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Vice versa, websites that are well optimized can look outdated, less engaging for the user and, given the recent focus on quality and content Google, lacks the relevant content that the user is looking for.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

After you’ve installed WordPress and covered the basics of improving WordPress for SEO and the user experience, it’s time to go a bit deeper. Many great plugins are available to help your WordPress site when it comes to SEO, usability, and conversion. Here are 10 great plugins – most of which are available for free.

1. WordPress SEO by Yoast

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-seo/

Download this plugin now and use it on every WordPress site you own. This plugin, in my opinion, is as important as the WordPress installation itself. It’s also extremely easy to use.

Also, if you haven’t already, make sure to use Yoast’s Google Analytics plugin.

2. Simple URLs

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/simple-urls/

This plugin is great. You can track outbound links and control them completely right within the WordPress backend. If you add Disallow: /go/ into your robots.txt file it will also stop any authority from passing through the link itself.

You can use this plugin to keep track of these outbound links. For example, if you have affiliate links on your site, you can calculate a conversion rate from knowing the number of clicks to the number of people who purchase something via the affiliate link.

3. RB Internal Links

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/rb-internal-links/

Although this plugin hasn’t been updated in more than two years, it still should be included in every WordPress installation. This plugin helps with internal linking.

RB Internal Links is great because it uses the post ID to link internally rather than the URL itself. This means that if you want to change the URL of a page or post, then the URL will be updated dynamically.

This cuts the risk of internal 404 pages that can harm SEO for internal pages, as well as ensuring that no visitor reaches a page that does not exist.

4. NextGen Gallery

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Article source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2268750/10-Essential-WordPress-Plugins-to-Improve-SEO-Usability

Bing’s search engine will let us go boldly where no man has gone before.

In conjunction with the arrival of “Star Trek Into Darkness”, Bing has added a couple of features that fans should appreciate: a home page Easter egg when you search for [beam me up] and a new language option to Bing Translator: Klingon.

After you search for “beam me up” on Bing’s home page, you’ll be taken to an interactive experience in space. You know, the final frontier.

You can click any of the hotspots, which include the Enterprise and planets. This will lead you to various “Star Trek” searches – everything from Tribbles and tractor beams, to James T. Kirk’s birthplace and the death of Redshirts, to Kobayashi Maru and bad “Star Trek” props.

Bing has also added Klingon as a Bing Translator language. So now you can translate text to Klingon (or an entire site). It is available here.

Here’s what Search Engine Watch looks like in Klingon:

Bing isn’t the only search engine that has paid tribute to “Star Trek”. In September, an interactive Google Doodle celebrated the 46th anniversary of the original “Star Trek” TV series.

Introducing SES Online
Want to view one of the sessions you missed or listen to an especially informative presenter a second time? SES New York sessions are available for purchase on ClickZ Academy’s new e-Learning site. SES is now Online!

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Article source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2269038/Bing-Beams-Up-Star-Trek-Fans-With-Home-Page-Easter-Egg-Klingon-Translator

Since announcing the schema.org project two years ago, little has changed with the markup. That changes today as Google announced a new schema that supports company logos.

The logo designation is part of the Organization markup within schema.org. Using it will allow Google algorithms to understand which image on your server is your preferred logo. If you used such a file on your home page, you can designate it directly from the same IMG tag you use on your site.

The tag markup looks like this:

div itemscope itemtype=”http://schema.org/Organization”
a itemprop=”url” href=”http://www.example.com/”Home/a
img itemprop=”logo” src=”http://www.example.com/logo.png” /
/div

From their example code, it also appears that Google is advocating for site owners to link their company logo to the home page, a practice not every site implores.

An interesting discussion has already broken out about the new markup. Some websites use logo images as a background style to a header using CSS instead of an explicit IMG tag. The Google help documentation didn’t directly address this issue. An answer to that question would be most helpful to many webmasters.

According to Google’s engineers, once you designate a preferred logo using the Organization schema, your logo “may be used in Google search results” and “is a strong signal to … show this image in preference over others.” Google’s post specifically mentions Knowledge Graph results as an example of where your organization’s logo may be used.

This change is likely an indication that Google may be expanding their Knowledge Graph results in the near future. Or, Google could possibly extend images next to search results, similar to what is currently done for authors using authorship markup. Recently, Bing began experimenting with images in search results, similar to authorship markup, but also

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Article source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2268719/Company-Logos-Coming-to-Google-Search-Results-Thanks-to-New-schema.org-Markup

In a ruling this week, a German federal court said Google must restrict information in its autocomplete when it violates personal rights.

