The key trends in SEO for 2012 are:

1. Panda and the quality content concepts behind it are likely to continue to be ever-increasing in their importance to successfully ranking in Google. It cannot be stressed highly enough that quality content, which is loved by users, is going to be one of the main elements of search engine success over the next year or two.
2. Aside from quality, content will also have to be fresh, useful and shareable to social media to be successful in 2012 and beyond. If content investment is not yet prioritised in the online budget, it should be.
3. One of our team members calls the sets of updates promoting brands to the top of SERPs “Branda”. This upwards shift in SERPs dominance of big brands for non-brand searches will continue. Some people claim favouritism for big companies, but it is likely to be down to increased engagement by brands with the web and an increased sophistication in the way they engage.
4. Google’s core page layout has changed significantly over the last few years. The “10 Blue Links” remain but are perhaps less of a feature as other content modules, both search and monetised, have elbowed their way onto the page. Even with Google’s renowned uncluttered layout, for some searches, especially in the US, it is now not uncommon for the first of the 10 blue links not to be visible above the fold. It is likely, especially with the inclusion of social snippets that this trend will continue and that fewer websites will be seen above the fold.
5. Facebook continues to go from strength-to-strength but has a capable competitor now in Google+, backed by search. We expect there to be an even bigger push for the lion’s share of end user ‘eyeball time’, with new features and new ways to engage. In line with this, we also expect there to be ingenious new ways of integrating social ads into the experience. Make no mistake, the social battlefield and the influence of social on search, both directly with the social graph, and indirectly between competing websites is only going to get bigger.
6. A lot of people were hoping this day had come a lot sooner, but it seems with the adoption of HTML5 into certain aspects of Google’s content, that HTML5 is finally coming of age, again. It’s most significant advantage is that it can run natively on mobile devices. Look forward to increasingly interactive sites coming this way using HTML5.
7. After a few false starts, it looks like Google has finally tapped the social zeitgeist with Google+ and their business offering, Business Pages. We expect because of the tie-up with Google and the technical construction of the content that a Google+ presence will be an invaluable aid to a successful SEO campaign. It is likely that Google+ will start influencing personalised results sooner rather than later. Please note, between the first draft of this document and publication, Google launched Search, Plus Your World, integrating results from your social circles as well as traditional search results.
8. As mobile continues its stratospheric uptake, so we expect Google Places to continue to develop quickly, especially if it ties in closely with the social graph and personalisation. Expect a search for “good coffee shop” to yield Places results personalised with comments, observations and recommendations made by your social circle.
9. Matt Cutts managed to worry everybody by talking about Google being interested in what can be seen on a page “Above the Fold”. And then they went and released the update mid-way through January 2012. This is likely to be a continuing developing area over the next couple of years, and is indicative of the development of Google’s crawling technology and their alignment with what they perceive the end-user as wanting from a “good website”. Make your content load fast and keep the juicy stuff above the fold.
10. Freshness is a big topic and look towards Google, and others, trying to refine the freshness developments that took place towards the end of 2011. Expect more queries to deserve freshness and for the freshness of results to have a more accurate lifespan.
11. It seems with the release of schema.org that rich snippets are another of those technical elements which are at last coming of age – and they seem to have been a long time coming. Expect the various rel=”” tags to gain in importance over the next 12-24 months as their usage becomes more widespread. As they tend to add code bloat, server speed and hosting infrastructure will be vital to successful implementation of the tags.
12. Citations, even though they have disappeared from Places results, will remain as significant signals of relevance for local search.
13. On-page factors which have not traditionally been seen as SEO factors will rise in importance. Elements like CRO, bounce rates, and user engagement may well all become more important metrics included in the ranking algorithm.
14. Key to multi-national websites will be the implementation of the link rel and href.lang attribute. This will ease a site owner’s fear of duplicate content and provide more accurate website targeting to different end–users who may speak a common language. Getting the website structure and code right to cover these eventualities will become more important.
15. Traffic analysis will be made immeasurably harder by the rise of “Not Provided” as the search query from securely logged in Google users. Early estimates have put the % of queries affected as high as 20%. This could even be a pre-cursor to the data being available to premium Google Analytics users. Some elements of the data may be available from Google Webmaster Tools, but it is not specifically identifiable and comparable.
16. The iPhone changed the way we used mobile phones. Then came Siri. It is expected that voice search, and other types of augmented reality search will grow in importance in 2012. They’ve been here for a while already but expect them to take off this year – especially in Local search. You never know, this could even be the year that mobile barcodes / QR codes actually become more than a geek tool. Of course, these services still need to have trusted sources feeding them relevancy and authority signals, which are still expected to be drawn from your website and social graph.
17. As mobile search gains pace, expect the user-experience to rise in importance for mobile sites to be successful in search.
18. Links are dead, long live likes! This isn’t quite true (yet), but certainly expect ‘likes’ to strengthen their relevance signals to search engines. As these signals get stronger, expect ‘like’ spam schemes to become bigger and more commonplace before they are algorithmically taken down by Google’s spam combat expertise.
19. +1 will become the equivalent of bookmarking a page and Google may merge Reader into G+ to create your own personalised shareable news feed.
20. Facebook has extended its Open Graph in January 2012 to include more business related signals on people’s timeline pages. It will be interesting to note how this plays out into expanding the social graph.

