5 for Friday — Links, Stories, & Posts for Your Weekend

February 22nd, 2013 by Search Influence Alumni

Green faded door number 5

How Brand Came to Dominate Google’s Relevancy Algorithm – SEO Book
Google CEO Eric Schmidt has said, “Brands are the solution, not the problem.” Going all the way back to 2003, this infographic details the timeline of Google’s preference for brands in rankings, even going into some high-profile companies using shady techniques and not being penalized in the same ways small businesses might.

Write a (Good) Blog Post in 1 Hour – SuccessWorks
The old adage goes, “write about what you know.” The SEO-focused copywriting agency SuccessWorks takes it a step further in this brief how-to list, saying we should write about something we enjoy. Not only is this more enjoyable, but it’s also easier to push out a post quickly when you like what you are writing about. The other main takeaway from this is to take a break after your first draft. Fresh eyes will pick up on typos and other mistakes when you come back to the computer. You may even see places where you can add more information.

Will Social Signals Replace Links? – Search Engine Journal
It’s obvious to anyone online, especially in marketing, that social media is becoming more and more important to building a brand, but what if it becomes more important to your rankings? This post explores some of the possibilities but maintains that proven strategies for link building shouldn’t be overlooked just yet.

How to Use Hashtags in Your Social Media Marketing – Social Media Jungle
We’ve written about how to use existing hashtags to your advantage, but what if you want to create your own? Probably one of the most important takeaways from this post is to search the hashtag before using it. We’ve seen what can happen if companies use a trending hashtag without knowing why it’s trending. It’s just as easy to make one up that is being used for something completely unrelated.

34 Tools to Help You Create Better Content From Start to Finish (and Beyond) – BlueGlass
Getting into creativity mode is not always easy. This list of sites, apps, and other tools is not exhaustive, but can’t be too far from it. From brainstorming to editing, there’s a tool to help you with every step of the content creation process. Lots of these are free and all of them could be helpful for writers. Especially fun is The Writer’s Diet, where you can run a diagnosis on a sample to see where changes can be made to make the writing more concise and accessible to your audience.