The suit, filed by an unnamed man according to the BBC, claimed defamatory autocomplete suggestions on Google.de linked him to fraud and scientology.

The ruling states that if suggestions in autocomplete are untrue, it violates personal rights, and therefore violates the new ruling.

The ruling goes on to say that Google itself is not liable for violating rights, but that it has not taken precautions to prevent data generated by searches that violate rights.

The BBC speculates this new ruling could have bearing on a case brought forth by Germany’s former First Lady, Bettina Wulff, for autocomplete results that suggest she’s linked to prostitution.

Google is often the target for restriction of information. In most cases, individuals or groups say the information is harmful to them in some way.

A U.S. autocomplete suit was filed against Google last year for linking a surgeon to the term “bankrupt” in autocomplete. The plaintiff withdrew the case last month without explanation, according to MediaPost.

In April, a Japanese court fined Google $3,100 for autocomplete suggestions that reportedly linked an innocent man to a crime.

Google recently released data that shows government takedown requests by court order are on the rise, and that Google does comply around 45 percent of the time with U.S. requests.

Legal experts speculate that at least in the U.S., Google would be protected against libel as it relates to autocomplete suits under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, because Google itself is not making the defamatory remarks, rather it’s collecting and presenting the speech of others.

So what do you think: Does censoring autocomplete restrict access to information

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Article source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2268416/Germany-Orders-Google-to-Restrict-Autocomplete-Results

The latest Google Webmaster video features Distinguished Engineer Matt Cutts talking about what webmasters can expect to see in the next few months in terms of SEO for Google, particularly changes combating black hat web spam from many different angles in a variety of areas.

Here are nine search and SEO changes webmasters will likely see – although, as always, Cutts warns nothing is set in stone and it should be taken with a grain of salt.

1. Next Generation of Penguin – Penguin 2.0

This update is to try and target more black hat web spam. The new Penguin 2.0, which is the name Google uses internally for the next gen Penguin, will be much more comprehensive than Penguin 1.0 and it will go deeper and have a larger impact than the original.

2. Advertorials

Many advertorials (a.k.a., native advertising) violate Google’s quality guidelines. More importantly, they should not flow PageRank.

Google is planning to be a lot stronger on their enforcement of these types of paid links and advertising, disguised as “advertorials”. Cutts did clarify there is nothing wrong with advertorials, simply that they don’t want them to be abused for PageRank and linking reasons. If you use advertorials, Cutts suggested that they should be clearly marked and obvious that it is paid advertising.

3. “Payday Loans” in .co.uk

Cutts mentioned that this is a problematic search, and there are others like it, so they are tackling it a couple of different ways. For those that play in that space, however, you’re out of luck since Cutts isn’t revealing exactly how they are dealing with it, just that it will be happening.

He said that they are targeting specific areas (another example he included was porn queries) that have traditionally been more spammy.

4. Devaluing Upstream Linking

Again, Cutts

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Article source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2267962/Matt-Cutts-Talks-SEO-for-Google-9-Things-You-Should-Expect-This-Summer

A new Easter egg turns Google Images into a playable classic arcade game with a Google twist. Head to Google Images and type “Atari breakout” to fire up “Image Breakout” and start destroying rows of images by bouncing a ball into them.

Start the game by going to Google Images and typing in “atari breakout”. The regular image results will load briefly, before your screen transforms to “Image Breakout”.

You’ll be given five balls at the beginning. You’ll lose a ball every time one touches the bottom of the screen.

The rules are pretty simple: there are five rows (sometimes only four) to destroy (blue, green, yellow, orange, and red) at the top of the screen. Use your mouse or the left and right arrow keys to control the blue bar at the bottom of the screen to angle your shots at the images you want to smash with your gray ball.

Hint: If you can make a hole and shoot your ball into that opening, your ball will bounce around and destroy several images at a time.

The “levels”, which are just different Google Images searches, seem to be pretty much the same difficulty level. After completing the first screen, you’ll be taken to random image searches – for example, after destroying the Atari images, up next for me were pictures of ginseng, mayonnaise, Tahiti, English Cocker Spaniel, and Macau.

After your game is over, Google gives you the option to share your score on Google+ (with the message “I played #breakout on Google Image Search! I made it to level x in Image Breakout! Can you beat my score of xx?”) or via a customized short URL.

