In its efforts to combat webspam, Google now ignores or even penalizes “unnatural” link profiles. Six Degrees Of SEO Bacon & B2B Link Building Q&A by Search Engine Land. 10 Extraordinary Examples of Effective Link Bait by The Daily SEO Blog. The 10 Golden Rules to Attracting Authority Links by The Daily SEO Blog. Kristina Weis explains plainly and concisely how Google evaluates “unnatural” links, the specific types of links to avoid (paid, sitewide, blog networks), and some common backlink-checking tools (another is Backlink Watch ). MORE >>

The most important thing to keep in mind when first launching an SEO campaign is that SEO is a long term process. Unlike other marketing campaigns, there is no such thing as overnight SEO success. However, many businesses take the wrong approach in the way that they determine SEO campaign success. Instead of rankings, focus on these 3 metrics to measure SEO success: Increase in visitors. The best links to obtain are the ones that will provide SEO “link juice” and will also be seen by target audience members to generate traffic to the site. MORE >>

53% of employers now research candidates on social networks before hiring. Researchers To Marketers: Go Social, Mobile by MediaPost Online Media Daily. Les Luchter looks at research showing that 10% of all website visits to the top 1,000 web properties come from social sharing, half as much as from search. Shea Bennett examines research finding that, no surprise, the user base on LinkedIn skews older than on other social networks: more than half of all members are aged 36-65, with just 6% younger than 22. ” B2B Marketing Research and Statistics. hours. MORE >>

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a key component in designing and developing an effective website , as well as the core of web presence optimization (WPO). And with continual algorithm changes by the search engines and the emerging importance of social signals and content, SEO ranking signals, responsibilities and best practices continue to evolve. Here’s a good place to start: 40 of the best SEO guides to strategy, tactics, considerations, common mistakes to avoid and more from some of the best SEO bloggers and writers around. How to keep up? And more. MORE >>

Before my SEO friends get their panties in a wad over today’s headline, let me emphasize that I understand the practical value and wisdom of basic Search Engine Optimization practices. The process goes something like this: The company hires home-bound individuals or low-wage people in developing countries to freelance as professional blog commenters. The blog commenters are trained on how to pose as fake people and comment in a way that does not alert the suspicion of Google or the author of the blog. He bragged that one client has a monthly SEO bill of $200,000. MORE >>