SearchCap: The Day In Search, December 24, 2013

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

• Don’t miss out on learning from the pros. Attend an SMX West workshop!

  Sharpen your marketing skill set by attending one of six in-depth workshops offered on March 10. Choose from SEO, Advanced AdWords Training, International Search Marketing, Social Content Distribution for SEO, In-House SEO, or Content Marketing. All Access + Workshop combo and Workshop-only passes available. Save with SMX West Early Bird rates – Register now!

• The 2013 Santa Tracker List: All The Ways To Track Santa From NORAD & Google

  It’s Christmas Eve, time for all good boys and girls to be expecting Santa Claus to be bringing them gifts. But where is jolly old St. Nick on his journey? Once again, there are two major services tracking him: NORAD and Google. Below, our annual review of the tracking sites and methods of using them […]
• PPC Excel Tips For Every Level: Part 1, Huge Time Savers For Beginners (And Beyond)

  Excel is that must-have tool for managing, analyzing and reporting on paid search campaigns that is impossible to know too well. Many of us are self-taught — picking up tips and tricks here and there — which makes it even harder to know what shortcuts and secret powers we’re missing out on. Yesterday, I spoke […]

• The 7 Types Of People Who Want To Help You Build Links

  With so much of link building focused on creating actual relationships these days, the idea that you can build high-quality links without people seems preposterous. Yes, I know there are still things like directories and post submissions but, come on… a real person has to approve those, right? Building relationships can be tough, but trust […]

• Search Engine Land’s Most-Shared Stories on Facebook for 2013: How To Survive Google, Plus A Joke Here & There

  Search marketing friends — welcome, welcome! It’s time for another installment of our Search Engine Land Year In Review series. We’ve toured through the top news stories and those that were most tweeted – now it’s time to scope out the articles, tutorials, resources, and surveys that were most shared on the world’s largest social network, Facebook. Much of our […]

• A Paid Search Christmas Carol: Learn From The Ghosts Of SEM Past, Present & Future

  ‘Twas the night before Christmas in the search marketing department and SEM Director Scrooge was heading out hours before his staff. “Director Scrooge,” said one of the young SEM analysts, Tiny Tim. “It’s Christmas Eve. The gang and I wanted to know if we could get a paid search management tool for the holidays so […]

• A 7-Step Guide To Maximizing The Reach Of Your B2B Content

  Forrester Research recently released a report called Put Distribution at the Heart of Your Content Marketing, which addresses an issue of increasing importance within the content marketing world. Many marketers are very focused on writing top quality content. The process of brainstorming, creating, editing and even designing that content is a full-time job in midsize and […]

• Google Is Looking Into Rap Genius Linking Scheme Masked As Affiliate Program

  Yesterday, John Marbach exposed the popular music side, Rap Genuis, for starting an “affiliate” program in order to get unnatural links pointing to their web site. After it was exposed, Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search spam, said, “we’re aware and looking into it.” Here is the Facebook post, which is still live, on their […]

• Happy Holidays From Google On Christmas Eve: A Recap Of Google Holiday Logos Since 2008

  Today’s Google logo includes a Happy Holidays greeting in time for Christmas Eve. Using a simple holiday portrait of a horse-drawn sled riding through the snow, the logo serves up results for the search phrase ‘Happy Holidays’. This year’s logo is a much more “classic” holiday-styled image compared to last year’s festive logo with lots […]

Recent Headlines From MarTech, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:

• Where’s Santa Claus? This Year, Just Type “Santa” Into Google
• Marketing Land’s Most-Shared Stories on Facebook of 2013: The Downfall of EdgeRank, Google Reader and QR Codes
• 10 Tips For Integrating Content Marketing Into Your Business
• 8 Digital Marketing Agencies & Their 2013 Holiday Video Hijinx
• ‘Twas The Week Before Christmas [The Digital Marketing Version]
• Twitter Removes Block On Pro-Phil Robertson Petition, Says Mistakenly Flagged As Spam

Search News From Around The Web:

Industry

• How open source changed Google – and how Google changed open source, TechRadar
• Italy Approves ‘Google Tax’ on Internet Companies, Bloomberg
• So long, 2013, and thanks for all the fish, Official Google Webmaster Central Blog

Local & Maps

• Most Searched: 2013’s Top U.S. Destinations, blog.mapquest.com

Link Building

• Google: I Got Really Bad Links But I Am Afraid To Remove All Of Them, Search Engine Roundtable
• How Link Building Changed in 2013, Search Engine Watch

SEO

• 10 Essential WordPress Plugins to Improve SEO & Usability, Search Engine Watch
• Basic SEO Must Haves for Small Business, State of Digital
• Google: Our Algorithms Really Are Not Happy With The Quality Of Your Content, Search Engine Roundtable