I believe this is the first Google Images Easter egg.

Atari game “Breakout” debuted 37 years ago.

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Article source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2267999/Google-Images-Easter-Egg-Search-Atari-Breakout-to-Play-Image-Breakout-Game

Bing has again expanded features for its Social Sidebar. Bing announced the ability to comment on Facebook directly from the Bing Social Sidebar.

This means you will be allowed to directly engage with your Facebook friends right from the search results. The new tool will allow you to ask questions or provide comments or answers on posts that are relevant to the search.

The ability to directly interact by commenting on Facebook allows you to go from searching to doing, according to Bing. If you search for an event in your area and you have Facebook friends who are talking about attending, you can not only find that out easily with the Social Sidebar, but you can also join in the conversation without ever leaving the search experience.

Bing has been cultivating the Social Sidebar since introducing it last year. Here’s a timeline of the Social Sidebar:

• May 2012: Bing introduced the Social Sidebar
• August 2012: Bing added Facebook Friend Tagging to search, Quora, and Facebook photo search
• September 2012: Bing added Klout and Klout added Bing as an Influence metric
• December 2012: Bing changed the Social Sidebar from gray to white
• January 2013 – Bing allowed tagging to become public and 5x more Facebook results
• April 2013: Bing added Pin it button to image search
• May 2013: Bing moved Klout expert answers to the top of search results

Introducing SES Online
Want to view one of the sessions you missed or listen to an especially informative presenter a second time? SES New York sessions are available for purchase on ClickZ Academy’s new e-Learning site. SES is now Online!

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Article source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2267760/Bing-Adds-Direct-Facebook-Interaction-to-Social-Sidebar

A recent Facebook post was my inspiration for preparing this guide. The poster mentioned his desire to assist nonprofits with their marketing once he retired. Although I admire his intentions, I would encourage him (and you) to act now – don’t wait! In fact, I would argue that you have an obligation to use your marketing skills to make the world a better place.

There are dozens of great charities, in your own backyard, that are begging for the kind of help that a digital marketer can provide. Choosing a charity should be like choosing a line of work. Find something that you’re passionate about.

As the parent of a type 1 diabetic, my organization of choice is the JDRF. They are funding a research project to create an artificial pancreas. As you might imagine, this is a monumental effort that requires gobs of money.

For me, passion alone isn’t enough – I want to have “fun” while fundraising. So, I decided to weave a favorite hobby of mine (mopeds and scooters) into a fundraiser. The end result is the A-Town Rumble, an annual moped and scooter rally that raises money for the artificial pancreas project.

You want to pick a cause that you’re genuinely interested in and then create a fun event to support it. To my knowledge, the Rumble is the only moped and scooter fundraiser in the U.S., so don’t worry if it has never been done before. The combination of passion and fun will give you the energy needed to make your event a success.

Holding the line on expenses is a top consideration. You want the money raised to go to your charity – not to overhead expenses. This philosophy should be applied to

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Article source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2267466/Nonprofit-Marketing-A-Quick-Start-Guide-to-Fundraising

There has been much speculation this week about some kind of major Google update. Google Penguin 2.0 was not the blame if you’ve lost search traffic. But you can expect the next Penguin update in the next few weeks, Google’s Distinguished Engineer Matt Cutts has confirmed.

“Nope, no new Penguin update this week,” Cutts wrote on Twitter, later adding “…we do expect to roll out Penguin 2.0 (next generation of Penguin) sometime in the next few weeks though.”

The “next generation” of Penguin has been the source of much speculation since Cutts mentioned it in March. He said it would be significant and one of the most talked about Google algorithm updates this year.

Google’s Penguin update launched in April 2012, and was followed by two refreshes last year – in May and October.

Sites that were hardest hit had too much exact match anchor text and link profiles that appeared unnatural to Google – and Google has increasingly applied a “stricter standard” on manipulative link profiles, according to a study by Internet marketing agency Portent.

Need some tips on how to get ready and what websites might be in danger of getting impacted by the next Penguin update? Check out the posts below.

Introducing SES Online
Want to view one of the sessions you missed or listen to an especially informative presenter a second time? SES New York sessions are available for purchase on ClickZ Academy’s new e-Learning site. SES is now Online!

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To read the full article:
Article source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2267464/Matt-Cutts-Google-Penguin-2.0-Coming-in-Next-Few-Weeks