Memo to search engines: we’re smart enough to look at more than five search results above the fold.

As the web has gotten more crowded, sites regularly expose us to dashboards crammed with information. Sometimes there are more than a hundred links or cues on a page, and we are getting very good at scanning and choosing.

Somehow, the search engines haven’t figured out that sophisticated users prefer this. Perhaps it’s due to their user testing, perhaps there are high value searchers (in other words, shoppers) who are more likely to click on ads if there are only five (or …

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We know that different links pass wildly different values for SEO purposes. Sometimes you build links that shoot your website to the top of the rankings, while other links are worse than worthless. The value of a link varies according to different factors, including:

• Internal vs. External Links
• Authority and Trust of the Linking Domain
• Position of the Link on the Page
• Alt Attributes vs. Text Links
• … and many other ranking factors.

What happens when you build new links on old pages? Often when link prospecting, we SEOs look towards older, high-authority pages for link targets. Do …

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I sat down at the antique desk in absolute agony, my groin screaming. My jaw was clenched tight as a drum. My fingers were curled as if I was shot with a poisoned dart, hovering over the keyboard. For a brief moment I looked like a 17th century composer gone mad with delirium. I slammed my bony fingers onto the Macbook and willed them to move.

Slowly, like a baby caterpillar struggling to escape its pupae, words appeared. My jaw relaxed, releasing the built up tension in my neck and spine. A small smirk spread slowly across my countenance. My …

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It’s human nature to look for the easy way out.

We dream of the “big break” that will carry us away from our current troubles forever.

Then, along comes a guy like Steven Pressfield.

He’s the type that tells you that this single day is what matters. That money and recognition come and go, but your desk and your work remain.

He’s the type that shatters your illusions about the very nature of work, and the reasons why you do what you do.

And he gives you hope, because the work that you’re doing is actually far more important than …

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I just had to share this achievement by Mike Masnick as he might not see it himself.

The Techmeme page updates extrememly frequently pulling in stories algorithmically with some additional human curation but I have never seen one writer with a lead story and 2 additional reference posts without any additional “noise”, unless you count the larger child branch below. He has one post in that child branch as well.

I am not going to link to the posts… that would most likely spoil the “triple rainbow”.

Even more remarkable:- none of the articles were “fluff”, and Mike wrote 14 …

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Search, plus Your World

The big news this week centers around the changes that Google has rolled out related to Google+ integration with search, which as the tech press buzzing.  Google is aiming to bring users additional search functionality that is incorporated with their Google+ profiles.   The official Google blog states that “you should be able to find your own stuff on the web, the people you know and things they’ve shared with you, as well as the people you don’t know but might want to… all from one search box.” Industry observers are saying it’s too much Google+, all …

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My fiance and I were scammed yesterday. I’ll give you a brief run down as I don’t have much time to post tonight:

We spent two hours at a seminar because we were told that we would be given $600 worth of Tungsten rings and 2 nights 3 days at a hotel for free. We were originally told that the Seminar would take from 1 to 1.5 hours, but it purposefully was stretched to just over two hours for two reasons: One, it made us tired and after a full day at work, that creates an environment ripe for poor …

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Wow…this is pretty…um…transparent.

According to this post, Google was caught scraping Mocality, calling the listed businesses, soliciting that they move to Google “Get Your Business Online”, disparaged the directory they were scraping in the client call, and then lied about having the permission of the directory they were scraping to try to con businesses into working with Google.

A few select quotes:

There are absolutely no costs, and this will be agreed on before it’s put on… No one will come and tell you like Mocality used to do, someone tells you it’s free and then they

…

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This guest post is by Herman Diaz of Herman Dias likes writing about SEO So Easy.

Would you let Google, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, YouTube and other sites control your online business? Or would you like to control it yourself?

Would you want to be in a position to lose your online income suddenly because Google decides to drop your rankings, or because Facebook shuts down your fan page or YouTube shuts down your channel? Of course, you’d like to control your own business and not be at the mercy of other sites.

To run a sustainable business online you …

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6 Lead Nurturing No-No’s to Avoid in Your Email Campaigns

Lead nurturing is a fundamental must-have for great inbound marketing. According to Gleanster Research, 50% of qualified leads aren’t ready to buy. This means lead nurturing campaigns are necessary to help move these 50% of leads through the sales cycle to make them better ready to make a purchasing decision.

That said, implementing an effective lead nurturing email campaign can be much harder than it sounds. There are several variables to consider when understanding just what makes the perfect lead nurturing campaign for your business and its prospects. …

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In my opinion, your ideal link building strategy depends from three major elements: the size of your Budget, the quality of your Content and the quality of your Outreach. The link building tactics that you can use depend on how much (or how little) you have available from each of these three elements.

In general, when you lack one (or more) of the elements, you’ll have to compensate it with one or more of the others.

So if you have maximized Budget, Content and/ or Outreach, these are the link building styles that would probably suit you best. (click to …

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Do you want to write fresh content or good content? Seems like a strange question, right?

As an aspiring writer you’re taught that fresh content is where it’s at, it’s where you’ll get your big break. But is that true? Not really.

Sure, fresh content is the way to go, but only if you can somehow uncover content that no one has written on yet, and a quick look around will tell you that just about every topic under the sun has been written.

So how do you write good content if it isn’t new content?

1. Find a New …

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I got an email the other day from a client that made me smile. Here it is:

Marcus,

Check it out man! I’ve turned my home page from two columns to three columns and now the layout is perfect. I’m getting good at this stuff man!!

Jason

Ahhh yes, my client Jason is now experiencing what I call ‘The Paintbrush Effect’.

The Paintbrush Effect

What is the paintbrush effect?

Well, look at it like this: Most business owners are artists when it comes …

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We are constantly asked what people can do to optimize their YouTube videos as well as their channel. In this post I am going to outline how to optimize and create titles.

I am not going to get into content creation, how to make videos in this post, or other optimization tips. I will be doing that at a later date. These tips will only work for videos which you feel people would like to watch and search for.

Optimize the Title – In order to optimize the title, you should decide which keywords you would like to optimize for. …

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5 Real Life Examples of Fantastic Calls-to-Action

Last week, we rounded up some of the most impressive landing pages out there and broke down why they rock from both a user’s perspective and a marketer’s perspective. But before visitors even get to your landing page, they’re usually beckoned by a call-to-action. And it better be pretty awesome to get them to click.

We’ve discussed the elements of an effective call-to-action before, so now it’s time to find real life examples of awesome calls-to-action (CTA) that can inspire your own designs. Take a look at what some popular B2B, B2C, and …

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