Search Engine Land: Search engines still dominate over social media, even for millennials. “For many years people have been proclaiming the demise of traditional search traffic and the death of the SEO industry that supports it. While Google has posted consistent revenue growth from its core search business for the last many years, the pundits are convinced that the proclivity of users to search on a search engine for new information is a relic of the past to be replaced by a rising always-on social media presence. Every winter, the technology blogosphere is replete with thought pieces about how the coming new year will be the year of social or some innovation. While some may say that foretelling the growth of search in the coming year is akin to heralding the return of the palm pilot; I strongly beg to differ.”
SEO
Entomology Today: How to Make Your Bug Info Invasive (on Social Media)
Entomology Today: How to Make Your Bug Info Invasive (on Social Media). “You’ve built a spiffy website about your insect research, or written a new extension bulletin about the latest pest. But for some reason, it looks weird on Facebook, and never shows up in Google Search. Why not? The reason may lie behind the scenes, in the code of your website. Fortunately, you don’t have to be a code-wonk to fix this problem! There are a few simple changes you can make to spiffy up your presence on the web.” There is nothing earth-shattering here but in this quick article Dr. Gwen Pearson beautifully lays out why you should care about things like metadata. One of those articles you send to friends with the note “When I said x this is what I meant.”
Search Engine Journal: Google Launches New Tool That Grades A Site’s SEO Implementation
Search Engine Journal: Google Launches New Tool That Grades A Site’s SEO Implementation. “Google has launched a new tool that measures many aspects of a website, including how well it follows SEO best practices.”
Search Engine Journal: 6 Unique & Free Keyword Research Tools You Didn’t Know You Needed
Search Engine Journal: 6 Unique & Free Keyword Research Tools You Didn’t Know You Needed. “Luckily, there are several other great keyword research tools available on the market: some free, some paid. This list represents some of the most unique keyword research tool alternatives you’ll find – ideal for when you’re in a rut or have a special circumstance that requires more than the most well-known options.” Or you want to expand your search vocabulary. (Don’t tell the SEO people.)
Google: Fill In Your Meta Descriptions Because You Know Your Content Best (SEO Roundtable)
SEO Roundtable: Google: Fill In Your Meta Descriptions Because You Know Your Content Best. “Google’s John Mueller said on Twitter that it is best not to leave your meta descriptions blank. Instead he said try to fill them out because you know your content best. This is despite a recent study from Yoast that shows that Google often uses your web site content, not your meta description, for your Google search result snippets.”
GuideStar: The 3-Step Playbook to SEO Keyword Research
GuideStar: The 3-Step Playbook to SEO Keyword Research. “By the time you finish reading this post, Google will have processed 117 million search queries worldwide. In total, that’s about 3.5 billion searches a day. All those searches mean that ranking highly on Google is one of the most effective ways to grow awareness of your nonprofit and gain supporters—especially since it’s free! If your website appears high up in Google search results, more people will click on your listing and visit your website. And the more visitors your website has, the more donations, subscriptions, and shares you’re likely to receive. But with millions of websites competing to be ranked on Google, it can be difficult to know how to get your website to the top spot.” I don’t give a rip about SEO, but I love learning about what keywords people use when they search.
Search Engine Journal: Google Clarifies a Few Things About Recent Search Algorithm Updates
Search Engine Journal: Google Clarifies a Few Things About Recent Search Algorithm Updates. “Google’s Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, has published a series of tweets regarding recent updates to search algorithms. Many SEOs and site owners have observed significant spikes and drops in search traffic over the past several weeks.”
