December ’12 (and final): Best Search/Marketing Posts
Note: For six years, I’ve ended every month with a list of the best articles that I read that month about online marketing. The first one was published in January 2007.
The last one is being published today.
As I look at my travel schedule and other commitments for 2013, not to mention the recent promotion and new responsibilities that I have with both Search Engine Land and Marketing Land, I’m afraid I won’t have time to read as much as I’ve been reading. If I’m wrong, I’ll resume these end-of-months recaps; but for now, I think stopping is the smart thing to do. Sorry to all of you who have enjoyed these recaps over the years. I hope I’ll be able, instead, to highlight great articles on other sites with short, individual blog posts rather than curating a big monthly list.
– Matt
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Here’s my roundup of the best search/marketing posts that I found and read during December. If you’re new to this blog, this is a monthly feature that began way back in 2007. You can find earlier “Best Of”s for each month in the Link Roundups category archive. I never include my own posts in these end-of-month recaps.
Local Search
- Miriam Ellis/SEO Igloo: 2013′s Top Local Search Ranking Factor: Honesty
- Bill Slawski/SEO by the Sea: Google Tackles Geographic (Map) Spam for Businesses
SEO
- Justin Briggs: 33 Links & How To Get Them
- Mike Blumenthal: What Makes for a Good Author Photo in the Local Results? (Part 2)
- Mike Blumenthal: What Makes for a Good Author Photo in the Local Results? (Part 1)
- Russ Jones/SEOmoz: The Broken Link Building Bible
Social Media
- Sharon Hurley Hall/Unbounce: The Rookie’s Guide to Instagram for Business
- Mars Dorian/Business Grow: A cautionary tale: Putting your business in the hands of Facebook
Blogs & Blogging
- Ryan Hanley: How I Grew my Insurance Agency’s Blog Traffic 467% in 2012
- Sean Work/KISSmetrics: The KISSmetrics Guide to Blogging
- John Doherty: Do The Work, or Quit Blogging
- Doug Rekenthaler/MP Daily Fix: The Dumbest Excuse SMBs Use to Avoid Blogging
- Marcus Sheridan/Sales Lion: A Rant on Why I Disagree with so many Blogging and Content Marketing Experts
Online Marketing General
- Oli Gardner/Unbounce: Top 20 Conversion Insights of 2012
- Kyle Rush: Optimization at the Obama campaign: a/b testing
Congratulations on the promotion, and good luck on the new job duties!
What would you say are the top 10-15 SEO and Content Marketing blogs that you find consistently most interesting, helpful, or inspiring beyond the ones you edit or manage?
I’ve always appreciated your work, Matt. Thank you for sharing so much terrific insight over the years.
Gib – thanks so much.
Daniel, there are too many good sites/blogs to make a list like that. I always suggest that people subscribe (email or RSS) to the Search Cap and Marketing Day newsletters that we do through Search Engine Land and Marketing Land. All of the day’s news from around the web collected in two newsletters.
http://searchengineland.com/searchcap
http://marketingland.com/marketing-day
I may be biased, but I think those are the best way to keep up with daily news and find the best content around the industry.