give your site a hefty SEO boost.
2. Audience Platforms: Reaching out to larger platforms can give you access to your target demographics (a mommy blog with a strong following in your demographic, for example).
3. Natural Sharers/Curators: These are the people who’ve amassed an audience based on carefully selecting and sharing content from outside sources (MariaPopova from Brainpicker is one example). You may find them more receptive to linkbuilding campaigns since they have a strong interest in finding high-quality links.

Iron Out Your Persona

If you’re building links for an outside site (a client’s site, for example), you’ll need to build an appropriate online persona to match. Obviously you won’t do well reaching out to a fashion blogger with your SEO Twitter account. No matter what social site you’re using (Twitter, Delicious, etc.), your account should match the industry you’re reaching out to.

If you’re trying to build links for your own website, you’re the primary source and voice of your linkbuilding efforts. There’s no need to build a separate persona: just use the social media accounts you already have.

Only Use High-Quality Content

Choose the highest-quality content you have for your linkbuilding efforts. You’ll get better results by promoting informative content (an infographic, a comprehensive case study, etc.), not your homepage link.
The content you choose should be highly original and offer real value to your target audience — something that’s exciting, something they haven’t seen before.

Here’s a look at the various outreach methods for social networking and bookmarking sites.

Search Twitter Directories & Search Engines To Find Applicable Users

Aside from searching Twitter for relevant keywords or hashtags, several sites make it easier for linkbuilders to find and analyze relevant users:

• Directories: Twitter directories such as Twellow and WeFollow are perhaps the easiest way to find relevant Twitter users. Search by relevant tag (“writers,” “SEO”) or user location. Twellow also has “Twellowhood,” a searchable map which lets users find Twitter users near them.
• Search tools: Sites like Listorious and Followerwonk allow you to search Twitter bios for desired keywords. Followerwonk also lets users analyze a Twitter user’s followers, so if you find one applicable target, you can easily search the other accounts that target is following.

Search Klout For Industry Influencers

Klout lets you easily search influencers by category (“SEO,” “bloggers,” etc.). Better still, Klout lets users connect their profile to a variety of other accounts, including their WordPress site — meaning minimal research for linkbuilders is required. Keep in mind that you’ll need a Klout account in order to access the site’s search services, however.

Search Delicious For Like-Minded Users

Delicious requires more legwork than Twitter or Klout, but it’s a unique way of finding users already prone to sharing. There are three main ways to search Delicious:

• By tag: Enter in your keyword and you’ll the most popular links from that category, or “tag.”

• By site: Enter in a competitor’s URL to see the users who’ve bookmarked it in the past. Alternatively, use tools like Quantcast.com to find out your site demographics — Quantcast has a section to see which other sites rank well with your site traffic (Wall Street Journal readers also tend to read Smart Money, for example).

• By related article: Find an article that’s relevant to your content? Search that article on Delicious and peruse the users who’ve saved it.

Most professional users will have their website clearly listed on their profile. For better luck, try investigating the users who enter in a unique description for the site you’re bookmarking — you’ll have a higher probability of finding the serious users over the casual ones.

Stumble Categories For Guest Posting On StumbleUpon

If you’re sick of paging through “Write for Us” Google results, StumbleUpon offers an attractive way to quickly discover new blogs. Simply enter in your targeted topic and you’ll be able to click through relevant stumbled blogs in a matter of seconds. You can also comment, network, and discover new ideas for content while you’re stumbling.

Search Newsroom Leaders On Digg

Digg currently has a beta feature called “Newsrooms” that collect the most influential topics and users by category. If your subject falls under one of Digg’s Newsroom categories, you can browse through the Newsroom’s “Leaders” (the top Digg users in that particular category).

Search Google+ For Relevant Users

As Google+’s role in Google search increases, it’s doubly important to start courting major players on the network. Find PeopleonPlus.com is a useful G+ directory, but don’t forget you can also search the site through a simple “site:plus.google.com” search.

