The holidays are upon us, and many businesses local and nationwide are gearing up for the Black Friday sales frenzy. Be a savvy shopper and utilize these handy applications in order to find the best deals, compare prices, check to see where your desired item is on sale in your area and more!

How Groundbreaking Thinkers Spread Their Ideas — Inc.com

If you’re an entrepreneur or just a savvy businessperson, you know that knowing how to think critically in order to generate out-of-the-box ideas is a vital skill. However, once you’ve come up with your brilliant pitch, how to you get your audience to come to you? Inc.com’s Jeff Haden has some key concepts to share about the simple logistics of getting your concepts out there and your audience engaged with the message.

Photos Draw Most Facebook Interactions, Links Draw the Least — Small Business SEM

When you’re busily engaging with your fans on Facebook and promoting your online presence, it seems that putting up photos will elicit the most response and engagement on your fans’ parts. Sharing links, however, is the weakest option and comparatively offers very little reward for the effort. The theory makes sense: visual stimulation is always a plus for getting attention, and with the new Facebook UI users can simply click on a posted picture to expand a gallery-style mini-window, eliminating the need to leave Facebook itself. Will you be putting more effort into curating your business’s photo gallery now?

Google+ Rolls Out Trending Topics — Mashable

With Google+ making huge strides in recovering their previously-drooping user base and opening up to the business sphere, it seems evident that they’ve taken a good, hard look at what other social networks are doing well. The introduction of trending topics, a list of the most popular and oft-discussed items on the social network, offers users an effortless peek into the most relevant news of the moment. Several other UI tweaks have been made as well — head over to Mashable to check it out!

8 Tips to Maximize Your Branded Presence in the Google Local Search Results — Bluemnthals

With the recent hubbub over a plethora of Google service redesigns, some may be wondering where to go from here with regard to getting themselves noticed in the local search sphere. Never fear! This handy guide is an excellent overview to making sure your business is front-and-center when searchers are looking for you.

Google Places results page when no selection is highlighted.

Results page with mini-Place page expanded.

This is a noteworthy move for Google Local, given the powerful results that the “red pin” logo has attained over the last few years. The mini-Place Page embedded within search results seems to agree with the growing shift toward minimalism the company has encouraged in its recent redesigns, such as the sleek-and-clean new Google Reader. Additionally, the new system serves an important purpose in helping searchers find the things they’re looking for (location, directions, reviews, pictures and details, et cetera) without actually leaving the SERPs. Google is also making it easier on its searchers to review and edit local places listings by placing a feedback link (visible in the second, expanded screenshot) directly in the foldout, thus helping prevent problems like the infamous potential to mess with competitor’s listings via maliciously reporting a business as “closed.” With this error seemingly remedied or at least remediated, it will be interesting to see if other Google bugs such as the appearance of potentially inappropriate photos on Place pages will be given attention as well.

Given the increased power of many browsers and the capability offered by new tools such as HTML5, it’s clear that most users’ browsing capabilities can handle the change — but is it an innovative way to get the data you need without having to trawl through multiple unique pages, or a confusing overload of information? What do you think?

If you’ve been on the Internet for any length of time, you’ve probably seen a colorful or visually engaging 404 page that pops up when you’ve reached an invalid page on a website. What you may not know, though, is that these pages have SEO potential and should be optimized for ease of use by your viewers. Check out this article to find out the four most important elements of a user-friendly 404 page, along with a bevy of other tips.

How to Use 3 New Facebook Features for Better Social Media Marketing — CopyBlogger

Facebook’s recent roll-out of the Timeline has many marketers worried that display ads and other traditional forms of Facebook marketing are kaput. Fortunately, CopyBlogger is here to show you how to adapt to these strange new waters and give your ‘book campaigns the updated punch they need to stay fresh and effective.

