The Web is one tangled mess of equally irrelevant content. There are four quick and easy tests you can perform in order to tell if duplicate content is an issue for your site. [Read] Deduping Duplicate Content

Several questions need to be addressed to determine if you’re ready for link bait or just hooked on the idea. Some of the categorically obvious possibilities for creating link bait content include news items, helpful resources, humorous or entertaining pieces, as well as publishing controversial opinions, thought provoking or challenging written attacks, and fear mongering. [Read] Still Hooked on the Idea of Link Bait?

Natural search engine optimization can often require an investment of time and money that many online businesses aren’t prepared to make. In its most elemental form, SEO consists of three components: technical optimization to ensure content can be crawled by the engines, content optimization to help get indexed for targeted words and phrases that convert, and link building, which generally speaks for itself. What most folks fail to understand is all three elements are bound to each other. [Read] Hooked on the Idea of Link Bait?

If you’re tweeting, stumbling, friending, or participating in other social venues for your online business without a blog, why is this? [Read] Blogging: The Missing Link of Social Marketing

Major retailers are turning to social media to promote back-to-school goods in a fresh way, but most need a remedial course in search engine optimization. [Read] Back-to-School for SEO

It’s that time of the year again. It’s time to enjoy a weekend at the art fair, spend some quality time at a baseball tournament or two, celebrate a wedding, and get ready for Christmas. [Read] Keeping Christmas Alive

Robert Fulghum is a contemporary philosopher known for his short stories about living life simply with care and understanding. He’s one of my favorite authors because he contends that everything a person needs to know is out there somewhere — you just have to find it. His “answer engine” of choice is to look at the world through the eyes of a child, which he readily exemplified in “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. Search marketers can find inspiration from Robert Fulghum’s credo in “All I Really Need to Know.”
[Read] On Kindergarten & SEO

Remember, each social media venue is different with real people thriving in real, albeit virtual, communities. Some social gatherings tend to take their conversations pretty seriously, so they are naturally protective of their communities. Joining a social media community isn’t a right — you have to earn your voice to be heard. Social media is not a set-it-and-forget it environment. It takes an investment in time, thought, and planning. Spend time getting to know all about the environment. As an example, let’s look at Twitter.
[Read] Twitter 101: Tweetable SEO

With all the recent announcements from Google I/O, Microsoft’s Bing replacement of Live Search, and Yahoo’s shuttering of GeoCities and Yahoo 360, it feels like search is changing in front of our eyes and that somehow SEO must be changing, too. Yet SEO has always been a moving target. [Read] Future Proofing SEO

A recession doesn’t mean that people stop searching the Web. Searching the Web isn’t a fad — it’s totally gone mainstream just like streaming media. Sales might drop and conversion rates might falter a bit, but search traffic isn’t going down in flames due to the economy. However, search engines will continue to change, and with it SEO (define) will continue to evolve. [Read] Why Not a Widget?