The Sunday 7: SEO Must Reads (October 16th Edition)

Read up on the top 7 must reads for SEO from October 9th - 16th curated by Michael King (iPullRank)

Mike King

I was involved in a lot of great SEO conversations this week especially with the Distilled Meetup being this week. Tom Critchlow, Avi Wilensky, Dan Christo and myself had some great forward thinking conversations about the State of Search. It was a great time. Anyway, so here are this weeks 7 must reads for SEO enthusiasts and professionals:

7 Technical SEO Wins for Web Devs by Paddy Moogan. Paddy presents a great guide for Web Developers to understand how their work factors into the SEO process. Why I think it’s important: Developers typically just make things work, they don’t understand the implications of the different options they choose and this guide makes it very clear that devs need to build things within certain specifications rather than “just make it work.”
Are you placing too big of a bet on social media’s direct impact on SEO rankings? by Wil Reynolds. Wil examines the impact of social media on rankings with hard data rather than conjecture. Why I think it’s important: Wil’s study makes it clear that links are still far and away the currency of success for SEO.
Phrase Based Indexing and Semantics by Justin Briggs. Justin talks about Google’s improvements in semantic analysis and natural language processing and how it impacts Google’s ability to detect spam and determine content relevancy. Why I think it’s important: I think this post is an eye-opener for many people in their understanding of how Google is weighing the content more than just for just keyword density but for the semantic value or meaning of the words written. Very well done.
How To Take Your Keyword Research To A Higher Level by Tom Schmitz. Tom provides a methodology for successful in-depth keyword research. Why I think it’s important: A lot of people think keyword research is just popping open the Adwords Keyword Tool, I like how Tom encourages people to take a step back and understand the subject matter and utilize several tools to get a truer understanding of the keywords.
The Meta Keywords Tag Lives At Bing & Why Only Spammers Should Use It by Danny Sullivan. Danny explains how Bing is using the Meta Keywords tag….in 2011. Why I think it’s important: I think it’s important to see how much Bing doesn’t get it. =) Ok, being serious, it’s important to know that you are aware that there is a “major” search engine still using the meta keywords tag so when your client says “but I heard Bing is using it” you can help them understand why it’s still not useful to their cause.
What I learned about my company when I lost my desk by Wil Reynolds. Wil talks about the insights he gained about his employees and processes once he was forced deeper into the trenches due to the space limitations of his growing business. Why I think it’s important: Wil made the list twice this week because this post is a very insightful and eye-opening message for what it takes to be a successful leader — listen to the people you work with.
Speedy Site Prospecting Using Social Metrics & Natural Language Processing by me. I know what you’re thinking, “how can he list himself?” Well if I wrote it doesn’t that mean I inherently think it’s important? =) The title is pretty self-explanatory, I’m talking about a tool called SiteSkout I’ve built for quickly identifying useful pages on a site using social metrics and the Textwise API for Natural Language Processing. Why I think it’s important: It helps speed up the process of site prospecting and gives you insight very quickly for outreach link building. I presented this in hopes that people will do more effective link building by removing much of the manual labor.

Until next week!

Author
Recent Posts

Mike King

Mike King is the Founder and CEO of iPullRank. Deeply technical and highly creative, Mike has helped generate over $2B in revenue for his clients. A rapper and recovering big agency guy, Mike's greatest clients are his two daughters: Zora and Glory.