Search & Analyze LinkedIn Profiles, Groups And Answers

A networking powerhouse, LinkedIn contains three fantastic ways of finding relevant targets:

1. Advanced Search: Search member profiles by keyword via LinkedIn’s Advanced Search feature (located in the top righthand corner of your profile). You can tweak your searches to include only certain industries or groups as well.
2. Answers: Check out the Answers section to browse through LinkedIn’s “Top Experts” or “Category Experts.” For a more tailored response, search for applicable questions that relate to your industry and target relevant responders.
3. Groups: Searching for relevant groups or looking for leads in group forums can often pull up some terrific targets.

The Golden Rules Of Linkbuilding Outreach Campaigns

No matter how you choose to contact your newfound targets, always remember the following four “golden rules” of linkbuilding:

1. Have a purpose. Whyare you contacting that specific person? Tell your target exactly why you’re reaching out to him.
2. Tell them how you found them. Showing your research helps showcase why you chose that particular target.
3. Keep it short and sweet. Your targets are busy people — get to the point quickly or risk wasting their time.
4. Call them by name. The quickest way to get your message deleted is to lead with a “Dear Sir or Madam.” Do your research and learn your target’s name. It’s the simplest rule, but it makes a huge difference.

Conclusion

Remember, like any part of linkbuilding, social linkbuilding research takes time. These methods may give you new and original ways to find targets, but they don’t cut any corners. The same rules apply: build your networks. Build trust. Start communicating and sharing relevant content.
Do the legwork, assemble your contact list. The links will come — but it’s going to take some real and serious effort on your part.

Source: http://searchengineland.com/guide-to-finding-linkbuilding-targets-with-social-media-108817

Future of SEO: Change, Convergence, Collaboration

Forrester's Interactive Marketing Forecast for 2011-2016 predicts that 26 percent of all advertising spend will come from interactive marketing reaching a grand total of $77 billion by 2016, with $33 billion of that coming through search.
Although the report states that search will lose some share from 55 percent today to 44 percent of all interactive spend in 2016, it also states that “Marketers refocus their search marketing strategies on 'getting found' by users through any medium — not just search engines.”
While many posts have been written that address change in particular reference to Google, little has been said about how these strategic changes by Google are a result of, and indeed further catalyst to, convergence and collaboration.
Today, that is the main topic of my conversation – convergence and collaboration. It’s a big topic that requires a big post. Why? Like it or not, SEO has changed and its future relies upon a complex relationship with content marketing, social media, and collaborative technology.
The end result is a whole new way of thinking about utilizing SEO and social media strategy and technology.
What’s more, with the input of some expert insight, we will identify a whole new set of the new roles to the SEO landscape that are now totally justifiable – not just as part of a current SEO role, but as full-time roles in their own right.
With change comes great opportunity for the switched on SEO.
Trigonometry (from Greek trigōnon "triangle" + metron "measure"[1]) is a branch of mathematics that studies triangles and the relationships between their sides and the angles between these sides.

Change - A Brief Chronology of Google Change

  Chronology of Change (Content), Technology & the Search Engines

• Caffeine
• Panda
• Google +1
• Panda updates
• Google+ Launch
• SSL– Limitation of search referral data
• Freshness
• Closure of Yahoo Site Explorer
• Google+ Pages
• Google Search Plus Your World

Google has changed the way that people find information in search. Taking a step away from the hype and debate, Google Search Plus Your World was launched to solve issues regarding trust and authority of content by adding people, pages, and profiles that are all also fully integrated in search results. Hence, whenever I say change I also think content.
Google's changes over recent years, such as Caffeine and Google Panda updates, are mostly concerned with content and relevancy issues. Google’s SSL changes are driving many SEOs to change and adapt the way they work with a renewed focus on quality content, social media signals, and technology.
In parallel, the closure of Yahoo Site Explorer and gradual reduction in the number of free, reliable, relevant search engine tools has led to an increase in the number of new entrants into the SEO technology market.