21. The 4G mobile phone network is on its way, bringing with it faster data speeds and phones which are also capable video cameras. Expect a rise in “vlogging” over the coming 12-36 months which may, like in all the best sci-fi movies, eventually replace the written word.

Source from Bruce Clay Australia’s SEO Factors and Trends report – http://www.bruceclay.com/au/bruceclay_aus_seo_factors_trends_2012.pdf

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Pinterest Marketing Techniques and Tips : 33 ways to maket your business in Pinterest.com

1. Use your business name as your username or profile name on Pinterest.
2. Describe your business and interest in “About” Sections.
3. Connect with your Facebook and Twitter accounts and share the information. 
4. Add your website URL in your profile.
5. Pin lots of stuff and categories.
6. Start creative and interesting board names.
7. Tag your pins by using “@username” in your descriptions.
8. Comment on other people’s pins.
9. “Like” other people’s great pins.
10. Pin from lots of different sources and variety is important on Pinterest.
11. Do lots of “repinning”, just like a Retweet on Twitter.
12. Share your pin into your own blog posts.
13. Pin videos.
14. Add a description under your pin an image.
15. Bookmark and share your pins to social media.
16. Use Pinterest’s embed option to publish pins in your blog posts and website pages.
17. Use Pinterest iPhone app.
18. Optimize your website content for Pinterest.
19. Create Pin for seasonal or holiday that related to your brand.
20. Follow Me on Pinterest button.
21. Use keywords in descriptions of pins, so pinners can find your images and boards when they do their own searches.
22. Make sure you’ve got a Pin It! button added to the footer of each of your blog posts so your readers can quickly and easily share your content on Pinterest.
23. Your Pinterest page has its own RSS feed
24. Create your own Pinterest shop.
25. Pin tutorials on your boards.
26. Integrate your Pinterest account with Facebook’s timeline.
27. Connect your clients Pinterest
28. Create boards for the classes and webinars you teach and present yourself.
29. Create boards for referral sources, affiliates and strategic partners.
30. Use client stories as Pinterest boards
31. Create coupons and add them to your boards.
32. Offer exclusive Pinterest promotions.
33. Run a Pinterest contest.

Share your thoughs and comments on pinterest marketing..

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Silicon India Event Present Start Up City Chennai 2012 for Start Up Companies

The biggest event for Startups is back!

After the resounding success of previous editions in Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi this time we are back with the Startup city in Delhi on November 5th.

This time Silicon India have over 20 ‘cool startups’ presenting their products and services.

At the event:

• Watch live product demonstrations
• Get a peek into cutting edge technologies
• Lay hands on the best-of-breed solutions
• Meet young, energetic, passionate geeks
• Experience the culture of innovation in small companies
• Listen to Visionary Keynotes and In-depth Panel Discussions.

Confirmed speakers:

• Sridhar Vembu, CEO, Zoho Corp
• Gopal Srinivasan, Chairman & Managing Director, TVS Capital Funds
• Venkatesh Peddi,Assistant Vice President, IDG Ventures India
• Rama Bethmangalkar,Principal , Ventureast
• Kannan Lakshminarayan,Founder & CTO , Vortex
• Rahul Chowdhri,Director, Helion
• Kalpathi S. Suresh,Chairman & CEO, Kalpathi Investments
• Kailash Katkar,Founder, MD and CEO , Quick Heal Technologies
• Amit Patni,Co-Founder & Chairman, Nirvana Venture Advisors

Startups exhibiting at our event this year:

