What do you get when you spend all week perusing blogs, following links, hopping from marketing site to marketing site? Weekend reading, of course! Here are a few blogs that stood out this week and inspired me to share. Turns out I wasn’t the only one having a rant about SEO this week – there are just a few more of those represented here and well worth a read. They’ve all got different perspectives and they’ve all got something to teach. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!
SEO Needs A New Name
Written by Mark Figart
This is a reasoned exploration of the true nature of SEO, not so much a rant, but Mark makes all excellent points that boil down to the one main point that I think many of us frustrated SEO-ers agree on: it’s not about search engines anymore. It’s about the content and whether you can create content good enough that people to want to read it. In fact, Mark does give SEO a new name – and as much as I want to say it here, I’m going to keep you in suspense so you’ll go read the article. It’s sure to get you thinking about how you approach your content.
Read the article at digett.com and follow his company on Twitter @digett
Negative SEO Vs. Mattcutts.Com
Written by Martin Macdonald
You’re going to want to stop texting, shut that other browser window and pay attention to this one. Martin takes on Matt Cutts in a battle of negative SEO – and wins! At least until Matt figured out what was happening. But if Matt Cutts’s website can be “black hatted” and he arguably knows more about Google and SEO than anyone, then what hope do we poor average folks have? The good news is that if you read Martin’s post, you’ll understand where your website’s weaknesses may lie and you can take steps to prevent spammers and scammers from damaging your site’s search ranking.
Read the article at martinmacdonald.net and follow Martin on Twitter @searchmartin
Is Guest Blogging Becoming Risky?
Written by Graham Charlton
This one is a little bit depressing, considering that we’ve all been taught to guest-post our way to backlinks and SEO credibility. Now, there is certainly a benefit to guest posting that goes beyond link-building but Google is not yet in the business of reading intentions, so whether you guest post for other blogs or accept guest posts on yours, Graham warns that you could be heading for some serious trouble, especially as Google tightens the screws on the ongoing Penguin update. It’s not a clear cut issue but Graham makes some points worth considering and a bunch of other marketing pros weigh in. Food for thought for sure.
Read the article at econsultancy.com and follow Graham on Twitter @gcharlton
Does Alexa Rank Really Matter?
Written by Nwosu Mavtrevor
Take a detour from SEO and onto another frequent obsession… Alexa rank. I’ll be honest and tell you it’s one of those things I never bothered to care about or check because it’s inherently flawed and inaccurate. But you can’t go more than three blogs without someone posting their Alexa rank in a sidebar or celebrating a good one. And Nwosu makes some interesting – and valid – points about why Alexa rank does matter. These aren’t vague, questionable reasons, either. Nwosu acknowledges that while it may indeed be flawed and inaccurate, that doesn’t make it any less important. Check out the reasons why and pick up a couple of tips for improving yours.
Read the article at netmediablog.com and follow mavtrevor on Twitter @mavtrevor
12 Common Misconceptions About Content Marketing
Written by Susanna Gebauer
And now for something completely different! If you’re tired of SEO and obsessing about minutia, Susanna’s post will get you thinking about something that really does matter and that’s well within your control – content marketing. Although she touches on the whole “content for SEO” thing, there’s a lot more here to mull over. I particularly like her misconception #3: “creating content is content marketing”. Bad news: it’s not. More bad news: there are 11 other misconceptions you’ll need to come to terms with if you really want to succeed with content marketing. Good news: it can be done! Read to find out what mindsets you may need to change.
Read the article at jeffbullas.com and follow Susanna on Twitter @dreckbaerfrau
Enjoy your weekend and if you come across any other awesome blogs worth sharing, let me know in the comments!
Great collection of blogs this week Carol! I got a lot out of each of these. Thanks for finding and sharing them!
Glad you liked them! I don’t know if I was already biased but there seemed to be a lot of SEO going around!
Thank you for sharing Mark’s post, Carolyn! It’s in great company with these other amazing thinkers/writers.
Quick correction, though: you need to follow @digett for company tweets — the account you mention (@figart) is his personal account. 🙂
You’er welcome, it was great timing and a great post! Sorry about the Twitter account… I knew that and then flaked out. Fixed!
No biggie. Thanks for changing it, and for sharing our stuff.
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