Essential Checklist for Writing Guest Blogs — Pronet Advertising

Being asked to guest blog is quite an honor, and it’s important to do it right. Jennifer Moline of PsPrint Blog elucidates some of the best practices for guest-blogging, including tips on how to be respectful of your host, engage your audience and format like a champ. (Speaking of guest blogging, have you read Influencer Colette Bennett‘s piece on the SEM Group Bad-Ass Blogger Contest? Check it out here — But I Don’t Have Enough Klout: How To Be Good At Social Media By Not Being A Jerk.)

Are Google’s Local Efforts in Trouble? — Marketing Pilgrim

As our own Joseph Henson blogged about earlier, Google’s new Place page policy is taking its cue from the “asking for forgiveness is easier than permission model,” updating page information with user-submitted information and allowing business owners to give input on the changes only after the fact. Marketing Pilgrim’s Frank Reed dissects some of the more troubling implications of this switch and throws out some thoughts on the potential future of Google’s local system.

Speedy Site Prospecting Using Social Metrics & Natural Language Processing — SEOMoz

With natural language processing, it’s now possible for an application to browse a website and algorithmically determine any given page’s topic and help humans determine what’s worthwhile and what’s not — effectively taking the elbow grease out of site prospecting. SEO Moz takes you through this exciting new capability and shows step-by-step how you can apply the concepts to your own campaigns.

Google is feeding local business owners to the wolves with their latest Places update. Lior Ron, Google Places Product Manger, announced yesterday evening that Google will be “helping” business owners keep their business listings updated by now allowing anyone, mischievous competitors included, to edit your entire Places listing for you. Yes, even if it is verified.

How… thoughtful of Google.

You may or may not be a fan of the teen star Justin Bieber and his ubiquitous haircut, but there’s no denying that some serious marketing has gone into making him one of the most famous and adored pop sensations in recent memory. Disney Media, geniuses that they are, have floated a unique campaign to make Bieber famous and skyrocket him to domination of his niche — in this case, pre-teen music. Content Marketing Institute’s Scott Aughtmon dissects the tactics Radio Disney undertook to market their star and how you can apply these concepts to your own campaigns.

5 Keyword Research Alternatives for Mobile, News, Social, Image & Video Optimization — TopRank

Search marketing isn’t just for Googlers sitting in front of their PCs anymore. Mobile search drives a huge portion of web traffic, while ancillary optimization opportunities such as video and images are a goldmine of untapped potential for the right marketers. This handy article by TopRank’s Lee Odden provides you with tools to hunt down the perfect keywords to target your audience — no matter what platform or medium they’re using.

B&H Photo Shows How To Convert Customers Into Fans & Followers — Small Business SEM

While we’ve elaborated on many good practices for small business SEO campaigns, but those carefully-tuned broadcasts can seem like a waste if there’s nobody there to listen. If your business is hitting all the marks in your social media sphere but just can’t seem to gain the followers, check this article out for several handy tips on converting your real-life fans into online followers.

How Marketers Can Connect with the 3 Mindsets of Search [STUDY] — Search Engine Watch

In this recently-released study, About.com and Latitude conclude that customers use search engines with one of three specific mindsets: Educate Me, Answer Me and Inspire Me. Check out Search Engine Watch’s writeup for in-depth exploration into these searchers’ motivations, as well as how to apply the concepts to your own campaigns.

5 Cheat Sheet Basics for International SEO — TopRank

As we’ve noted before, cross-borders SEO can be a tricky area — but also a rewarding one. No matter the distance between you and your client, these basic international SEO tips are sure to have you on your way to an effective and well-planned campaign.

As a special bonus sixth feature, we’re proud to announce that several of our talented SI bloggers are taking part in the 2nd Annual Bad Ass SEO Guest Blogging Contest at Search Engine Marketing Group! Keep your eyes peeled for quick tips and insightful search marketing commentary from our homegrown team of experts. Our first entry, Doug Thomas‘s The Real Meaning of the Facebook Timeline – Are Display Ads Dead? has just been published today, so head on over and tell him what you think. All of us over here at SI thank SEM Group and the contest’s sponsors from the bottom of our hearts for enabling a great opportunity. Check out the great groups and businesses they have sponsoring this event:

While Facebook is an excellent resource for small business social media engagement, Google+ is an up-and-comer that as of yet doesn’t allow business profiles. However, hope is on the way: winter of 2011 will yield the first allowed G+ commercial accounts, so if you’re a media-savvy business owner now’s the time to start formulating your strategy. Expand2Web’s Daniela Baker has the scoop on what you should be thinking about in the upcoming months to optimize your establishment’s chances on Google’s mean streets.

