Industry News

Catch up on interesting new discussion and industry news.

    Long-Tail Keyword Research on Deadlines – How to Find Hot Phrases on the Fly

    by Michael Lykke Aagaard
    Jun 5, 2013
    If you aren’t targeting long-tail keyword phrases with your content, you’re missing out on rankings, traffic, and leads. However, doing keyword research can seem a daunting task – especially if you’re on a tight deadline.

    In this article I’ll give you simple tips and techniques for finding hot keyword phrases on the fly. I’ll also walk you through a few case studies, and give you a video with tons of inspiration for how to use long-tail strategy in your content marketing. Case study from...

    Mystery Solved: Why Mobile Safari Searchers Appear To Come “Direct” To Sites Rather Than Via Google

    dannysullivan
    by dannysullivan
    Jun 5, 2013
    Since September, people using Safari in iOS 6 and searching on Google have appeared to publishers as if they’ve come directly to their sites, as opposed to having been driving by search. At last, the reason behind the Dark Google cut-off of data has been found: mobile Safari doesn’t support the “meta referrer” tag.

    I know. Publishers who have been closely watching this situation are probably thinking that the reason was already known. It was Google Secure Search, and how Google’s change to...

    Why you shouldn’t use introductory tours in apps

    by Rian van der Merwe
    Jun 5, 2013
    Luke Wroblewski explains why those overlay introductory “tour” screens you often see in apps is such a bad idea in Designing for real world mobile use:

    These issues stem from the fact that introductory tours show up before you ever get a chance to use an application. Most people are eager to jump right in and as a result, they skip reading the manual. The ones that do read haven’t seen the interface yet so they don’t have any sense of where and how the tips they’re learning will apply....

    Will Google be evaluating the use of rel="author" moving forward?

    Jun 5, 2013
    Will Google be evaluating the use of rel="author" moving forward as more sites use the feature on generic, non-article/news pages, such as the home...

    3 Reasons Why SEO and PPC Are a Match Made in Heaven

    Jill Whalen
    by Jill Whalen
    Jun 5, 2013
    Pauline Jakober looks at three ways SEO and PPC work together to create a mutually beneficial relationship for a website.

    A Google Update Kicking Into Gear Now?

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Jun 5, 2013
    As I mentioned in our monthly Google webmaster report this morning, it seems like there is an uptick in chatter around a possible Google update kicking off this morning. It is extremely early but I've received emails, tweets and other correspondence of a possible Google update...

    Smart cities and wealth creation

    by Rian van der Merwe
    Jun 4, 2013
    Rick Robinson wrote a really interesting article on the huge differences in life expectancy between the wealthiest and poorest areas of a city, and how the move to Smart Cities is trying to combat that. From Death, life, and place in great digital cities:

    At the heart of the Smarter Cities movement is the belief that the use of engineering and IT technologies, including social media and information marketplaces, can create more efficient and resilient city systems. Might that idea offer...

    Google's Matt Cutts: Negative SEO Extremely Rare

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Jun 4, 2013
    Yesterday, Search Engine Watch published a story that was a bit outdated. What they eventually did was redirect the story to an older story which said the same thing.

    In short...

    How new features can hurt your product

    by Rian van der Merwe
    Jun 3, 2013
    Within a week, two articles came out about resisting the urge to add new features quickly after a product is launched. First, Julie Zhuo makes the case for slow, small launches with clear “sunset” criteria in The tax of new, because of the inherent cost of maintaining and improving new features:

    The tax that comes with introducing any new feature into your product is high. I cannot stress this enough. Sure, maybe the new feature isn’t hard to build, maybe it only takes a couple days and...

    What are some misconceptions in the SEO industry?

    Jun 3, 2013
    Hi, Matt. Which aspect of Google updates you think the SEO industry simply won't get? Where do you see many SEOs spending too much energy on when...