Convergence - SEO, Social Media, and Content Marketing

Changes in the industry and with the search engines (a.k.a., Google) represent the convergence of search and social media, data and personalization, strategy and tactics.
The increased prominence placed on social media content, seeding, and sharing (social media optimization) has meant social signals are now a standard part of any search optimization techniques. The convergence of SEO and social media has really meant that change is no longer imminent, but upon us.
A new breed of ‘inbound marketers’ aim to take advantage of the convergence of social media, SEO, and content marketing, according to the Marketing Sherpa 2012 Search Marketing Benchmark Report - SEO Edition:

• 60 percent plan to increase their social media budgets.
• 60 percent plan increases in landing page optimization.
• 57 percent plan increases in SEO.
• 41 percent plan increases in content marketing.

Change is the Convergence of Social Media, Content Marketing & Technical SEO

Google Search Plus Your World is, in its own words, “bringing your world, rich with people and information, into search” and while many argue the case for a level playing field and the inclusion of Facebook and Twitter data the fact remains that it has an impact on how SEOs work and collaborate with their peers in social media and content marketing as well as with their clients.
Not only do Google’s recent changes typify the convergence of SEO and social media, it also changes the way in which SEO and social media people plan to work together as increasing prominence is given to quality content from social media sources and new influences on rankings.
Suddenly, SEO is being built around circles of social influence with social link building strategies being built in parallel. Content then needs to be made easily sharable through collaboration across social networks through links, and for the time being, Google Circles.
SEO now has to be as conversational as it is contextually relevant and building a framework for optimizing conversational type marketing fits neatly into this.

Convergence - SEO Technology

As the role of SEO develops and converges with social media, we're beginning to see many changes in the SEO technology landscape. For some, this has meant building and adding features as a result of changes within the search environment and the convergence of SEO, social media, and content marketing strategies. For others, developmental improvement has been a continual process, with the major focus being on the importance of identifying and maximizing new SEO opportunities via collaboration with clients through enterprise and productivity based SEO systems.
If you need more evidence then Forrester's Interactive Marketing Forecast now includes a new category – SEO Technology – which will taper to a 12 percent compound annual growth rate.

What’s more, a recent survey from BrightEdge concluded that 72 percent of search marketers surveyed stated that they would spend more on search marketing technology in 2012 compared to 2011.
The changes we mentioned before by the search engines and the convergence of search, social, and content based strategies have meant that shiny new SEO tools and new generations of enterprise SEO platform are being built and developed. Enterprise SEO platforms enable SEO professionals and their clients to achieve a higher ROI from their campaigns by focusing attention on this convergence and focusing on opportunities for collaboration and overall increases in productivity and efficiency.

Tools vs. Platforms

It's important to distinguish between a tool and a platform.

• Tools: Most tools serve a single purpose and are specifically designed to help with one specific area of your business. For example, that could be keyword research, link analysis, and analytics.
• Platform: A platform provides a holistic solution to a number of client and business needs by offering a suite of integrated tools, most likely in this case, to include monetary, productivity, and relationship management type solutions.

Many SEO tools have developed in line with, or as a direct result of, the changes made by the search engines. The recent closure of Yahoo Site Explorer has given rise to a number of alternatives from providers such SEOMoz site explorer, Web SEO Analytics, and SEO Book toolbar, which all offer free alternatives alongside numerous other options such as Googlehacks.
The rise of Enterprise SEO technology is encouraging business and agencies to collaborate and take advantage of new developments and the convergence of SEO, social media, and content marketing strategies.
Intelligent systems are being developed that use data sources such as Alexa, Open Site Explorer and Majestic SEO to refine data relative to business outcomes. These tools combine a number of elements from keyword research, site crawling, backlink analysis, reporting, productivity & CRM, and social media – all with different degrees of capability.
Tool based platforms like Linkdex, Raven Tools, SEMRush, gShiftlabs, Searchmetrics, Conductor, Sycara, and BrightEdge are all developing into enterprise SEO platforms of the future.
These platforms focus on change, convergence, and collaboration by introducing workflow and task management solutions on top on their SEO toolsets and analysis.

