At this week's SMX East conference in New York, Tony Wright, CEO and founder of Wright IMC, spoke during a session on SEO correlation and causation factors. Wright told attendees that his idea of SEO is less about studying for correlations and more about focusing on the "four Cs" - code, content, connections and conversations. As Brafton reported, other attendees in the session ... [more]

Having a healthy library of incoming links is crucial to effective search engine optimization. Google is now changing the way it evaluates incoming links from subdomains, counting them as internal links.Previously, only links that began with the business' exact domain name would be classified as internal links. Under the new system, however, even subdomain links will be counted ... [more]

External link building is considered the most challenging part of SEO, according to recent data from MarketingSherpa. The organization's 2012 Search Marketing Benchmark Report reveals that 75 percent of marketers cite link building as difficult. This week's SES San Francisco conference tackles the problem of link building head on, and search experts in attendance have offered ... [more]

Businesses looking to boost their SEO in the post-Panda search space understand that quality content marketing is key to Google rankings, and good site and social content could attract links from mainstream media sources. The 2011 Arketi Web Watch Media Survey indicates 91 percent of journalists search the web for story ideas, and businesses that offer compelling content and data ... [more]

Google began to crackdown on the practice of purchasing of links to boost search results earlier this year, with even major brand names such as JC Penney being punished as a result. Now, the search engine has sent out a wave of email notifications to webmasters who have bad links pointing to their websites.Search Engine Land reports the messages inform website owners that poor-quality ... [more]

At SMX Advanced, experts weighed in on sustainable ways marketers can increase their inbound links, and one conclusion was that infographics aren't dead. Because infographics can sometimes seem "scheme-y," experts reminded marketers of the value of high-quality content and useful information diagrams in driving inbound links. Justin Briggs of Distilled shared a case study of ... [more]

The search engine marketing industry is expected to hit $19.3 billion this year, according to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO). In its State of Search Marketing Report (conducted by Econsultancy), SEMPO found that 86 percent of search professionals invest in SEO, making it the top search marketing tactic.Search engine optimization is the clear leader ... [more]

Google Realtime search has added to the list of social forums it culls results from when users are looking for the latest updates. This means searchers who want the most recent buzz - and marketers trying to monitor social mentions of their brands - can now keep track of online chatter across more social platforms with Google Realtime search.The news first broke on a Quora thread ... [more]

Social media may be all the buzz, but a recent report from Outbrain indicates that search portals are still the leading traffic drivers to content sites. Social traffic is on the rise, but search drives 300 percent more traffic than social media, according to the report.For its Content Discovery and Engagement Report for Q1 2011, Outbrain assessed 100 million sessions across its ... [more]

Search marketers must think beyond traditional search portals when optimizing branded content, agree experts at ad:tech San Francisco. In a session on modern search engine optimization strategies, gurus advise marketers to take on a "holistic" approach to SEO, using keywords anywhere they put content on the web.Lee Odden of TopRank explained that brands will see improved traffic ... [more]