May ’12: Best Search/Marketing Posts

Here’s my roundup of the best search/marketing posts I found and read during May. 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

• Mike Blumenthal: Google + Local: Q’s and some A’s
• David Mihm: Rankings on Google+ Local: Some Observations
• Nyagoslav Zhekov/NGS: 8 Ways to Recognize Fake Google Reviews
• AMA Shift: Respond to Yelp critics with patience and restraint
• David Mihm: The Worst Kept “Secret” in Local Search: My Thoughts on the Impending Plus-Places Merge
• Mike Blumenthal: What Should You Tell A Client When Google Loses Their Reviews – A 4 Part Plan
• Phil Rozek/Local Visibility System: 12-Week Action Plan for Google Places Visibility

SEO

• Geoff Kenyon/Distilled: Common eCommerce Technical SEO Problems
• Carrie Hill/SEM Clubhouse: SEO Friendly Site Design – From the Ground Up Part 1
• Adam Audette/RKG: SEO and the Flight To Quality

PPC

• Andrew Goodman/Traffick: Top 5 Worst Practices in Paid Search
• Jasmine Aye/Distilled: 8 PPC Spring Cleaning Necessities

Social Media

• Marie Page/Smart Insights: How to get more visibility for your Facebook Page through understanding EdgeRank
• AJ Kohn/Blind Five-Year-Old: How Big is Your Social Echo?

Blogging

• Jill Carlson/SocialFresh: 5 Easy Fixes to Make Your Blog More Shareable
• Daniel Tynski/Blueglass: 6 Reasons Why You Should Quit Blogging
• Mitch Joel: This Blog Sucks (And You’re Probably Not Reading This)
• Marcus Sheridan/Sales Lion: What Does the Face of the Blogger of Tomorrow Truly Look Like?

Design & Usability

• Rachel Nabors/UX Booth: Comics and UX, Part 1: Cross-disciplinary Techniques
• Shelly Kramer/Marketing Profs: 12 Annoying Things About Your Website That Drive People Away

Content Marketing

• Joe Pulizzi/Junta42: 12 Content Marketing Challenges that Stop Epic Content Creation
• Toby Murdock/SEOmoz: How to Build and Operate a Content Marketing Machine
• Brian Clark/Entreproducer: The Jedi Master Approach to Content Marketing that Converts

General Online Marketing

• Patrick McKenzie/Kalzumeus: You Should Probably Send More Email Than You Do
• Chris Garrett: How to Make Your Site the Destination for Your Market
• Danny Sullivan/MarketingLand: The Verge’s “Scamworld” Profiles “Internet Marketing” Schemes You Should Avoid
• John Doherty: Shut Up About Yourself