Friday Five: Optimizing Content & Visibility with SlideShare — Edelman Digital

In their own Friday Five tradition, the wizards at Edelman share their tips & tricks for using SlideShare, a cutting-edge “YouTube for documents” that offers a platform for information sharing and discussion.

Facebook Debuts Smart Lists: Is Google+ in Trouble? — Search Engine Journal

The G+/FB war continues with Facebook’s institution of “smart lists,” algorithmic sorting that automatically categorizes one’s friends into set groups. In addition to introducing the automatic methods of sorting, the ‘book is also pushing a lesser-known feature that allows one to manually separate out groups for maximum ease of social sharing. Combined with the updated privacy settings of last week, seems like Facebook is gearing up to address Google+’s emphasis on user privacy and share filtering.

Why not updating your Core, Themes & Plugins is Stupid — Yoast

We’re all guilty of it: when the upgrade alert appears on anything from our music players to website modules, it’s tempting to say “not now” and ignore the problem in favor of more immediate concerns. Joost de Valk has a blog up at Yoast warning of the perils of ignoring vital core, theme and plugin updates.

50 Can’t-Fail Techniques for Finding Great Blog Topics — Copyblogger

Finding it hard to crank out blog after blog to keep your site full of fresh content? Use these fifty useful prompts to generate dynamic, juicy topics that will keep the entries coming.

Well, there are worse places to get your deals.

While Yelp isn’t on the same scale as the ‘book as far as user base or diversification of services, it is by nature a very local presence, making the small-biz deal model a seemingly natural fit. However, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman has stated concerns with the “deep discount” approach that has provided an extremely negative experience for many small-scale businesses, leaving nobody happy in the end via use of an unsustainable model — albeit one with considerable consumer response. However, despite the reputational backlash growing from the business end, Groupon has reported record profits and its name has even been bandied about as the fastest-growing company ever. While long-term results are as of yet unproven and more merchant-friendly policies seem inevitably necessary to keep the brand afloat, it’s certainly hard to argue with the numbers at the moment.

So why, with other social web presences getting washed out of the pool by Groupon’s leviathan-scale belly flop, is Google dipping a toe in? The search behemoth has established a deals program in Portland, OR and seems to be looking to expand, given its recent display of a New York-based deal on admission to the Museum of Natural History. I guess the saying goes that if you can’t beat ‘em, attempt to acquire them for $6 billion and if that doesn’t work, well, go back to trying to beat them.

Part of this is almost certainly to do with timing, as Groupon recently filed for an IPO that could happen as soon as next month, launching it as a publicly-traded company and opening up an entire new world of earning potential. Its unprecedented fast-track growth also offers significant incentive to mount a counter-campaign and nip the competition in the bud before it grows to Death Star-like proportions. El Goog is facing an uphill battle, given that it’s moving against some pretty entrenched competitors — but at the company’s current scale it wouldn’t have much trouble deploying a nuclear bomb to swat a fly. There’s no clear path to adoption for users (certainly nothing as convenient and reliable as an email plunking into one’s mailbox every morning) and no real incentive to sign on when faced with the plethora of other, more popular options, at least for the moment. However, the sheer number of eyeballs (particularly if location-targeted deals are to be featured on Google’s famously minimalist home page) is a force to be reckoned with in and of itself. (In fact, a Piper Jaffray analyst estimated the Nexus One placement on the Google home page to be worth between $4 and $5 million if it were a bought-and-paid-for ad.)

