So let’s get moving and see what was shared in the latter half of January 2012:

6 Reasons To Bid On Branded PPC Keywords

View this news item

While more about paid search than SEO, there are some good SEO nuggets of info in this post that was written by the boss man here at Amplify. One nice nugget? If you bid on branded keywords in paid search and have a high position in organic search, you get a nice bump in click through rate and conversion rate! How much? You’ll have to read the article to see.

.htaccess Files For The Rest of Us

View this news item

I’d like to think most SEOs know what an htaccess file is and what it does. I’d also like to think that most SEOs could give specific recommendations of what to include in that file instead of just “you need 301 redirects.” If you don’t know much about htaccess files or need a nice refresher, this is a fantastic resource.

What’s New With Sitemaps

View this news item

The Google Webmaster Central blog keeps us up-to-date with some recent changes they’ve made with information they’re presenting about your submitted sitemaps in Google Webmaster Tools. I’m loving the new visualizations they’re showing!

Google – Page Layout Algorithm Update

View this news item

Google rolled out a new algorithmic change that looks at the layout of the webpage and the amount of content you see on the page once you click on the result. If you tend to have an excessive amount of ads “above the fold”, Google will start to dock you in the organic search listings, as they want to show relevant results to users. Google is reporting that this algorithmic change is affecting less than 1% of searches globally… so, really, if you’re just going overboard with the ads, then this might affect you.

21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic

View this news item

This post is a BEAST! And it beasts, too! Presented are some sure-fire ways that you help increase traffic to your blog. It hits on everything from performing keyword research for topic ideas to content syndication. A lot of these tactics, I would think, a lot of bloggers already do… but they don’t do a good enough job at to really see the results.

4+ Recommendations To Enhance B2B SEO Initiatives

View this news item

This article hits on four things marketers can implement to increase search referrals as well as help promote link building and social sharing. The author information tagging item (with using the rel=author tag) is something that we really are pushing to our clients.

Anchor Text Distribution: Avoiding Over Optimization

View this news item

This was a quality YouMoz that was posted recently that goes over some good facts on how to properly define an anchor text optimization strategy. Geoff Kenyon suggests a 7:3 ratio (non-targeted keyword in anchor text to targeted keyword in anchor text) and presents some data that he has collected.

My Own Personal Christian Reads…

I’m currently reading Equally Shared Parenting, as my wife and I have decided that this is the kind of parenting style we’re actually kind of already exhibiting and wish to really pursue it.

Readers Read… (So I Don’t Have To)

What have I missed? Did you read anything really awesome in late January that you’d like to share? Please let me know in the comments!

Creating Content: Staying Creative & Becoming Search Engine Marketing Wise

View this news item

Shameless self-plug, but this post rocks. I created this post specifically for folks who are content creators to show them in a fun way that hey, you can really make anything interesting and exciting. Also included are illustrations by me that, I’ll admit, took me way longer than they should have.

Comparing Google Trends for Websites and Google Analytics Data – 2011 Edition

View this news item

This was an interesting post done by Dynamical (if I were them, I’d preface the company name with “radical” for any and all mentions – Radical Dynamical) where Ani López compared actual Google Analytics data versus what Google Trends was giving him. He did this back in 2009 and reported that things weren’t matching up very well. Well, it looks like Google is doing a better job of matching up the data… so the short of it is that Google Trends is now showing more reliable data than ever before.

SEO + User Experience: Like Peanut Butter & Chocolate

View this news item

Old news but new video! Ben was able to speak at the 2011 Seattle Interactive Conference and recently a video was made available for those who not attend to view the session he was in. We may be a bit biased, but Ben’s presentation certainly was the best of the bunch. Plus – if you end your speaking gig in a session with, “Boom!” (at 25:24) it pretty much guarantees you to be a speaker at that conference for life. Fast forward to 17:30 to see Ben’s presentation.

Intermission

We at Amplify like to be an organized bunch. That’s why Ben was recently interviewed about how, as a small business owner, he uses calendars to great success. You can check out that fantastic article here.

Cascade Content for SEO

View this news item

Aliza Earnshaw of AboutUs informs us about how adopting a cascading content strategy can help improve the reach and visibility of articles that you write. Not only that, but search engines use social signals to help determine rankings… so a solid cascading content strategy can help you with search engine rankings as well.

Counting to 10 the Google Way

View this news item

The always funny Dr. Pete over at SEOmoz shows us how the first page of Google really isn’t the “top 10″ anymore; it’s the top 10 PLUS some. In one example, there were 16 actual listings on the first page! So why are there more results on the first page of Google? Hint – universal content. Also – the context of the search query. If someone is searching for “pizza”, then naturally, Google will show them results with a strong preference for listings that have Google Local flair (address stuff), some quick hits from their Google Image findings and even news that features the word pizza!

