Testing 1-2-3 is this thing on?? It’s time for another edition with ‘7 Days of Search and Social‘ – it was a great week out there last week my friend. There were lots of great posts, videos and of course my fav, patents (Google at least) to keep this geek going. I should also note that this week’s offering is ‘Drama Free’ which is great too (Less Drama – More Geeking). I hope things are well on your end and that you find at least a little sumpn’ sump’ from this weeks offering (ya better, plenty in there).

And away….

Lead Story

You can’t handle the links!

To get things rolling this week I thought that I’d highlight an interesting discussion about how contextual links, as opposed to links at the end, in a post affect the usability of an article. The original report stated that they are a distraction that takes away from the focus of the piece.

Some details;

Me? I am with (link goddess) Debra on this one. I personally think that the in context links are fine, I actually prefer them. I mean, as one person said, “it’s HTTP… as in HYPER TEXT”. It’s part of the cornerstones of the web. Duh. Anyway, read the posts and decide for yourself.

Away we go….

Quick Nav Links – Talk of the Town – Geek Central – Social Search – Going Vertical – Videos – Tools – Patents -

Talk of the Town

Why Link Builders Don’t Share Their Top Secret Strategies – was an interesting post that had me thinking about how so many still look for magical link building (aka lazy). Is it just me or are there not better ways (content strategy + syndication + outreach) to getting the job done? Huh…

There’s No Such Thing As Advanced Link Building - Deb is everywhere this week. This one is a nice follow up to the above and likely more in-line with my thinking. Then again, Debra is a content centric linker, so I would fall in line easier with her thinkng.

Wrong Page Ranking in the Results? 6 Common Causes & 5 Solutions – this is a good one for such situations. Well done and worth reading, another tool in the box.

It Isn’t Good Content Unless it’s SEO’d Content – this post really does speak to the core of SEO – the point of it all. That we’re here to better enable the findability of the content on a website. Nice work from Stoney.

State of UK Search: Guava and Econsultancy Launch 4th Annual Report – Nichola has a nice overview of the recent report out from Econsultancy. Interesting data for the management types.

Google (SEO) Organic CTR Segmented by brand, Product and location – while this one seemed to fly under the radar last week, it is certainly a well put together bit of research for those in the ecom world.

Newbie SEO Part 1: Google Analytics Custom Reports for SEO – I promoted this one from the Tools section as I am a big proponent of having good analytic chops for your SEO. If you’re still not ramped up, this post is a great place to start.

SEO Advice: Make a web page for each store location – Matt Cutts had a post that is some interesting advice for those working with multiple location and geo-local with their SEO efforts.

How to Create World Link Maps With Majestic SEO & Google Spreadsheets – what can I say? Wiep never fails to offer great stuff when he gets down to it. Lesson; don’t just blog for the sake of doing it, have a purpose.

Find A Mentor (Or Some Mentos) – not entirely SEO related nor geeky, but there are a few folks on the list that have helped or influenced me over the years. So it makes the list. We really do need more mentors these days.

When Google Bans Its Own Discussion Group – and last but not least comes from the irony file. It is fun when Google smacks itself down (get yer head outta’ the gutter).

Hacking is NOT black hat SEO dumbass – it seems there are some folks in the security world that equate black hat SEO with hacking. Misguided or playing the FUD card? You decide…

The reasonable surfer; makes for unreasonable thinkers – another rant against those that would take each patent filing that comes out and treat it as gospel (from yours truly) and a lesson in how to assess patents.