Sponsored content in various forms is growing in popularity as publishers seek additional sources of revenue. Done well it can be a good fit for both publishers and advertisers, and dare I say even add value for users. However in any implementation it is important to comply with search engine guidelines to avoid negative repercussions for SEO. This topic has been in the news recently with Google first issuing a reminder that any links within sponsored content should not pass PageRank. In addition, do not include sponsored content in your Google News sitemap. MORE >>

Home > Blogging > Google > SEO Google might penalize guest blogging sites someday, because guest blogging does not have the same goodwill with which it started a few years ago. It has been propagated as one of the best methods for free SEO. However note that Google lays a lot of trust on editorial links from articles, and these links are gaming that trust. Guest blogging has provided a new business model for freelance writers, copywriters, SEO agencies, Internet marketing firms, and in general people looking for free back links from top websites. MORE >>

Google’s expanded sitelinks give sites greater exposure for branded searches and the ability to dominate the page one results above the fold. User reactions have been mixed so far (some find them overwhelming or borderline obnoxious) but Google is touting the user benefits and the expanded sitelinks appear to be here to stay. As can be seen Google typically pulls in about 30-35 characters for each snippet: This gives new importance to the first several words in the META description tag on those pages. Do Google’s Expanded Domain Results Apply to News and Video Listings? MORE >>

News Organizations on Google+: Which Pages Get the Most Engagement? Ways that Social Media Impacts SEO. Social Media Questions Publishers Should Be Asking Themselves. SEO Metrics for Publishers: How are You Tracking and Measuring Success? Publisher Survey: Reddit Traffic Way Up, Digg Way Down. Ways that Social Media Impacts SEO was the big winner in terms of social traction; 500+ tweets is a lot for me. As a side note, I also wrote five columns for Search Engine Land this year on enterprise SEO, which was a good experience. Publishing MORE >>

If you have a website, or have been given charge of your client’s website traffic as part of your broader PR responsibilities, then you know all too well the importance of ranking high in search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo. To do this, you need to know a little bit about SEO (Search Engine Optimization), something that has increasingly become an essential part of a PR practitioner’s toolkit. The following is a ‘main process breakdown’ involved in SEO for any current website, and what you should look to do if you are wanting to undertake SEO as part of a PR campaign. MORE >>