The rules of search have changed. In fact, they change on a daily basis. But never so dramatically has rank been uprooted since the explosion of social media. Social media sites, especially the power houses of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, have become backlink central for affecting organic search results.Social media’s influence on driving business via the web is expected to surpass search engine optimization (SEO) in 2013, according to eMarketer. Web marketers and PR professionals must pay attention to how social media affects search, and ultimately how it can change the rules of online visibility and (online) brand engagement.Prior to Facebook’s takeover of the online universe (800 million active users today), online visibility in natural search was a sum of several measurable components: SEO site compliance on site structure and meta tags/content, directory link submissions and qualified and relevant site/blog linking.

I was surprised and a little shocked after reading 10 Old SEO Methods You Need to Stop by Greg Habermann. The title is totally misleading as in the article he says do a Press Release if it is newsworthy but the title appears like one should stop doing PR completely. He proudly announces that his SEO strategies are Panda/Penguin safe. While going through his site I understand that their major business is Adwords, PPC and Social Media which are the best friends of Google. The most important reason behind punishing Ezinearticles or e-how by Google is the fear of losing their PPC market share to Content rich sites. Let us do a detailed analysis on the so called OLD SEO Methods.

I don’t know about you, but nothing gets me more frustrated than seeing people online whine about how, “It’s sooooo hard to build links these days!”Really – if anything – the number of link building opportunities available today has only increased as new and different types of web properties have proliferated online!So if you’re one of those people on the link building fence, take a look at the following list of 101 different link building techniques I’ve compiled. Surely, you’ll find something in there to get your creative juices flowing!

Back in January we published a news article about preparing yourselves for social media marketing in 2012. Based on the statistics and our own experience we framed a social media marketing schedule and a strategy. We advised you to have active and regular presence in Facebook, Google plus, twitter and 10 more social media sites that you can pick based on your target audience. Maintenance of Facebook, Google Plus and twitter with daily update posting was the top of the list back then. Now we are half way into 2012 and we have a new strategy to be added to the top of the list. This strategy is not a new concept but has been overlooked through all these years. It’s infographic promotion that we are talking about. The success of infographic promotion was proven back in 2010 when a case study reported the success of their infographic going viral and getting brand exposure through link backs from authority sites such as CNN and New York Times. We all know search engine algorithms and social media trends have changed a lot through 2010 to 2012 and so can the Infographics produce the same results today?

Marketers often seek out benchmarks by which to measure the effectiveness of various marketing programs as well as their performance vs. industry competitors. In some cases, this information can be quite useful and enlightening, for example, when looking at average email open rates by industry.In other situations, however—such as when looking at what percentage of total website traffic should be driven by organic search—the answer is a clear but not helpful “it depends.”

There are a number of, what the industry calls, “black hat” SEO techniques that companies (and even some SEO Consultants) may be tempted to practice so that they can try to push their rankings for target keywords to the top of the Google search results.Unfortunately there are still those SEO firms who guarantee their clients number one position on the first page of Google for target keywords, or maybe in some instances they are a little more cautious and don’t quite guarantee number one, but insist that they can get the client’s web pages onto the first page within a limited period of time.An SEO consultant’s responsibility is to apply the most ethical principles in an attempt to improve the client’s rankings on search results for their target keywords, in particular by overtaking their competitor’s rankings, without having to apply any black hat techniques.There is no guarantee that search engine optimisation can get you on the first page, especially when the keywords that you are targeting are extremely competitive, with many pages already being optimised extensively for these search terms across the web. Google has said that it can detect spam (i.e. where black hat SEO has been used to manipulate rankings on their search results) anywhere between a couple of days and up to six weeks. Should Google detect such spam, then it may penalize the page or alternatively drop it from its index entirely, depending on the severity of the “crime”.

For ages, Google has encouraged people to build links in order to rank well. But in the wake of the Google Penguin Update, it’s become painfully clear to me how many people have failed to understand the inherent quality links part of that link building message. Consider this a wake-up call. Yes, you want links, but links that are hard to get, that take effort to obtain, that you’ve somehow earned, not “easy links.”Yesterday, at our SMX Advanced show, I went on a rant about this. All my frustration recently that so many seem so confused just bubbled out. You can listen to that at Websimple, if you like. Consider this article the tamer, more coherent version. But the core message is the same. You don’t want links. You want good links. And sadly, I think many people have completely lost track of what a good link is.

It’s been three and a half weeks since Google unleashed the wrath of Penguin upon the world, and if like me, you suffered at the wrath of what is usually considered a rather docile and friendly bird, you may be feeling some undue hostility towards Penguins right about now. Fear not I’m here today to give you a plan of action to get your site back on track to page 1!

Even if most small businesses don’t understand search engine optimization (SEO), that doesn’t mean they can’t be helped by it. For those who don’t know SEO from their CEO, it is in essence a means of improving the ranking of your business in the Google search algorithm. This in turn, can help a business move up in Google’s search listing. Sonam Lama, CEO of Achieve Visibility, a SEO site specializing in helping small- and medium-size businesses, says there are a few quick fixes that small businesses can take to help improve their Google rankings. The best part is they are free and simple.

You have heard it all before – Social media is an important element to your marketing strategy. You have heard it so many times in fact, that you are now blind and deaf to the topic. So Class of 2012 pay attention!I assume you are one of the following three groups regarding social media and its effect on SEO.You/your company:Use social media and understand its importance.Use social media and have no understanding how it affects SEO.Do no social media and have no understanding how it affects SEO.If you somehow fall into “Do no social media and understand how it affects SEO” then I hazard a guess you are just about to launch your social media marketing campaign. I hope so.