Black Hat SEO News

You might be asking yourself: Why be social at events in the first place? Don’t I already have enough to do? Social media can play an important role at any type of event – whether it’s tradeshows or even webinars – and can help you achieve a variety of different goals.

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When I speak with Chief Marketing Officers and marketers about their communications campaigns, the first question I ask is whether a program is “triangulated” in its execution, or whether their earned marketing programs integrate three key principle disciplines within digital marketing.

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Search engine optimization is not dead. It is alive and well; it has just gone social like nearly everything else. Social media has come to be a dominant force in everyday life, including marketing and business. Attaining SEO success now depends in large part on the social capital of your content.

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While it’s different for every business, return on investment can be difficult to quantify. You’re often working to develop and generate stronger brand relationships, rather than putting on the hard sell for quick returns. This is still possible through social media.

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More and more companies are making their presence known on popular social media sites. While being active on sites like Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest is a start, there is another useful strategy that can make a business's social media site interesting: posting videos.

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Flappy Bird: a testament to mankind's cruelty. The app that destroyed so many lives in just a short amount of time will live in infamy forever, or at least until we all forget about it. It's supernatural meteoric rise to fame took us all by surprise and it seemed that none of us were ready.

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How can 18 percent of the online community grab the eyes and ears of all other media? It's called Twitter. Here are a couple examples of how Twitter is being used to crowdsource public opinion around a controversial topic to get the attention of the masses.

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Would you be the least bit surprised if I told you 98 percent of businesses depend almost entirely on word of mouth marketing? What if I told you of those 98 percent, only three percent have a strategy for obtaining leads via word of mouth? Here is my reaction to that: SCARY!

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Google has published some SEO best practices for scrolling websites that gives advice on what you should do to ensure all your content is being crawled, indexed, and ranked correctly, including tips on how to structure URLs and pagination.

The recent discovery that Google is testing restaurant menus in its "card" results sparked discussion about where Google likes to get its data and how websites can continue to help the search engine better understand their information.

No longer the precious domain of a few, fashion has forever been changed by social media, where a new class of domains rules—populated by and designed by the global consuming public—now with a resounding collective voice that is being heard. Street smart fashion free speech has come of age. Vive la voix!

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Social media holds real influence that continues to rise. Neglect social media, and your business will suffer. You will not be able to optimize your content marketing, website traffic, or lead generation and conversion without social media best practices.

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SEO is an incredibly effective marketing tactic, and if executed correctly, can provide great returns. However, while it drives traffic to websites and increases sales, SEO is more effective when integrated with a complete online marketing strategy.

Amazon's newly updated app is pushing augmented reality closer to the mainstream with Flow. It recognizes products then presents users with purchase options for that exact object and/or similar objects within the Amazon marketplace.

If you want your event to shine and be well-attended by your target audience, you want to create a buzz by sending out a press release. But, with so many people on information overload via social media, texts, and emails, how do you generate excitement? What elements should your press release include or exclude?

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"Dear Socially Stephanie, I just found out my company is a cyber-bully. My employee was posting mean things to people and was unpleasant online, but I had no idea it was going on. I've fired her since, but I before I hire someone new, I want to make sure this never happens again. Anything I should do?"

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While some insurance agencies are using digital marketing strategies to drive business growth, many don't think they are applicable to their business. If you don't agree with me, look at 5 insurance agency websites in your market. You'll be surprised how many are brochure-ware sites that do nothing to communicate the agency's value proposition.

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No one likes to wade through jargon-laden content, but when used judiciously, jargon can serve a real purpose in content marketing. Like everyone else, those of us in content marketing have our own jargon to wade through and decipher. I’ll use it sparingly in this blog post, but suffice it to say that we have plenty of multisyllabic words and acronyms.

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Are review sites and local business listing services really impartial? Or, do other factors play a substantial role in how businesses are listed on Yelp? One current theory making the rounds is that local business listing services and review sites use paid advertising space as leverage to make some small businesses appear superior to their direct competitors.

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In today’s dialogue-driven business environment, it’s critical to learn how to build a strong social community – and that goes for B2B as well as B2C. If you have experience in B2C community-building, here’s the good news: B2B isn’t all that different. After all, B’s are just a collection of C’s – the C’s are just consuming B products.

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Most people think that an effective Pinterest strategy is only necessary for B2C ecommerce companies. Wrong. While you should certainly consider having a solid Pinterest strategy in place if you are a B2C ecommerce company, there are many other companies that are seeing significant results from Pinterest.

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If you are a member of a LinkedIn Group or put effort towards networking through these Groups you may have noticed that it can be difficult to find the perfect one. With over 1.9 million LinkedIn Groups, it can be hard to find Groups which cater to your needs. You can join up to 50 different Groups, but you might find it difficult to participate and build solid connections.

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The relationship between Sales and Marketing can be a heart-breaking tale: a romance waiting to bloom that never quite seems to get off the ground. Both value content, both believe in social selling, both want to generate leads, sales and ROI more than anything.