M-M-Megasitelinks

View this news item

Google announced megasitelinks which, as you may have guessed, is an improvement to how their search engine chooses sitelinks to display for any given listing in the organic search results. They called this an algorithmic update for selecting sitelinks but megasitelinks will also show sitelinks specific to the searcher’s metropolitan region location. So we’re getting even more personalized with search results than ever before.

21 Types of Social Content To Boost Your SEO

View this news item

Jordan Kasteler shares 21 different types of content that tend to be content types that end up being successful viral content. You can’t create a piece of content with the attention of it “going viral”… but you can set it up to have the greatest chance possible of doing so.

My Own Personal Christian Reads…

My coworker Ryan gave me “Game of Thrones” which is the first entry in the “Song of Fire and Ice” series by George R.R. Martin for Christmas, as I very much enjoyed the first season on HBO. So I’m slowly making my way through that.

Readers Read… (So I Don’t Have To)

What have I missed? Did you read anything really awesome in late December / early January that you’d like to share? Please let me know in the comments!

SEO vendor to you, the content creator: Our keyword target for this month is: “floor washer”. We need content with this keyword. Go!

…

What the heck are you supposed to write about “floor washing”?

We’re talking about washing. For a floor. How exciting can you really get with that?

Well… what would you say if I were to say, “Extremely exciting”?

Seriously! We can find some fun topics to write about for just about everything.

OK, try me.

(Your Suggestion Here)

How (Your Suggestion Here) can help you survive a zombie apocalypse. (ok, the zombie thing is played out, I know)

(Your Other Suggestion Here)

Five reasons why (Your Other Suggestion Here) can help you win over Charlize Theron’s heart.

(Your Silly Suggestion That You Suggest Because You Want To See How Creative I Can Be)

Ok, ok, ok, you get the picture. Let me spell this out in plain language:

You can make any topic entertaining.

Any topic, anytime, grandma. All you need to do is think outside the box a little. Put on your thinking cap and start thinking a little creatively. Go to your creative place –

In no particular order: my wife, child, hockey, soccer, Indian food & unicorn

- and think about how your topic might relate to something people know, like, etc. You can seriously tie almost anything together with, well, anything.

Case in point: The Oatmeal. Just see a sampling of what he produces to see the crazy things he comes up with. While he’s not doing it necessarily for gain in search engine rankings, you can still get some ideas as to how loony his brain works to come up with ultra-creative stuff.

How does he come up with this stuff?!

People like entertaining. People like weird. Naturally, this means people love weird, entertaining content. But not everything needs to be entertaining; it can also be informative.

Kevin Rose is looking at something a different way. And people found that interesting.

Hey, this is stuff I already know… but it’s presented in a cool and interesting way (great job with this, Search Engine Land!). SHARE SHARE SHARE

Let your mind wander when brainstorming topics to write about a certain subject. You can tie almost everything together in some way, shape or fashion.

Well…

Ok, maybe almost everything together…

So at the end of the day, you can make any topic fun or entertaining or even a little thought-provoking and informative. It’s all about how you shape it and present your content.

SES Chicago 2011 Wrap-Up

View this news item

Our team member here – Ashley Kennedy – was given the opportunity to attend SES Chicago this month almost free of charge. She compiled a massive amount of take-aways from the conference and presented them in a blog post she wrote on this very blog.

Ten Recent Google Algorithm Changes

View this news item

Matt Cutts put together 10 recent changes that have been made to Google Search in October / November. Included are some tweaks to how Google ranks fresh new content in results and better page titles being displayed in search results.

Google’s New Algorithm Update Impacts 35% of Searches

View this news item

Google’s all about bringing the fresh. Tech Crunch wrote up a nice article about what kind of searches are being impacted.

Lessons From Google About URL Lengths

View this news item

What’s better – a long URL with a lot of keywords in there or a short one? What’s considered “long”? John takes a look at how Google has been making their own URLs and came up with some observations. He’s thinking too long of a URL could potentially be a negative ranking factor. Also – URL length affects usability; if you have a super long URL, it could affect sharability.

Duplicate Content in a Post Panda World

View this news item

Perhaps the longest blog post I’ve ever read about duplicate content. Set aside a half an hour and do yourself a favor and read this piece. This is basically a post that covers the state of duplicate content in November of 2011 – what it is, why it matters, the penalty for having it, etc. It’s a great read.

My Own Personal Christian Reads…

Honestly? I have literally had zero time to be able to read anything for pleasure recently. Sad, but true. Have any of you readers read anything compelling lately? Please do suggest some books!

Readers Read… (So I Don’t Have To)

What have I missed? Did you read anything really awesome in November that you’d like to share? Please let me know in the comments!

We need someone with a minimum of 1 year of experience who can step in and make a contribution right away. The ideal candidate would have advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office software and would thrive working in a small agency setting.

Check out the job posting to apply: SEO Specialist.