Cogzidel, Consultancy Services, Learn and Publish, Change bad to good, Kode Blink, FarasBee, IPintentio, VIT University, BizSensors, Airpath, Mobi Medha Technologies, GQuotient, Condor Technology Associates,Vivid InfoTech, Empwise, Precious Microtech Pvt. Ltd, Knowlarity Communications

Click on below link to Register FREE.

http://www.siliconindia.com/events-register/startup-city-Chennai-Startup_City_Chennai.html

TIME: 9.30 AM to 5:00 PM
WHEN: February 25th, 2012
WHERE: Green Park, N.S.K. Salai, Arcot Road, Vadapalani, Chennai

This is undoubtedly the biggest event for startups! While we would like to meet you all at the event.

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Bruce Clay Australia’s SEO Factors and Trends report – Download from http://www.bruceclay.com/au/bruceclay_aus_seo_factors_trends_2012.pdf

Its packed full of information on the key factors in 2011 that impacted search engine optimization, including tips on how to address them, plus a look into 2012 trends and how to prepare.

The 25-page SEO factors report is a handy reference guide for professionals and business owners who want a high-level overview of the issues in search marketing that must be addressed for online success.

Some of the highlights of the report include:

• A look into the integration of search and social, and how to ensure your business is prepped for the growing popularity and changes in Facebook, the Google+ community and its business pages, and Google’s +1 button.
• Major changes/collaborations of search engines and what they mean to Web marketing, including the development of Schema.org, the completion of Yahoo’s search data transferred to Bing and the end of Yahoo! Site Explorer.
• How to handle the changes Google is making to improve its search results by targeting low-quality sites, paid link schemes, and duplicate content and “freshness” issues.

The report also highlights some trends to keep an eye on in 2012:

• Why Google’s Panda algo update will only continue to be more and more important in SEO.
• What types of content you need to succeed.
• How big brands will fare over other businesses in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
• Why you can’t ignore Google+.
• The long-awaited adoption of HTML5 into Google’s content.
• The layout of the Google SERP and how it’s evolving to show less and less websites above the fold.
• The growth of mobile search and its impact on things like Google Places, vlogging and the need for mobile-ready sites.
• The rise of new on-page factors in SEO that are becoming more important than ever before.

The report is free and available for download here.

Source : http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/2012/02/seo-factors-and-trends-report-2/

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A question that recently came up was this:

If an incoming link to a site is listed in the footer of an ebook and is in a PDF doc, is that link read as an incoming link with Google?

Yes. Google does count links in PDF files as incoming links.

See the following Google search example:

link:www.adobe.com filetype:pdf

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1B3GGGL_enUS238US238&q=link%3Awww.adobe.com+filetype%3Apdf&btnG=Search

This search combines 2 operaters;

the link: operator and filetype: operator.

Searching for links to www.adobe.com that are only in PDF documents.

The results of the search prove beyond any doubt the answer provided is correct.

“Google does count links in PDF files as incoming links.”

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Focus is to always create high quality, useful content that will please visitors. But your title needs to be compelling and it needs to read well and it should make sense to the reader.

Create content that merits true relevancy and deserves to rank well and stand the test of time.

One of the more advanced approaches involve artificial intelligence and semantics. How easy is it to find words that are truly related based on what a search engine understands by its gathered data?

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For most aspects of living our lives, using a logical approach delivers much better results than taking an illogical approach. Performing certain tasks in a methodical, step by step approach only makes sense, especially in cases where you are taking specific actions to reproduce a certain result over and over again.

However, the process we refer to as keyword research is one place where we can benefit by taking more of an anything goes approach for research. If logic rules in your research (which for most of us it naturally does) then you often discover the same keyword phrase rends that any other logical person might be guessing at or researching.

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• Free entry for SEMPO.org members.
• For non-members, Rs.400 per person. It’s a door donation to meet the expenses towards lunch and logistics.

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An internal link is an in-coming link from within your own site and although it does not have as much weight as an external in-coming link, it still can help.

The Google PR of your internal pages help with internal linking and, therefore, the way you pass and distribute Google PR throughout your site via absolute vs. relative URLs does have a small influence on ranking.

It is always still important to link within your own site in a way that makes sense to your visitors and not just with search engines in mind only.

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Every merchant should create keyword lists for affiliates to work from. A keyword list helps both PPC and natural search affiliates. By defining themes you can reap traffic benefits that your own site does not focus on.

