Don’t have the time to read all the marketing news, blog posts, announcements, and other content related to SEO/social media/online marketing published each week?
I’ve got you covered.
I sift through trillions (well, hundreds) of online publications to stay on top of marketing news that might affect your online business.
Let’s start with the news from Traffic Generation Café.
At TrafficGenerationCafe.com
Why Broken Link Checker Doesn’t Work and Free Alternatives
This week, Google’s John Mueller has an awesome line in a response to a Google Webmaster Help thread question about broken links.
John wrote, “The web changes, sometimes old links break. Googlebot isn’t going to lose sleep over broken links.”
However, he also added: “If you find things like this, I’d fix it primarily for your users, so that they’re able to use your site completely.”
One of the usual suspects to check broken links on your WP blog would be Broken Link Checker plugin.
However, in this post I explain why you shouldn’t use Broken Link Checker and give you free alternatives that won’t drain your site resources.
Google/Search
Google is rolling out new Panda update! Started earlier this week and is expected to be complete by next week.
Google sent out hundreds, if not thousands, of manual action notifications to those participating in Private Blog Networks used to manipulate their rankings. Even Matt Cutts, while on extended leave, had something to say about it. (sound like he’s itching to get back?)
Google announces Structured Snippets - and takes even more incentive to click on a search result away.
Mozcast has noticed a pretty significant jump in the number of in-depth articles being displayed in the Google Search results. I thought this project was all but forgotten by Google… (you can learn more about in-depth articles here)
If you are using (of thinking of using) large popups: according to what Google’s John Mueller said in the recent Google Webmaster Office hours, sites that display large popups as soon as a visitor loads a site could trigger the above the fold layout algorithm penalty.
[share]By the way, you should share this post right now before you forget - much appreciated![/share]
Social Media
Ever wonder which Facebook post types perform best? Hint: the ones with the greatest reach yielded the least engagement.
And how about Google+? Is engagement affected by whether the post was reshared or is an original post? Find out here (in comments).
By the end of the year, Hootsuite plans to give businesses the ability to offer customers complaining on social media, the chance to call customer service directly about the issue. This was one of those ‘How on earth do they do that?’ moments for me…
Photo sharing service TwitPic will live on thanks to acquisition.
New social media network: Ello. Difference? No advertising. Or so they say anyway. Of course, brand pages seem to be allowed; isn’t that a form of advertising? There’s a way to do it though, if you really have to.
On a Side Note…
If you find tremendous value in my Weekly Marketing Skinnies, like thousands of other readers of Traffic Generation Café do, you should consider joining them and sign up to receive the weekly notifications of when a fresh Skinny is published.
Plus, you’ll get complimentary access to my “Mommy, Where Does My Traffic Come From?” traffic hacks report and traffic hacks newsletter:
"Ana has a unique insight into running an internet business."
- Yaro Starak, Entrepreneurs-Journey.com
Needless to say, your information is completely safe with me.
See you in your inbox!
Marketing This & That
The Yahoo Directory is to close: once the Google of its time, the Yahoo Directory is finally coming to the end of its slow death.
Here we go again: yet another security vulnerability - Shellshock server vulnerability. This is even more serious than the heartbleed vulnerability that swept through the Internet couple of months ago.
Thank You
To all of you who mentioned Traffic Generation Café in any share or form in the past week, my whole-hearted THANK YOU.
Traffic Generation Café would NOT be what it is today without you.
Here are just some of the mentions I came across in the past week:
7 Actionable Tips You Should Use Today To Improve Your Blog - Andrew Warner at shadeofinfo.com
No Thanks G+, Keyword Relevance, Impress Googlebot, Speedlink 39:2014 - Francisco Perez at iblogzone.com
12 Reasons No One is Sharing Your Blog Posts - Brittany Bullen at mommybloggeracademy.com
8 Action Tips For Guppy-Bloggers In An Ocean Of Sharks - Lorraine Reguly at aha-now.com
The Howdy Neighbor Technique - Kevin Duncan at beabetterblogger.com
Why I Don’t Worry About SEO for My Business To Business - Don Purdum at unveiltheweb.com
How Indians Earn Money Online & How You Too Can - Prince Molak at onlinemoneydon.com
Have I missed your mention? Let me know in the comments!
Want to see your name here? Mention Traffic Generation Café in your next blog post!