The Google brand, for better or for worse, has a lot of leverage with consumers and products that gain popularity tend to stick around for the long haul. The company also seems to have wider ambitions with its deal models, tying the Offers brand up with Google Wallet and check-ins, as well as developing Google Offer ads and coupons that can be displayed along regular PPC content. While Groupon is currently mobile-accessible, the all-in-one convenience of Google Wallet could be a strong selling point to those who want all their resources and grabs in one place. It’s clear that with the resources at their fingertips the success of Google’s deals platform isn’t contingent simply upon the “daily deals” Groupon-like aspect; however, it remains to be seen whether the attempt at diversification will pay off or Groupon’s 115 million users will stay true to the service that’s provided staggering discounts for its duration as an entity.

We’ve all seen these people at conferences, pimping out their extra shiny business cards and talking like late-night infomercials – the online business strategists and social media experts. They claim to have the secrets to creating a successful online brand and promise “more profitable business now” if only you are willing to hear the pitch. They use buzz words like “online reputation score” and “viral marketing” to excite business owners into trusting their expertise and ultimately signing up for expensive year long contracts but never promise actual results.

I hate these type of people.

They prey on ignorance, offering fly-by-night schemes which promise efficient ways to generate more revenue at a low-cost for small businesses. Of course that low-cost is for the online expert’s one-size fits all advice.

Advice that seems to always involve action plans centered around mediums that have no measurable results *cough* Twitter *cough*. These experts rarely provide their clients’ with monthly performance reports – just monthly invoices. And clients would be hard pressed to get details on how that “low-cost” investment has translated into online business.

Who should you trust with your web presence? I’ve got a few questions you should ask before you sign on the dotted line.

Support Forums – MUST GET FIX BEFORE SOMEONE GET KILL!!!

The ecosystem of the Google Forums allows professionals, amateurs, and Google professionals to come together and try to solve the problems that come up in the daily life of a website owner. However, the average website owner or business professional doesn’t have the faintest idea of how Google is organized or to whom even to address problems.

When a Map Error puts customers in danger, you’d like to see a fast response and some targeted information to help your specific situation. The first response to the thread is by a Google Employee, probably on the Maps team. However, the responder who is best situated to directly take a look at the problem and at least explain what’s going on to cause the error simply puts a boilerplate answer.

It takes a community member to explain in detail what’s going on. This could be Google awaiting a naturally crowdsourced solution to support problems, but that sounds like a euphemism for “we don’t have time for this through inappropriate channels.” That’s fair, of course, but those channels are hard to find and cold copypasta doesn’t reheat well, especially when it’s an error so far beyond the ken of most business owners.

Blog Posts – “In short. This articles fails it’s own goals.”

For those without a “MUST GET FIX,” researching Google through their corporate blogs would seem to be a worthy pursuit. But even when giving deep information about what factors enter into the search algorithm, Google isn’t immune to denouncements of “unmitigated prevarication.” Again, the complaint is that it’s PR instead of real help.

To be fair, I can’t see this complaint, especially in the Panda algorithm change posts. Through sticking to their guns about not releasing too much algorithm data, Google has provided intuitive, i.e. non-technical, ways to check the perceived quality of a site. Here, despite claims of “misdirection” and “saying one thing and doing another,” Google might even be giving better information than they’re credited with, saying that the algorithm is using techniques that are either fuzzy or heuristic or some other kind of higher statistics that somewhat accurately model real human interactions — basically, don’t bother chasing the algorithm, it chases you.

Compounding this problem of transparency, webmasters only see the noise; that is, they don’t see how well the algorithm works overall and are only concerned with their own site, a little statistical blip that is hard to reconcile with the overall trends. Furthermore, well-educated webmasters also see where Google policy and practice diverge, whether it’s for Ads, Maps, or Snippets. In addition, the wheedling that can happen when a site owner talks directly to Google and the mystique of getting that number for that red phone undermines the transparency Google works to show.