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This post offers five social media engagement principles to guide the efforts of both individuals and organizations. It is primarily targeted to rookies who are just getting started with social media, as well as those who want to regroup and redirect their efforts. The guiding principles include proceeding with “mindful flexibility,” and listening first then talking.

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As a writer who, on a daily basis, competes with premium and traditional news outlets for readers’ time (oh, and Buzzfeed too), I’m keen to learn how I can get you to read and share my story. Arm-twisting and blackmail aside, I recognize one of the more critical things that gets consumers of digital content to click and share is an exciting headline.

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During a conversation, I mentioned Klout, Little Bird, and Lithium, among several other companies doing interesting things on the fringes of mainstream corporate technology adoption. Why? Because the topics of influence and community and digital networks are central to the future of business; the the future of the planet, really.

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Your company Christmas party got a little out of hand? You better think twice about posting those photos on your professional page. You might be laughing about the good times now, but your laughter will come to an abrupt halt once the photos ruin your good name.

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Which brings us back to Quora. The social media darling of 2009, it came out with a bang and then settled into a Q&A site for the tech geeks and social media nerds.A quick review of their home page has questions such as, “What happened to Steve Jobs’s office?” and “Why Do People Use Pinterest?”

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Technology is revolutionizing the retail landscape. By 2016 it is estimated that global retails are expected to reach a staggering $1,321.4 trillion, a 67 percent increase from 2011. With the freedom to compare prices, greater efficiency and the growing prevalence of same day delivery offers – the allure of eCommerce is drawing more consumers each day.

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It's Valentine's day, so it's the perfect time to enjoy some terrible online marketing pickup lines. We heartily recommend not using any of these on another human being, unless you're overheating and in dire need of a drink thrown in your face.

Yelp redesigned its look and feel to give more space to imagery and make accessing information about a local business or place simpler. With a new image carousel and more space for review content, Yelp has finally capitalized on the power of imagery.

Why does the recent reemergence of '80s TV star ALF matter? Why am I harping on a make-believe alien who enjoys feline omelets? Because it reaffirms that creative content has become the lynchpin of how brands define themselves, particularly online and in social channels.

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Organic post visibility is dropping on Facebook. Now it seems that even those promoted posts may not be reaching the intended audience. A post from video blogger Derek Muller of Veritasium is making the rounds on social media with a damning study on Facebook’s advertising model.

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You know that your blog is the best marketing tool you have got. You understand you are blogging to attract your Perfect Reader. So let’s take a look at how you can easily optimize every element on your blog to supercharge it and turn it into a lead generation machine.

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Journalists arrived in Sochi, expecting to check into their hotel rooms and prepare for two weeks of nonstop obscure sports coverage. However, what they found were hotels without lobbies, rooms with broken light fixtures, wi-fi routers hanging from the ceiling, and stray dogs roaming the streets. A hashtag was born.

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Many in the legal profession and at professional responsibility seminars advocate against the use of social media because of the potential legal and ethical concerns it creates for attorneys - yet a strong presence online is important for business. So what's the solution?

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With so many DSPs available it can be challenging to determine which platform will best serve your needs. What are some common inefficiencies to look out for and questions to ask before committing? Consider these five factors when choosing a DSP.

Whatever topic you need your future links for, you can acquire domains with a lot of authority links directed at it even before you need the link value. Once you need the link value, you already have a batch waiting to be used.

Autoplay has been referred to as the “most hated digital ad tactic.” The stats are staggering, when 84% of 25 to 34 year olds have exited a webpage because of an “irrelevant or intrusive ad.” Marketing is largely moving in the direction of more control by users, which is why content marketers are pushing interactivity.

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This is not your old man’s marketing landscape. In century 21, marketing masters must fire from both sides of the brain, stay relentlessly plugged in, and be flexible, versatile, and open to everything. According to PR 20/20, you need to excel in content, social media, mobile, email marketing and analytics—or go the way of the dinosaur.

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How can attending a conference make you more bad*** than you already are? Find out the benefits they can provide and learn about some upcoming conferences designed specifically for small business owners you won't want to miss. Attend a blogging conference and you might learn how to elevate your content and make your blog posts better than ever before.

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Twitter may soon look like Facebook as users of the social networking giant report that they are seeing a new layout which observers note look like a mix of Facebook and other social networking stars. The new layout looks like a hybrid Facebook Timeline and Google+ stream at first glance.

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With more than 1.15 billion registered users and 201 million active mobile users on a monthly basis, GooglePlus is a rocking social networking site that many businesses and brands haven't leveraged yet. Google+ is on the track to beat Facebook and become the most widely used social media.

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If you still aren’t convinced and your business hasn’t started using social media yet, here are 8 compelling reasons to do so. As a business, understanding your target audience and their motivation to follow you on social media is key in determining how to best connect with, and grow your audience.

