With summer now in full gear, we asked readers of our sister site, Sphinn, to help create a summer reading list last week.
That was the topic of our “Discussion of the Week,” which asked for Recommended SEO/PPC/Social Media/Internet Marketing Books. There were a variety of suggested books covering SEO, web analytics, Google AdWords and more — but we’re going to refrain from picking out a favorite comment this week because we don’t want to look like we’re showing favoritism toward any one book. If you’re looking for some reading recommendations — or have some of your own — check out the discussion today.
That book discussion was also the most popular story last week among Twitter users, with a record 236 tweets. Meanwhile, a story offering tips on getting demographic data from remarketing campaign was the next most popular article on Twitter.
Here’s a look at all of last week’s Sphinn activity.
Most Comments
- Discussion: Recommended SEO/PPC/Social Media/Internet Marketing Books? – There's no lack of books to choose from when it comes to SEO, PPC, social media, analytics and just about any/every other aspect of Internet marketing. In our "Discussion of the Week," we want your recommendations for great books! Consider it a summer reading list of sorts – what would you suggest the rest of read, and why?
- Twitter drives 4 times as much traffic as you think it does – Jonathan from awe.som explains why "referrers are a poor way to attribute traffic from social sharing."
- 25 Must Follow Trunk.ly Users Who Get You the Latest SEO Nuggets – Tad Chef explains: "Trunk.ly is the killer app nobody really talks about. It deserves the hype of Friendfeed or Quora, but barely anybody notices the huge impact it may have in future and it’s only rarely that someone explains how useful it already is."
- What is Google+ Really all About? – Good post covering the data behind Google+.
- Why SEO Experiments Are Almost Always Invalid – In an environment where anyone can make an unscientific assertion, back it up with invalid tests, and toss in absurd disclaimers that everyone winks at, you cannot expect to find much high quality information.
Most Tweeted (not already listed above)
- How to Acquire Demographic Insights from Your Remarketing Campaign – Good post on gaining and applying demographic insights for your PPC remarketing campaigns.
- The Heart Of SEO: 8 Everlasting Truths, Part 1 – Marty uses old school business principles to illustrate truths about SEO.
- Link Building with the Experts – 2011 Edition – Well, it’s that time of year again. Since 2007 I’ve been bringing together some of the best minds on link building for an interview series that has resulted in three amazingly educational posts on link building:
- Common Semantic HTML Mistakes: Are You Making Them? (And Why You Shouldn’t) – If you believe that well structured information architecture can help indexing and rankings by adding context to your content, then remember to cross your semantic t’s and dot your semantic i’s.
Hot On Sphinn: July 11 to July 17, 2011
- Content Based Outreach for Link Building – In-depth link prospecting and acquisition processes from Justin Briggs of Distilled.
- We Live In The Age Of Conversation Overload – Tom Foremski posits that it's not information overload but conversation overload that will drag us into the abyss.
- 8 Lessons from Pickup Artists for Link Builders – I've always likened link building to sales (or picking up artristry) so this post spoke to me. Some actionable tips too, so it's definitely worth a read.
- Using Subdomains to Defeat the Google Panda Algorithm? – Google has maintained that there were no exceptions to Panda & they couldn't provide personalized advice on it, but it turns out that if you can publically position their "algorithm" as an abuse of power by a monopoly you will soon find 1:1 support coming to you.
- 7 Email Case Studies: Publishers Who Forget About the Fold – The preview pane is the juicy snippet that people see when they click on your email, before the “fold”. Depending on how their email client is set up, they might see the top inch or two of your email, or if you’re lucky, they have the preview pane set up on the left or right, enabling them to a good chunk of the beginning of your email. Most email clients don’t have that last feature as an option (and your users may or may not be informed enough to change it), so don’t go for the gold on that one.
- How To Use Google AdWords To Reach The People Who Didn’t Click On Your Ad – Cool post about re-marketing and (eventually) converting those people who've seen your ads a few times but haven't yet clicked.
- Why Google+ will fail: social networks grow like trees, not on them – Henry Copeland, CEO of Blogads, explains why he feels Google jumped the shark with Google+. Social networks grow from the ground up, like trees, and are not simply built, like venues in amusement parks.
- A Beginner's Guide to Google Analytics 5 – Version 5 of Analytics has just rolled out to many users, and there have been some fairly significant user interface changes. We’ve compiled everything you need to know to get started with Analytics in general, and specifically with Version 5.
- From Here On Out, Do What You Love – A personal success story in the search marketing industry.
- The Responsibilities of SEO Have Been Upgraded – Randfish shows how SEO job duties and required skills have changed over the years.
- How To Make Awesome Landing Pages for Local PPC – How to easily customize your PPC landing pages for a local audience.
- What Will Google Plus Google Places Equal? – Andrew Shotland offers up some great theoretical perspective on what Google + will mean for local search and small business marketing in general.
- Robert Scoble Apologizes to the SEO Industry – Sometimes he just gets it wrong.
- Microsoft Webmaster Tools to support Yahoo! Site Explorer Community – Yahoo! plans to shut down Yahoo! Site Explorer later this year. Microsoft’s Webmaster Tools will be the source for Bing and Yahoo! webmaster site and analytics data moving forward.
- User Testing in the Wild: Joe’s First Computer Encounter – A unique and interesting internet usability test performed by Joe, a 60-year-old hospital cafeteria employee who has never used a computer!
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
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