ThinkInsights – Data Beats Opinion

When it comes to the state of search, Google offers a set of studies they’ve conducted and compiled at their ThinkInsights, giving a glimpse at what Google is interested in right now. Since April, they’ve been pushing Mobile internet, which affects most areas of internet marketing: PPC, website design, and specified marketing. These reports are published as slideshows in Powerpoint and PDF formats.

These studies are Google’s way to keep everyone up to date while pushing its products. Like the early videos for learning AdWords, this kind of infotising does a lot for Google, but may not give the kinds of in-depth information some might hope. Here, Google could  improve two areas. Firstly, they need to amplify. These things could be better shown to the average person if they were one-shot infographics or otherwise promoted for easy sharing and larger reach. But it’s not just that — format and distribution might not be a problem if the information were targeted, but it’s neither juicy enough for the common reader, nor specific or new enough for the marketer. The information is often more of a middle-ground, possibly good for the part-time marketer, but not for keeping up with new trends or finding the next big thing. But is that Google’s job?

Matt Cutts – Yes, there is a Santa

Regardless of whose job it is, Google has its own unofficial mouthpiece in its head of Search Quality, Matt Cutts. While he’s a bit of a god among mortals in the search community, his position allows him to discuss with professionals and semi-professionals on forums, blogs, and other social arenas. Most recently, his role in shutting down incorrect speculation on ranking penalty factors puts him at the forefront of any transparency discussion. In this case, he seems to follow the debunking flowchart Danny Sullivan created. He sees a fairly bizarre claim, but didn’t respond until he saw the same claim repeated on Hacker News.

Looking at the comments, you immediately see issues with the one-man show. Not only is a real person capable of mistakes and poor wording, but the nature of a small industry gives people long memories. Furthermore, his direct connection to Google and his dislike of discussing specifics of the algorithm give way to vagueness and expected corporate doublespeak. Finally, the high level of technical savvy of his audience lets them research well, leaving others to repeat the supporting data to undermine his transparent claims.

I feel for Mr. Cutts — he doesn’t have to trawl messageboards and blogs to help people understand his business better, but he does, often to a less than warm welcome. But his position is somewhat self-made as the most vocal Google Guy, leaving the door open for the last line of transparency, the SEO community, who are the alternative to top-down transparency.

SEO Community – Publishing the Factors

Google is a corporation, and therefore sometimes has to avoid certain topics or cloud the waters to dissuade people from gaming the system. The SEO community comes to the rescue and fills in the blanks. Anecdotal reports, such as case studies, forum posts, and SEO blogs, are incredible sources, especially when you find yourself in the same situation. But it’s not these that provide the greatest transparency for those under Google’s will; it’s things like Rand Fishkin’s Search Ranking Factors and David Mihm’s Local Search Ranking Factors that fill in the blanks that Google leaves through its inability to talk about the algorithm or provide meaningful search data.

These factors reports are the result of serious research and collected soft feelings from knowledgeable industry professionals — a good combination of information. Furthermore, since they provide methodologies and even raw data, you can double-check or even focus on a subset of their data, allowing the ultimate kind of transparency.

These information sources beyond Google’s reach are the real transparency for the Search Industry. They are the ones who give as unbiased as possible information (minus high-level trade secrets of course) and unplug the bung for much of the meaningful search truths.

It’s hard to be a large, looming company and give enough care and information to your users to make them feel like you’re being transparent. Giving credit where it’s due, Google is often meeting the criteria asked; however, meeting the criteria and meeting the small business owners’ expectations of those criteria are two separate issues.

The biggest issue for Google’s transparency, despite the multiple sources of information and moderately high level of involvement, is amplification. They aren’t making their information particularly easy to access, nor are they making the answers they give very public. But that’s not the worst thing — bloggers, researchers, and other SEO kings are more than happy to throw their two cents in, letting independent sources keep the information lines clear. Finally, the quest for transparency, especially on the internet, is a bit of a red herring: the Internet is not the democratic utopia we hoped it was.

Is Google doing enough to make its products, services, and policies clear for you?

