Mediaboss Marketing

According to the 2012 MarketingSherpa Search Engine Marketing Report, of all SEO tactics available, content creation works the best, but takes the most work, says Kaci Bower, Research Analyst, MECLABS.

B2B Internet marketers need new content to enforce and build upon keyword strategies, acquire links, and attract attention in social media.

In my experience, effective SEO-centric content creation requires planning on both the long and short term impact, and a strict attention to detail. With a myriad of responsibilities on the B2B marketers plate, it certainly is not uncommon for details to be missed and corners to get cut.

Some of the SEO best practices I see get missed:

With a little assistance from Help a Reporter Out, here are four examples of B2B content marketing initiatives, that stand out because of their focus and adherence to SEO strategy as well.

Digital marketing software vendor Neolane recently launched an infographic poking fun at a significant challenge campaign management providers face, the ability to overcome the onslaught of spam in online marketing communications. Running through the social media marketing initiative, here are examples of key SEO best practices merged into the process.

See the rest here:
4 Examples Of B2B Content Marketing Executed With SEO Best Practices In Mind

He walked down the quiet street, a leopard in the concrete jungle. Eyes down, but watching the angles. Hands in his coat pocket concealing but preoccupied. It was then from the shadows a figure emerged, unwanted but unrelenting.

"Hey buddy, you lookin'?", poured forth with a cloud of smoke.

"Naw, I don't do that crap." he blew back. "Don't ya know that stuff will get you messed up? Just look, right up there" as he pointed to the surveillance camera across the way. "Google sees everything."

The fedora topped stranger faded further into the darkness. "These are some awesome high PageRank links though. Cheap. And you just know the other guys are using." ... How this ends, you tell me?

OK, enough with the silliness. But it brings to mind a few things that are actually worth discussing. Let's explore a few concepts.

Now, this one seems to be one of the largest heads on the many headed hydra of SEO paranoia. Time and time again we see those that truly are out-thinking themselves.

Yes, it is duly noted that Google (and other IR systems) have an entire wing of the AIR command dedicated to dealing with those that might seek to manipulate their creations. There are even more than a few IR lectures on video where those pesky programmers seem almost psychotic when discussing such matters.

But it's still just not as prevalent as some passionate pros seem to envision. That's the tricky thing with search engines. The programmer types don't always get what they want.

Certainly, Matt Cutts would just love to increase his budget and sway. But these aren't always the realities.

Go here to see the original:
SEO & Google: The Ugly Truth

Even though SEO is a synergy of different practices, not all of them are equally important for higher rankings. And, because SEOs are normally pressed-for-time individuals, its essential for them to know what SEO tasks should be their priority.

Speaking of on-page and off-page SEO (many SEOs also consider keyword research a separate aspect), Id like to say that, quite often, on-page SEO does not get the attention it should. This is because, in general, it takes less time than link building and often plays second fiddle to off-page SEO when an emergency rankings boost is required.

However, there are certain on-page SEO factors, leveraging which can work miracles for your site, and its important to know how much impact each of them carries. So, lets talk about these factors.

Any construction work begins with laying a foundation for the future building. Likewise, on-page SEO begins with creating a certain carcass for the sites content. Whats important SEO-wise is that this carcass gets A grades from the search engines. In other words, search engines should find it easily crawlable and non-confusing.

Here are the checkpoints that should be covered when running an on-page SEO audit. They are arranged starting with the most important ones:

of utmost importance highly important very important

quite important of minimum importance.

Use the above information to understand how important the follow factors below are.

A reliable hosting provider is crucial to your websites success in the SERPs. If the server your site is hosted on is often unavailable or takes a long time to respond, the search engines wont hold much for your Web resource.

Not to mention that, if your site is unavailable, the users will simply not be able to access it. Therefore, we consider this factor to be of utmost importance.

Read more here:
On-Page SEO Factors: Which Ones Have the Most Impact on Rankings?

Google is talking a lot about SEO these days. In a recent webmaster discussion at SXSW, Googles Matt Cutts spoke about some changes Google is working on that would seem to make SEO matter less, in that sites with good, quality content that dont do a lot of SEO could potentially rank just as well, or better than a bigger site with a bigger SEO budget and a lot of SEO tactics implemented. The whole thing appears to be more about Google getting better at not helping sites just because they employ a lot of grey hat/borderline black hat tactics. Google has always tried to do this, but based on what Cutts said, it sounds like theyre about to get better at it.

Changes to Googles algorithm have the ability to make or break businesses. Google is sending out the signal that you should worry less about the current SEO trends, and more about producing great content, and that theyre leveling the playing field for sites that dont pay as much attention to SEO. Obviously great content is a positive, but at the same time, Google is showing us each month all of the changes it is making, and all the while, providing tips about how to do certain SEO things better. Is Google sending mixed signals? Just how much should webmasters worry about optimization? Share your thoughts in the comments.

