BrightEdge Weekly Search Recap – 5/28
Hi Everyone,
The top 10 this week include more data on how social impacts search, tips on optimizing for Google News, and the Yandex IPO.
Here are the top 10:
1. The Tweet Effect: How Twitter Affects Rankings
6 tests on the effect of Twitter on Search Engine Rankings that show that social media signals are clearly becoming ever more important as a signal for search rankings, tweets improve indexation, and tweets and retweets of link from influential Tweeters impact rankings.
2. How To Use Paid Discovery On StumbleUpon To Kickstart Social Campaigns
Use StumbleUpon to promote your other social media pages (such as your Facebook Fan Page)! You can target specific interests, demographics, and devices – and all inexpensively (as low as 5 cents a click). Make sure you test multiple categories and track subscriber count.
3. How to Build a Great Contest
One of the best ways to get more fans on Facebook and more followers on Twitter is through contests. This article goes through the key tips of building great contests including a checklist for the contest page, participation rules for facebook and twitter, how to promote it, and a case study on a laptop contest.
4. Google Says You Can’t Hide Links With Disclosure
Google makes it that clear hidden links are against their guidelines, even with disclosure.
5. Category Killer Domain Names?
Keyword targeted domains are slowly fading as an SEO tactic. This article provides a great overview of how keyword rich domains are less effective as Google favors brands.
6. 13 Websites for Search Engine and Browser Market Share Statistics
A comprehensive list of the websites and data sources for search engine and browser market share.
7. 10 Unorthodox Ideas For Local Citations & Links
10 creative ideas for local SEO – where citations and links are key factors: (1) Hosting local events, (2) ATM/Redbox, (3) Historical Building List, (4) Book, (5) Free Wifi, (6) Sponsor Local Charity, (7) Put products on sale, (8) Host a GeoCache, (9) Special local discounts, (10) Special Foursquare badges.
8. How SEOmoz Gained 1000s of Visits from Google News (You Can Too)
Great case study and tip on SEO for Google News. Some basics: (1) Have numbers in your URL, (2) Get Indexed via News Site Maps, (3) Time Your Posts.
9. Yandex IPO Biggest For Internet Company Since Google
Yandex goes public this week – opening at $25 and closing at $38.84 on closing day. Current market cap as of end of this week is now at: 11+ Billion !
10. How Yelp Crushed Citysearch & Yahoo Local … & Why Google Is Stealing Yelp’s Playbook
Yelp is the classic example of a new disruptive new entrant that crushed the incumbent (Citysearch). A new study from Northeastern university suggests that the reason for Yelp’s dominance is that it figured out that reviewers were the key to winning the market, and successfully engaged the reviewers. Now Google is going after the same play…question is: can Google really get traction with reviewers?