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To an even better next week,
Hi Ana,
I’m a little late this week, but I got to catch the Marketing Skinny and it didn’t disappoint. I checked out that link you mentioned about Broken Link Checker and you make some really interesting and note-worthy points.
What I find really concerning is the CommentLuv links. And I use CommentLuv so if it’s not checking that, that’s a problem. Thank you for that post and also for mentioning me alongside with some other pretty great bloggers as well.
Truly appreciate it.
I am a little (or a lot!) late myself catching up on comments, Andrew - I suppose we are even then. lol
If you use CommentLuv Premium, then it does have a new feature to checking for broken CommentLuv links. If you use the free version… well, it’s a doozy.
Great round up this week Ana. I’m very interested in the new structured snippet tool so it was interesting to read about that in more detail.
Thanks for coming by, Kostas; pleasure as always.
Thanks for referencing the article I wrote for Harleena’s blog, Ana.
Be on the lookout for a pingback on Tuesday from Wording Well. I am going to include a follow-up post on the “sharks” I included in the image in my guest post. 🙂
I’m sure Harleena appreciates the mention, too.
You’ve been a fountain of information for many people, Ana, and continue to be one. Thanks for being a fabulous YOU!
Unbelievably late response on my part, Lorraine - thanks so much for being so generous with the mentions!
Ciao, Ana!
I couldn’t agree more with what you’ve pointed out in this blog post. Excellent tips, I must say. 🙂 Love keeping up to date with what’s happening on the Web at your place because I love your perspective.
Wow, I disabled my pop up a few months ago, and am glad I did. I do have a slide out, bottom right that activates at 60% scroll, don’t think that will get me pinged.
I do use Broken Link Checker and have my assistant take care of this weekly. I don’t allow links in my comments, so this is a huge plus in dealing with spam, that’s for sure.
Ello? Will have to check it out.
Oh goodness, Shellshock - will be checking my hosting to make sure they’ve got a patch for this.
Love your site and the value you continually bring. Thanks so much! - Carol 🙂
I am sure you’ll be fine with your popup, Carol.
No links in comments? I am sure it helps tremendously - both with broken links and spam.
So sorry for the late response; thanks for coming by!
Hi Ana,
Great roundup, as always - and thanks so much for the mention of Lorraine’s post 🙂
Yes, everyone is Panda! Panda! Gosh! Most blogs I visit are writing about it, though it’s not affected those who are going on the right lines I guess - I don’t see any drop in my ranks - so I guess it’s all safe and ok for me, but there are many who are affected and would need to find ways to get better now.
Thanks for all the other post links, I think most of these I followed up when you shared on G+, while the rest - for my weekend 🙂
I took so long to respond to your comment that Panda was replaced by Penguin… lol
Oh well; thanks so much for coming by - as always!
Hi Ana,
Good to catch up with the news I missed. I can always count on you for that.
So happy to hear that popups are being penalized in some way. It’s really ironic because I just started testing them on a handful of pages on my blog. lol Good thing I made a list of those pages so I can take the popup off.
Btw - I added a link to your blog in the most recent post on my blog. It’s a guest post from Tim Soulo of Blogger Jet about Twitter mistakes and it’s getting a ton of traffic. (see item #8).
Thanks for the skinny my dear! Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
I don’t think popups are out by any stretch of imagination, Ileane - only the big annoying ones that stare you in the face the second you enter a website.
Thanks for letting me know about the link (and you know you can always add a link to your blog in your comments?!); will definitely check it out.
Great point Ana. It’s ironic that people typically over-react whenever Google says not to do something. Take guest blogging for example - it’s been months since Matt Cutts talked about guest blogging and people are just now starting to realize that he didn’t mean ALL guest blogging.
But in this case, it doesn’t really matter what Google says about pop-ups. Try visiting the Forbes website - I wonder if Google is going to penalize them - and a bunch of other news sites that have a pop-up as their homepage.
Norbert says
Hi Ana,
I love reading your weekly marketing skinny. Great insights.
Heard of the Panda Update earlier in the week. Never knew PBNs were targeted. I know of guys who’re ranking high using those.
Been tempted to get some for my niche site project before but looks like Google is catching up.
PBNs are definitely something to stay away from, Norbert.
Howdy Neighbor!
You’re very welcome regarding the mention, Ana. Thank YOU for the link! I appreciate it. 🙂
Have a blessed weekend, Ana.
- Kevin
lol, Kevin - you as well.