WebProNews spoke with former Googler and Google Webmaster Central creator Vanessa Fox about it, after she wrote her own blog post, sharing her thoughts about Googles approach to SEO. In her post, she wrote, Some are worried that Google will begin to penalize sites that have implemented search engine optimization techniques. My thoughts? I think that some site owners should worry. But whether or not you should depends on what you mean by search engine optimization.

Matt talked about finding ways to surface smaller sites that may be poorly optimized, if, in fact, those sites have the very best content, she said in the post. This is not anything new from Google. Theyve always had a goal to rank the very best content, regardless of how well optimized or not it may be. And I think thats the key. If a page is the very best result for a searcher, Google wants to rank it even if the site owner has never heard of title tags. And Google wants to rank it if the site owner has crafted the very best title tag possible. The importance there is that its the very best result.

There has been a lot of discussion about it in the SEO community, and there will no doubt be plenty around SES New York this week. Some of the talk has been blown out of proportion, and Cutts appears to feel that the press has contributed to this. For the record, when we first reported on it, we linked to the full audio from the panel, as Cutts provided, and since then, hes linked to the full transcript for those who dont have time to listen to an hours worth of audio. Weve also pointed to this in previous coverage. Cutts seems to have given his seal of approval to Foxs take on the whole thing:

Following is a snippet from our previous article, discussing the Google changes with Fox, because its highly relevant to the larger story:

If youve listened to or read what was said, youll notice that the whole thing was in response to a question about mom and pops, which might make you wonder if brand is a significant part of whats at play.

I dont think its about just mom and pop vs. big brands, Fox tells WebProNews. Lots of big brands dont know the first thing about SEO. I think (total guess on my part) the sites that will be negatively impacted are those that focus on algorithms and build content/sites based on the things what they think the algorithms are looking for. The kind of sites where someone didnt say I want this page to rank for query X. How can this page best answer what the searcher is asking about X but instead said I want this page to rank for query X. How many times should I repeat X in my title, heading, content on the page, internal links

I think its still useful (and not negative) to make sure the words that searchers are using are on the page, but some sites go well beyond this and get so caught up in what they think the algorithms are doing that they forget to make sure the content is useful, she adds.

As far as sites that will see a positive from this, I think it will likely be both small sites (B&B in Napa that titles their home page home vs. an affiliate site that sells wine gift baskets) and large brands (sites that use a lot of Flash), says Fox. I think foundational SEO practices (like those I describe in my article) will continue to be beneficial for sites.

Follow this link:
SEO DOs And DONT’S According To Google: Mixed Signals?

A decrease in the amount the Marietta-Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau receives from Marietta's hotel and motel lodging "bed" tax would be detrimental to the CVB's efforts to promote the region, according to bureau executive director Jeri Knowlton.

"If our 3 percent portion of the tax is cut, it's going to diminish our effectiveness and limit opportunities to promote this area," she said. "And that would be damaging to our local attractions and businesses-every shop, dining facility and hotel, because we promote everybody."

Currently the city and CVB split the total 6 percent lodging tax 50/50, with 3 percent going into the city's general fund and 3 percent to the visitors bureau, but recently city council members have questioned whether to reduce the CVB's share. It may be the right time for that, they've said, since the bed tax has risen 5.5 percent in the last year and the cut would not have as much impact.

State law dictates how much lodging tax Ohio municipalities can assess. Towns that have convention and visitors bureaus may charge the full 6 percent allowed by law, but that revenue has to be shared with the CVB.

An ordinance enacted by city council in 2007 approved the even 50/50 split of the tax with the CVB. But by state code the city could amend that legislation and take up to another half of the bureau's 3 percent share for the city's general fund.

Although there's been no formal discussion so far, some city council members have suggested the possibility of reducing the CVB's lodging tax allocation and putting that money toward the annual operation expenses at Armory Square, once that renovation project is completed.

"We've not discussed it in finance committee at all, but I know we can't just take that money and put it into the armory," said finance chair Tom Vukovic, D-4th Ward.

He said the council members will eventually address the recommendation, but would probably wait until April when the CVB presents its quarterly report to the finance committee.

Councilman Harley Noland, D-at large, an ex-officio member of the convention and visitors bureau board of directors, believes a section of the state code governing the use of the bed tax allows the CVB to dedicate a portion of its 3 percent of the tax to support a museum.

"And we will have a room for a veteran's museum inside the armory," he said. "But we could also say the entire armory building is a museum as it will be an historic preservation project."

View original post here:
Visitors bureau fights for share of tax