Many of these tools are beginning to look like enterprise SEO platforms, but the reality is that there are so many tools to choose from that finding the right can be difficult and depends upon the scope of your role and your client brief.
Companies such as Linkdex and Conductor also offer a suite of SEO tools with a large focus placed on ‘the business of SEO’ and the value derived from close collaboration and the culture of SEO within agencies and businesses alike. Platforms like Linkdex and Brightedge place an emphasis on seizing potential opportunities, something that I like to call ‘opportunity cost based SEO’ by placing monetary value on SEO opportunity and providing competitive comparisons while building enterprise solutions.
As social signals converge in the SERPs, enterprise SEO solutions providers are beginning to integrate and add social media elements to their offerings (i.e., Searchmetrics has been marrying together analytics, search and social media data).
Many other tool providers take a more comprehensive view of the relationship between SEO and PPC with Kenshoo and Covario teaming up on SEO, PPC, social, and local. Other tools such as SEMRush are launching AdSense advertising reporting and Facebook Ad data into their toolbars.
Many full service digital marketing suites now incorporate SEO metrics as they too focus on the convergence of search, social, and display media. Platforms such as IgnitionOne incorporate PPC and SEO data in their attribution systems and the Adobe acquisition of Efficient Frontier gives a deeper insight into how the wider search, social, display, and digital ecosystem appears to be evolving.
In 2012 I expect further innovation from SEO platforms such as integration with Google analytics and the convergence of data sets from Webtrends, Coremetrics, Hitwise, and Omniture. We're already seeing more convergence and collaboration in the SEO tools space partnerships with outside data sources such as BrightEdge and comScore partnership.

Social Media & CRM Opportunities

While SEO platforms develop there are also many gaps and opportunities to incorporate social media CRM tools into enterprise SEO platforms.
SEO relationship management is maturing, but there is still an opportunity to identify and manage influencers beyond backlinks. Manage and nurturing social media relationships with the people ‘behind the links’ presents even more of an opportunity to converge and collaborate on SEO and social media strategies.

At the moment it's probably too early to work out the best way to calculate these social media metrics but once more accurate becomes available more data can be measured beyond numbers of tweets and likes. Social media tools such as Trackur and Radian6 offer insight and features based on social enterprise beyond the current functionality of the majority of SEO.
Other tools such as Basecamp, Huddle and Trello, are collaborative tools that help SEO and social media people, departments, and agencies.
I would be tempted to say that this market may quickly move from segmented to fragmented. As a result, in 2012 I think we'll see:

1. Further organic and VC investment towards innovation in the enterprise SEO space, with a focus around social signals and metrics and API development – take away the theory of convergence and collaboration and this is your technical solution.
2. Many smaller SEO and social media companies sharing resources via merger and acquisition.
3. At least one SEO platform being integrated, via acquisition, into an automated content marketing or CRM platform, or even large agency network.

Collaboration

Hopefully you can see that changes in the search environment, the focus on content and social signals, and the growth, convergence, and development of enterprise SEO platforms fosters a need for collaboration.
The question for the SEO is, “Is your glass half full or half empty”?
I asked a few SEOs across the globe, and within my ‘social circle’, for feedback in this section.
Rather than resist change the opportunities to “reinvent the SEO wheel" are there to be taken by:

• Close collaboration with industry peers across content, social, PR, and digital media channels – from SEO to TV
• Utilizing the changes, convergence, and innovation in SEO technology to collaborate more efficiently and effectively with your industry peers, clients, and agencies accordingly.

For many a year we have seen white hat vs. black hat debate. In 2012 it could be that we will see a new argument – perhaps inbound marketing vs. black hat social media?
Will we see a new name for SEO, the inbound marketer, and will we (should we) expect more hats, 6 hats thinking, on the SEO table – maybe that’s one for our colleagues at SES to consider?

The Technician

From coding, crawling, keyword ranking, link analysis and link building tools to productivity social media, content and CRM - the opportunities for the technical SEO, developers and programmers to work together on integrated and innovative solutions are probably higher than they have ever been given the growth of SEO and social media technology.

The Social Media Specialist

While many argue and debate about the convergence of SEO and social media strategies the technical knowledge of how search engines work (to date) lie in the hand of the SEO.
Whether you're a strategist or a technician, social media people need to collaborate with you just as much as you and them.

