Another busy week of discussion last week on our sister site, Sphinn, with more than a third of the published stories attracting comments.

The most conversation happened around our “Discussion of the Week,” which asked Automated Tweets … Yay or Nay? And we got a variety of opinions on the use of Twitter bots, scheduled tweets and so forth. The general consensus was that some auto-tweeting is okay, but you have to be careful not to overdo it. Our favorite comment came from Sphinn member Edward Lewis of SEOblog.com. Here’s a portion:

If you have a Twitter account and do mostly AutoTweeting, then your audience should know that. If they don’t, you end up with folks replying at a time when someone is not available to respond immediately. I’ve replied to a few AutoTweets not knowing and I didn’t think much of the person who didn’t reply promptly.

Meanwhile, a story about deleting low-volume PPC keywords was the most popular item of the week among Twitter users — actually, it was tied for retweets with a funny piece about five people you might meet in online marketing hell!

Here’s a look at all of last week’s Sphinn activity.

Most Comments

• Discussion: Automated Tweets … Yay or Nay? – Social media's supposed to be all about connecting and conversations, but how can you have a conversation with a bot? On the other hand, everyone loves tools that make our work easier and more efficient. In our "Discussion of the Week," we want to know: What's your opinion on using software/tools that automate your Twitter activity? Do you use them? Do you recommend clients use them? If so, how much? If not, are automated tweets ALWAYS a bad thing, or are there acceptable situations/uses? The floor is open!
• ".brands" approach with Internet name shake-up – Big domain name changes proposed! – Brand owners will soon be able to operate their own parts of the Web — such as .apple, .coke or .marlboro — if the biggest shake-up yet in how Internet domains are awarded is approved.
• 5 Reasons Why Deleting Your Blog Posts Is Stupid – Hubspot takes a look at Steve Rubel's decision to kill off two personal blogs and move to Tumblr … because he didn't want to confuse Google with a scattered web presence.
• Google Maps Hates Small Businesses By Launching Local Folksonomy Descriptive Terms – Good post from Chris Silver Smith on the potential downside of Google's new “Descriptive Terms” that appear with Places business listings in map search results.

Most Tweeted (not already listed above)

• When Should You Delete a Low Traffic Keyword? – Author answers when low traffic keywords in PPC campaigns be deleted and what are the impacts of doing so.
• The Five People You Meet in Online Marketing Hell – A brilliant article that I'm CERTAIN many of us can relate to!
• The True Value Of Links – Nothing new or earth-shattering, but I'm not sure this basic concept has been better explained than here.
• The Photo Strip: Facebook’s Most Underused Free Ad – Great examples of the number of ways that businesses can take advantage of Facebook's new photo strip feature.
• Google Web Search Supports rel=canonical HTTP Headers – Google announced today on their Webmaster Blog that they support the rel-canonical mechanism, formerly restricted to META elements, in HTTP headers now. That's great news, because it allows to canonicalize URIs of PDF docs, text files and whatnot. Personally, that's SUCCESS: I've requested this in 2009, nagging and nudging Google from time to time. Thanks, Google!

Hot On Sphinn: June 13 to June 19, 2011

• A/B and Multivariate Test Validity: Beware of Bad Data!! – Validation of test results when conducting conversion testing is critical if you want to be forming a plan based on the best data possible. Here are 4 types of validity threats that can help you identify areas where there may be problems with your numbers.
• How to Get More Twitter Followers – If you're interested in quality and not just quantity, Michael Gray shows you one of the most effective tactics to build a following, something he calls a follower raid. (arrgh!)
• 4 Keys to Turning Negative Commenters Into Brand Advocates – Nobody likes being told something negative about themselves. It stings, and as a business owner or manager, you immediately start kicking yourself for the missed opportunity. The key to surviving, however, is to embrace these negative comments for what they actually are: golden opportunities.
• How to Use Xenu for the basis of an SEO Campaign – Sam Murray tells us how SEOs can use Xenu as a basis for technical and on-page analysis and as a basis for client questions and discovery.
• Who Keeps Spreading Silly SEO Stupidity, and Why? – Jill Whalen covers why and how bad SEO information gets circulated both on and off the internet.
• Keyword Research: Did You Dive Deep Enough? – Matt McGee's personal blogging about his Hawaiian Vacation offers an important lesson for longtail SEO.
• 3 Awesome Remarketing Ad Strategies – Advertisers often worry about the creepy “Big Brother” factor in regards to remarketing. What moral code is an advertiser breaking if their ads follow a user around the Internet?…
• Does Google Use Facebook Shares to Influence Search Rankings? – The SEOmoz data scientist uses statistics to show that Matt Cutts is likely correct in stating that Google isn't using Facebook shares for ranking purposes.
• Nifty Hard Core Local SEO Tactics From SMX Advanced – The panelists at last week’s “Hard Core Local SEO” panel at SMX Advanced, Mike Ramsey of Nifty Marketing, Will Scott of Search Influence and David Mihm of GetListed, presented some excellent data on various tactical approaches to improving Google Place Page rankings. For today’s column, I thought it would be helpful to excerpt some of the more interesting ideas they presented…
• Improving Your AdWords Quality Scores With DKI – As the search advertising marketplace becomes ever more competitive, advertisers are on the prowl for the n¬ewest magic trick that will instantly raise their AdWords Quality Score (QS) and give them the chance to show their ads in the top ad positions without paying through the nose…
• Schema.org: Tell Search Engines What Your Content Means – Using standardized “schema,”  websites can more clearly define content using semantic markup, and help it appear more clearly and prominently in search results.
• SEO Best Practices For Restaurants & Eateries – Good SEO insights for hospitality businesses.
• The One Metric You Need To Optimize Across Paid & Organic Search – A lot of people talk about the overlap between SEO & paid search, but this piece actually has some actionable techniques and insights.
• Ultimate Blogger’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization – This is a very well-done, 101-level introduction to SEO tactics and strategies for bloggers.
• Interview with a Business Owner on the Effect of Groupon – This is a video interview of Rocky Agrawal and the owner of a cafe in Portland, OR -  Jessie Burke. She talks about the experience she had with Groupon and the result a special offer brought for her business.
• The Future of SEO (as of 2011) – Sam Crocker gives us a nice roundup of information shared by the State of Search bloggers at the recent A4U Expo in Munich. As we well know, it's these non-session gems that give us a real SEO education.
• Best Buy Learns The Streisand Effect Is Very Real – Adam Singer explains that Best Buy wants to be social, but its legal department is really causing problems: "Can we really think a company is serious about having discussions when something isn’t to their liking and they react by freaking out and sending cease and desist letters?"
• 11 Analytics Metrics That Are Actionable – When people ask "What key metrics should I be tracking?"the answer can be broken down pretty quickly by looking to measure metrics that are actionable – why measure stuff you can't do anything about?
• Google Experiments with Removing URLs from Search Results Listings – Google tests a new feature that replaces the URL with the site's name in search results snippets.

This is the latest in a weekly look at the stories that were “hot” on Sphinn in the past week. We’ll post these recaps every week.

Related Topics: Channel: Other | Features: General | Sphinn

About The Author: Matt McGee is Editor-In-Chief of Search Engine Land. His news career includes time spent in TV, radio, and print journalism. His web career continues to include a small number of SEO and social media consulting clients, as well as regular speaking engagements at marketing events around the U.S. He blogs at Small Business Search Marketing and can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee and/or on Google Plus. You can read Matt's disclosures on his personal blog. See more articles by Matt McGee

Connect with the author via: Email | Twitter | Google+ | LinkedIn