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It seems to be a trend that during large-scale, media-heavy events satirical Twitter accounts are created. Because of the timeliness of the event, these types of accounts experience an influx of followers. But what happens to these accounts once the Super Bowl is done and the Olympics come to a close?

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So share the new content on your social media platforms. Think of it as marketing your marketing. Tweet it multiple times on the day it is published, share it on Facebook, Google Plus and LinkedIn, then pin it. Share it wherever you can, and encourage comments to improve engagement.

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Google makes 500 to 600 changes (includes updates, data refreshes and changes) in algorithm every year in order to provide best search results to its users. While most of these changes are minor and go unnoticed, a few are major and causes significant effect on the searches.

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Why not show a little comment love to your favorite authors and bloggers? Although there aren't really any major rules to commenting on blogs, there are a few things you can do to make your feedback more welcome, and to be helpful to other bloggers.

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The Beats buzz is not only making a major dent in the headphone market, but also raising the bar, handing 40% of all U.S. sales to the brand over the Christmas period. But what will keep them on top in 2014 isn’t the extra cash lining Dr. Dre’s pocket – it’s the community of advocates they’re building through American sports culture.

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As college football schedules start to be released, is it time for colleges to think about fall social media strategies? I know August is a long way down the calendar yet, but it’s not too early to sketch out an initial social media strategy for big fall events like home football kickoff or move-in day.

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If you noticed a change in your organic search traffic or rankings last week, and have a high ratio of ads to content at the top of your web pages, chances are you could be affected by a refresh of the Google page layout algorithm.

Research by Chinese freedom of speech blog GreatFire.org explained how when certain terms are searched for using Bing's international and U.S.-localized portals, some results are not delivered. Bing's Stefan Weitz blames it on a system error.

Google AdWords announced it is changing the way conversions are counted and a new Search Funnels Attribution Modeling Tool. Meanwhile, the new DoubleClick Search Commerce Suite offers tools to easily create and update text ad and PLA campaigns.

Before the rise of Snapchat, Vine, and Instagram, "old" social networks (like Facebook and Twitter) were the place to be, where everyone could spill their guts and share every aspect of their daily lives. But the biggest focus for new buzzing social networks is user privacy.

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One of the big buzz words being thrown around is the concept of a "social business." If you are like me, you might be asking, What exactly IS a social business? Is it about social media or serving a higher societal cause, or both? In this post, I review both notions and describe why there might in fact be a link.

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Throughout the Games, we’ll be tracking social conversations around the 2014 Sochi Olympics in this daily infographic to show what’s buzzing on social. Powerful stats from uberVU via HootSuite will be updated each day to give you an overview of who owns the mindshare of Olympic voice on social.

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Information overload: a fact that isn't going away. And anyone managing an Employee Advocacy program needs to think about how you will help your employee advocates deal with the persistent problem of information overload and how best to then act on what's important.

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The year is 2014 and unless you’ve been asleep, you’ll see that nearly anyone and everyone is conducting business online. Now, some people believe that by simply establishing yourself a spot on the internet, success is just around the corner. I am here to tell you that won’t work.

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Derogatory autocomplete results for cities in the UK have popped up, and Google has taken action to clean them up. After multiple legal battles all over the world, its possible Google is now picking its battles when it comes to autocomplete.

Google is continuing to dish out penalties as it wages war on link networks around the world. After repeated warnings in recent weeks, Google revealed it took action against a German agency's link network, as well as its clients.

Sustainable Cities Collective, our sister site, has been nominated for a Shorty Award. Please support the nomination by voting for us! We would love for the valuable advice and insights of our contributors to reach the attention of urban leaders everywhere and thereby make life better for millions of people.

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When people ask me which platforms they should be on, I have one answer for them that will solve all their problems: You want to be where your audience is. Yet there’s this tendency to want to be everywhere, even if your ideal customers aren’t hanging out there. I think the term they use for it these days is FOMO - Fear of Missing Out!

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The pace of change is only accelerating. Make sure your message is on every device possible. Collect all the data you can so you make make the right decisions at the right time so you can understand the customer behind the keywords.

SEO audits are extremely powerful, but they are only the first step in the process to improving organic search performance. Once changes are implemented, it’s critically important to recrawl site changes to ensure they are implemented correctly.

It's funny how when you change a few words in some quotations, you get a whole new meaning as it applies to SEO. Here are a few classic quotes about love and romance, mildly edited to apply to our perpetually dysfunctional relationship with Google.

Given the huge user growth and investment in site experience and monetization, 2014 is fixing to be a huge year for Pinterest. Both online shoppers and retail advertisers would be remiss to ignore it this year.

The only guarantee in life, business and social media is change. It seems every time we turn around there is a new social network popping up. You finally update your cover images on Facebook and Google+ and then wake up to an email informing you new changes have been rolled out requiring you to modify the cover image.

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