Pinterest has received its first significant update with how pinned images appear on the website. Called “Rich Pins”, these images that are pinned contain a host of more information right from the originating image site, such as product purchase information or ingredient listings for recipes.

Pinterest has detailed several types of pins that have added information on them, including product pins, recipe pins, and movie pins. But this move is really seen as Pinterest working better with brands who get their products pinned frequently, and gives Pinterest users who see those pinned images better information about where the product can be found and purchased.

This should hopefully also help the issues of some product images being uploaded directly or from a site that later removes the image, making it difficult for people to track down more information about the product in the image.

Pinterest has a huge number of big name brands who were part of this launch, including eBay, Walmart, Sephora, and Target.

While the new Rich Pins don’t seem to be directly monetized, it does raise the question of whether we will see these types of product pins somehow result in revenue being earned by Pinterest. They have had a few rough attempts at monetizing that caused pushback from pinners, but as a business model, Pinterest will need to look at how to earn revenue from their business.

If you’re a website owner who gets many of their images pinned, you can include specific meta tags to those image pages to have that information included on the Pinterest pin pages. You can find the developer information page for Rich Pins here and test them with the validator.

If you have pins that have been previously pinned to Pinterest, those images can be converted

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Article source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2269604/With-Rich-Pins-Pinterest-Begins-Working-Better-With-Brands

Yahoo announced last week a partnership with Twitter to integrate tweets directly into its newsfeed. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer calls it #bestoftheweb, and says it will “seamlessly include relevant and personalized Tweets alongside stories from Yahoo! and our other sources.”

Here’s what the integration will look like in the Yahoo newsfeed:

From the screenshot, we can see users can interact with tweets just as they would on Twitter, by retweeting, making them favorites and more.

If you’re not already seeing tweets in Yahoo’s newsfeed, it’s currently rolling out all over the U.S. for mobile and desktop users over the next few days.

The Reign of Personalization at Yahoo

The Twitter partnership is just one move in a series by Yahoo towards a more personalized experience under Mayer’s reign.

In January this year in an interview with Bloomberg, Mayer talked about creating powerful personalization technologies through the “interest graph,” and says of dominating organizations such as Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon, “there’s always opportunity for new disruption.”

It’s evident Yahoo is working towards the personalization paradigm with announcements like the one in February that unveiled a new front page at Yahoo with more personalized results.

Twitter Update All Part of the Plan

In Yahoo’s Q1 2013 quarterly earnings call in April, Mayer indicated her plans for the company are executed in a series of sprints that focus on different areas of importance.

The first sprint, which is complete, was about building the culture and talent at Yahoo. The next sprint, she said, would be all about delighting Yahoo users with new features, “making continuous improvements and adjustments over time,” and that Yahoo’s products will be releasing with small changes much more frequently.

Q1 financials show many key numbers are up since Mayer took office as CEO in Summer

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Article source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2269342/Relevant-and-Personalized-Tweets-Now-a-Part-of-Yahoo-Newsfeed

To compete successfully in today’s new media landscape, simply having an optimized website isn’t enough. You must now consider a number of new factors when designing your website. These factors include modern design and content, usability and conversion, and search and social media.

Not only has the SEO technological market changed with new on- an off-page SEO considerations, the way the consumer views and consumes content and changed. New and modern aesthetic, design, and navigational considerations are being built into the architecture of new website builds.

Building Outside of a Silo

Gone are the days when a web developer builds a site, the SEO consultant optimizes the site, a conversion expert looks at the site, and then the business owners review the site.

To make your new website work for your business it essential that a marketing led approach is implemented that involves technical, search, social, usability, and design teams.

Objectives are set by the business so that your site reflects not just your brand but also meets your business objectives and conversion goals.

Start Point – Understanding Business and User Objectives

Understanding your market, clients, potential users, and competitive environment is a large project management task that should kick off your design and build process and ensure your site matches what potential customers/users are looking for.

How many times have you seen a beautifully designed website that just doesn’t do what you need it to? The information isn’t there, the structure isn’t there, it’s slow, it’s hard to navigate, and it doesn’t appear in the search results.

Vice versa, websites that are well optimized can look outdated, less engaging for the user and, given the recent focus on quality and content Google, lacks the relevant content that the user is looking for. Go overboard on “optimization” and your site may even

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Article source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2269055/5-Pillars-of-a-Successful-Modern-Web-Design