For instance you may sell Ipods and accessories but you cannot expect to hit every keyword or phrase and be in the top spot. Have your website focus on your branding, customer service, unique sales proposition and user-friendly content.

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For link text coming into your Web site, try and focus on you your researched phrase 80% of the time and allow for variance of synonyms about 20 % of the time.

Many times, people only focus on building links to their home page. Don’t forget to deep link to valuable content within your site too.

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One of the single most important aspects of gaining your SEO comfort level is to exercise your skills by reason of use (or practice.)

The easiest way to do this is to create a few of your own high quality informational sites and you can make money at the same time with affiliate marketing. I want to encourage you in this direction because it will set you free in terms of proving to yourself that you CAN do it. The sooner the better.

Too often you have the new SEO focused on selling (before they know for a fact) that they can make a huge impact with their skills. Everything in order.

Do what you need to to prove to yourself you can do the job and then you’ll be ready to offer consultation or take on clients.

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Everyone knows that a Title Tag with your keyword phrase prominently used up front is important.

But did you know that it is also important that the first few prominent words in the beginning of your Title also be unique and original too (for each page.)

One of the things we often see is people have used the same Title throughout their Web site and may be wondering why they have been hit with a duplicate content penalty, even though there is no duplicate content on their Web site.

Keep each Title, Description and Meta Keyword Tag original and focused on the content of the page it applies to.

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Check your pages for opportunity to improve linking effectiveness internally by exploring those hidden little words that you can tend to use sometimes without thinking.

Although we know we need to use very descriptive verbs and phrases, there is often opportunity to improve if you really think to check.

For example try not to use terms within your links such as “Use”

“View” or “click here for more products.”

If you are referring to a phrase like “view the gallery” it is better than just a text link saying “view.”

But try and describe what is in the gallery too and you’ll define it even more.

For Example:

“View the home improvement gallery”

or

“View our wild bird feeder gallery”

On your product category pages, be sure you link to your individual pages with anchor text that truly contains more verbose descriptive terms that are genuinely meaningful.

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The Internet is constantly changing, but remember that the true goal of the search algorithm is to reward useful content and content of value. Invest your energy into creating strategies that are more than just “link building” and “keyword placement.”

Sometimes in our technical studies I wonder if we do not get so caught up in our hunt for new traffic, that we don’t really quite see the bigger picture. Algorithm are not there to work “against” you and keep your content from surfacing.

As important as fine tuning your specific SEO skills are, so is it important to understand that Search Engines are not the enemy, like so many others want you to believe.

You are not waging war against the search engines (in any place but your own mind.) And only that because someone told you that you are at war. It’s not true.

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In your last or current project, are you creating content that your visitor will be GLAD that they found? It’s good to examine our own work from time to time. Give it some thought and be brutally honest with yourself.

Are you creating that immediately assists in filling a specific search for information.

• Content of true merit.
• Something useful.
• Content that you can feel proud you created.
• Something helpful.
• Content of a nature that is so helpful, others may even want to link to it or Blog about it?

Never get tired of exploring new ways to add value to your work and in the future, you’ll notice that much of the junky pages that are thrown together by Spammers in a rush, will simply no longer be able to compete. Not in value, not in ranking and not in productivity.

But the content you create shall stand the test of relevancy for many years.

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Articles are the same as news. They come under the rules that apply to “syndicated content.”

They are both 100% white hat and search engines understand that both articles and news are created for the purpose of “syndication.”

Genuine articles are “written” to be published across many Web sites and they will never be penalized for duplicate content.

Duplicate content penalties primarily are triggered by people who may, for example only use the same content over and over just switching out a few keywords but not really writing anything that is original.

In short, some people are attempting to use the same old content over and over without ever really creating anything new or original.

If you are looking for short cuts, or grey area stuff, then your articles will definitely be penalized by the search engines.

But if you want more proof that search engines believe in and support ”article distribution” and understand the value of “syndication,” then check out the Search Engines “Creative Commons Areas.”

Both Yahoo and Google have Creative Commons areas where they not only will accept your articles but they encourage others to ”search for” and “use your original articles” so long as they follow the terms and conditions under the creative common license.

“If” article marketing was “duplicate content” or truly deemed as Spam, then why would the search engines themselves be offering up and also encouraging you to publish other peoples work?

Writing genuine, high quality articles will never get you penalized for “duplicate content” as long as you are doing it correctly. The search engines understand that both “articles” and “news” are fresh content that is meant for syndication.

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