The Psychologist

If there is ever a time to be inside the mind of the consumer it’s now. Looking at the psychology of sharing is something that SEO people have been doing for a long time and it’s important that strategies on social content, reach and conversion match the psychology of the link builder and buyer personas.
What makes someone tick isn't necessarily what makes people click. The experienced SEO knows this far better than a traditional content marketer.
Bas van den Beld, search & social strategist and SES speaker, makes an interesting point on technology and psychology: “Tools can help you find the way people use the web, they can help you understand how people think and therefore help you understand their perspective.”

The Consultant

The speed and volume of change in the SEO industry is so great that it can be a challenge for people in the industry to keep pace with change, and also communicate the effects of those changes to clients, in-house departments, and agencies. With the convergence of so many channels, the emergence of new social media platforms such as Pinterest and their subsequent relationships with SEO, the opportunities to learn, share, and educate are vast and continual.
The consultant can share knowledge, investment and SEO tips with social media peers. Clients have a thirst for knowledge but many lack the ‘know how’ and the available resources, to make the most out of change.
"The intention is often not malicious but suppliers usually benefit from pulling the wool over the eyes of their customers," said Kelvin Newman, organiser of UK search event Brighton SEO. "A mixture of growing maturity and ‘once bitten, twice shy’ cynicism is leading to greater transparency and openness and a need for close consultation and collaboration.”
The consultant can work with clients and peers to build and nurture trust and also combine SEO and social media strategies and data most effectively. The consultant works very closely with the technologist below.

The Technologist

Choosing the right blend of technology and utilizing many of the SEO tools and platforms mentioned in this article requires a consultative and collaborative approach. Each client and each opportunity will require a different combination of tools that can be split between keyword tools, link analysis, management and content/CRM. Those who choose a move to complex Enterprise Platforms will require significant levels of training.
The role of the technologist ensures that the selected solution fits your client’s needs by answering some basic questions:

• What specific tools will they use?
• Who will use the tool?
• Where will it be used?
• How many people will use the tool?
• Would an Enterprise SEO Solution be a better fit?
• Will the users be in-house – how much collaboration is needed?
• Are the users across the whole organization?
• Will specific tools alone complement each other? – social media and CRM?
• Who owns and control the data?
• If you use an enterprise solution – do we share costs and build alternative pricing models?

“I will have one client who won't know what meta data does, other use tools like screaming frog on a weekly basis” said Alex Moss, head of SEO at Pleer. “Eventually all prospective clients will have more knowledge of what you do as an agency and I wouldn't be surprised if they ask you what tools you'll use to perform specific actions with many wanting to be involved in the decision making and usage of the tools”
A technologist can help collaborate with consultants, clients, and in-house SEO departments to share access to some of the tools that help them and the client see the monetary value of SEO in their sector.
The growth of SEO technology, according to Forrester, will have an impact on SEO charging models and agency fee structures and for some (those who look backward in my opinion) SEO technology can be seen as a threat to agency fees. My argument would be that the the role of the technologist can foster collaboration, sharing data, and joint investment in SEO technology with agencies and clients.
New pricing structures are ‘naturally’ developed based on scalability and the efficiencies gained by the very adoption and growth of SEO technology. Technology is changing the way we work so it will naturally change the way in which it is priced over time.

The Trainer

Everyone suddenly seems to want to know about the convergence of search and social, so there should be much more focus on education and understanding towards clients. It’s vital to teach clients how things work and make them understand what they are doing, why are doing it, and what results to expect.
“We've found that clients knowledge of SEO and mindset has been shifting for the last couple of years, especially towards looking at SEO from a business/marketing perspective," said Kevin Gibbons, from SEOptimise and Search Engine Watch author. "For this reason education and training is becoming a very important part of the service you provide."
If you are a technologist then training people on the use of technology is a must. With such a high level of continual change in the industry there are massive opportunities to train and educate clients in the development of new techniques, technology, platforms, and integration and learning’s across social media platforms.
As many companies take some elements of SEO in-house and with the every expansive role of SEO and its convergence with other marketing disciplines agencies and clients need to find a ‘happy medium’ for consultation, training, and implementation.
“When I was on agency side I definitely saw a shift from having the agency doing the bulk of the work to being used in more of a training and consultancy role," said Simon Heseltine of AOL. "This is a shift that has really been gaining momentum over recent years.”

