What You Need to Know About SEO July 2012

New Yahoo CEO – Straight from Google

Marissa Mayer has recently made a bold move to Yahoo. There she will act as CEO for the third largest search empire. Why should this interest you? Well, she came from Google where she led the Google Search department, among various other high profile positions.

Only time will tell what Marissa Mayer will be able to accomplish at Yahoo. But in the world of SEO, we have to keep our eyes watching this transition.

Could Google be faced with stronger competition from the new Yahoo?

Or is there a looming partnership between Google and Yahoo?

Talk about back to your roots. Many people don’t know that Google got its 1st big break when Yahoo selected the upstart search engine to power Yahoo Search back in the day. Could this be back to the future?

If the two were to work together, the face of SEO may actually become more consistent and the Google Webmaster Guidelines (which you should be following) will be more imprtant than ever for proper search optimization.

Read more about Marissa Mayer here.

Read more about her tenure at Google and what may be hidden up her sleeve for the move to Yahoo.

Fun facts about Marissa Mayer

Nashville SEO Meetup July 26

6:30 at the Art Institute – Nashville
Google Penalties, Updates and What Works for SEO

Don’t forget to join me at the next SEO information session Thursday night, July 26 at 6:30 at the Art Institute – Nashville. It’s just off I-40 and Stewarts Ferry Pike.

Click here for more details about this session where you will learn about the recent Google algorithm updates that may have affected your site. As always we will have a review of a site to show you how to get on the path for effective SEO.

Links or Social Shares? Which is Better?

Should you start a link campaign or should you shift your focus to encouraging Social Shares?

Both.

You need to get high quality links from relevant, authoritative websites. You also need to get Facebook Likes, Tweets and +1’s on Google.

We’ve gathered the latest info from official Google and Bing sources for you on this topic.

Bottom line: Links and social shares are both important to SEO and to Internet Marketing in general. Here’s what else you should know about Links vs Social Shares

Images: Impact Your Viewers with Pictures

One way to use photos to their fullest potential – without redesigning your site – is to use them via social media. SEO stresses the importance of social media. Why not use social with pictures and get double the impact?

Pictures have been and are becoming increasingly important for customer satisfaction. They add visual interest, impact the design of the site, and capture attention. Using photos can be tricky however – the size of the file can slow down load time and this can impact your SEO results and even cause customers to click away from your page.

Several ways to use photos outside of your site include links to a Pinterest Board that showcase your product or service. Your Google+ page can house a photo gallery. Tie in photos of the day on your Facebook page and Tweets. Include photos in your blog postings to attract attention and promote longer visits to your site.

Pictures combined with social media will add variety, continued interest, and promote brand identity and customer loyalty.

Click here to read more about Pinterest and how to use it.

Click here to see some interesting design ideas for photo usage in websites.

To Tweet or Not to Tweet?

More and more emphasis is being pushed on social sharing these days within SEO practices, but many customers are shy about microblogging. Aside from performers and budding humorists, how does your business get noticed on Twitter?

Keep it “simple and to the point.” Be careful to keep your content professional and relevant. Use the hashtag # appropriately, and soon you will have a legion of followers too. Before long this may be your favorite form of social interaction.

Read the link below for some useful insights into constructing the perfect tweet
http://blog.kissmetrics.com/5-surprising-factors/

Mashable has an exhaustive account of how to use Twitter with a free downloadable guide book.