Flash forward to now — I’ve had a whopping year of intensive exposure and training in Internet Marketing: found out what Facebook is really for; why Google might not even find the site I’m looking for; what Google is doing in my status bar, even if I typed in the url; how Google’s ads knew exactly what I typed; that Google’s rankings are always in a state of flux; and even how I like to see the pages I visit. In short, entering this job totally changed how I look at the web.

And I’m happier for it. Sure, people are always trying to create some kind of “Google is Watching You” zeitgeist, whether through their use of AdBlock and Ghostery, or by bringing up the problems Google’s had with European trade officials, or how much Google’s search results have changed since the last time they noticed. People seem to be concerned that someone’s watching their online habits specifically. But I’m now the person who’s watching, and I know how and why I’m doing it.

Is this who's looking at your browsing habits?

To be fair, everyone who’s “invading” privacy is watching online habits. It’s easy to say it’s on a “macro” level, but it’s harder to convince some people that it’s more like an ant farm than an investigation. For internet marketers, not only is it simply not profitable to look at the individual, but it’s becoming less feasible and less legal to do so.

Firstly, targeted marketing based on internet behavior isn’t an unregulated free-for-all on your personal information. 2009 brought a proposal from the FTC for seven “Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising,” outline in this Interactive Advertising Bureau report. But for this discussion, it’s important to note that the regulations do not affect collection of data “solely for [the website’s] own uses,” or for contextual advertising like Adwords, “as it delivers advertisements based on the content of a Web page, a search query, or a user’s contemporaneous behavior” — the two main ways marketers use your data online.

What most marketers are concerned with are those non-regulated uses. Google Analytics, found 39 times more than the “average” tracker on the web, is largely for the company’s own use. Google, still the top dog for internet searches, puts its contextual ads right next to its search results — a strong source of revenue for its advertisers.

Analytics, despite privacy advocates’ concerns, is nothing to be afraid of. It’s only to make sites more responsive to their users. One of the greatest tools for the company owning (or managing) the site is to know how people actually use their site. Certainly, most hosting packages do this in a rudimentary way, but few have the immediate gratification of being able to see the site alongside what links are clicked.

Conversions from a Contact Page in Analytics

Landing Page overlaid with In-Page Analytics

The In-Page Analytics shows the percentage of clicks to the various pages in little pop-ups next to each link. Of course, it’s only tracking links to the page, so you have to take it with a few grains of salt if you have contextual linking on the page, but it gives site owners and especially ad campaign runners an idea of how to make their choices more relevant to browsers. The page below shows that almost 2% of visitors hit up the contact page from here, and another view shows us that a fifth of the people visiting the contact page complete a form — whether that’s good or bad is for the marketer to decide, but that information is certainly useful. Should that information not be in the hands of small businesses? The 12000 people searching for “block javascript” in Google think so.

And what about those 12000? How can I know that? Because Google “betrays” its users privacy and gives vague estimates of how much people search for various keywords. Again, this helps small businesses without walls of supercomputers to better gather data so that they can garner a little bit of information to better serve their customers.

Drilldown of Referrals from Other Sites

Finally, what about pages you visit that aren’t part of the site you’re on? Why would a site owner want to know that? Surely, they couldn’t want to know what page you were on before this one! But the internet is the ultimate word-of-mouth; “Who referred you?” becomes “From where were you referred?” and unfortunately, people just don’t pay enough attention to notice effectively on their own.

So instead of ineffective tools and sheer guesswork, the visitor loses a little privacy to help small business owners understand how people came to their site and make it better for those visitors by tailoring the content and design. And this is the mindset behind any loss of privacy for the visitor. Marketers like us aren’t trying to figure out who specifically visited our site and did what — if we were, we’d use other tools that can’t be so easily blocked, and would only be used for malicious visitors.

While some might call it “drinking the Kool-Aid,” I’ve understood more deeply why losing just a little privacy and not trying to circumvent analytics and other tools are a boon for the whole Internet — making it more valuable to the visitor, so that sites give to the reader what they really want. Stop worrying, and support your small businesses on the web.