The Innovator

All of the above sets you well on your way to becoming an innovator. 2012 is the year of change in SEO with opportunities opening up all the time to work, outside the silo, closely with your peers and clients to expand the role of traditional SEO from content SEO, social SEO through to reach and frequency and viral SEO

Conclusion

The way you work, the tools you use, and your approach to SEO have all changed. We all know that, but taking action is a totally different ball game.
If you're open to changing the way you think about SEO and are willing to change the way you view the search world (as a marketer), then the opportunities, tools, and platforms are available for you to take advantage of right now.

Source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2144350/Future-of-SEO-Change-Convergence-Collaboration

Under Threat Of Being Blocked Google, Facebook Comply With India's New Internet Censorship Rules

After China and the US, India is the third largest internet market in the world. But India has philosophically aligned itself more with China in pursuing a policy of censorship toward publication of content deemed “offensive” or “objectionable” by individuals, groups or the government.

A recently enacted law seeks to remove all such content from the internet in India. Facebook, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft were sued under the law and had been arguing in Indian court that it was all but impossible for them to comply as a practical matter. The law makes online publishers potentially liable for the acts of individual users and third parties (think “offensive” blog hosted on Blogger or “objectionable” video uploaded to YouTube).

According to a BBC report Indian Communications Minister Kapil Sibal said the following in December about the desired impact of the new law:

My aim is that insulting material never gets uploaded. We will evolve guidelines and mechanisms to deal with the issue. [The companies] will have to give us the data, where these images are being uploaded and who is doing it.

Google, Facebook and others had argued that they had no control over individuals and should not be held liable for their conduct accordingly. They said they cannot “pre-filter” material generated by millions of users. This is what would be called a “prior restraint” against free speech in the US.

Indian courts have been unsympathetic and demanded that the companies comply or be blocked entirely “like in China.” The BBC says that the companies have now complied and removed offending material at issue in a particular civil lawsuit.

However the overly vague nature of the statute on which these claims are based almost guarantees that Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Microsoft and other online publishers in India will face a steady stream of litigation from individuals or groups “offended” by this or that image, article or video.

Source: http://searchengineland.com/google-facebook-comply-with-indias-new-internet-censorship-rules-110377

Google Blogger URL Redirects Censor International Users

When Twitter announced they were instituting a new censorship policy, the micro-blogging platform faced an immediate and severe backlash from the majority of the web community. Now, as a result of a previously announced change to the Blogger platform that was initially announced on January 9th, the Blogger platform has also come under scrutiny. The change, which deploys a country-specific URL to the Blogger platform, will allow Google to censor and remove content on a country-by-country basis similar to the new Twitter policy.

When required by local laws and regulations, Google has said they will remove content in a manner that impacts the smallest number of potential readers. The Google Blogger site says the following of the new change:

“Migrating to localized domains will allow us to continue promoting free expression and responsible publishing while providing greater flexibility in complying with valid removal requests pursuant to local law. By utilizing ccTLDs, content removals can be managed on a per country basis, which will limit their impact to the smallest number of readers.”

The changes, which are already live in India, Australia, and New Zealand, enable Google to easily remove content on a per-country basis by redirecting users to an address that utilizes a country-code top level domain. For example, if a U.S. blog’s address is http://name.blogspot.com and a user with an India-based IP attempts to visit the blog, Google will send the user to http://name.blogspot.in. However, if the blog’s readers would prefer to reach the U.S. (non-censored) version of the site, they can add “ncr/,” which stands for “No Country Redirect” to the end of the URL (i.e. http://name.blogspot.com/ncr/) and the user will no longer be served the country-specific (potentially censored) version of the blog.

The new Blogger policy does not currently affect blogs that use the custom domain feature.
Do you feel that the new Blogger policy is necessary to maintain the continued free flow of information while simultaneously complying with local regulations?

[Sources Include: Search Engine Journal, Mashable, Economic Times, & Google Blogger]