5 for Friday — Links, Stories, & Posts for Your Weekend
June 1st, 2012 by
We’re back with another 5 for Friday, a collection of the freshest and tastiest SEO news stories, blogs and recommendations from across the web!
Most importantly, this happened. Now for the rest:
Beluga Analytics Offers Demographics & Stats Behind Your Guiltiest Pleasures — AimClearBlog.com
We’ll start today with something really fun: Grooveshark released Beluga Analytics today, which is a wealth of demographic data using music as a touchstone for marketing data. Did you want to know what game systems Faith No More fans likely have? Maybe not, but beyond simple interest, this data gives a really interesting and sneaky way to target people for advertising. If you see that a certain band’s fans are disproportionally predisposed to own a certain product, targeting them with your Facebook ads might give you business you never thought existed.
Google+, Calendar to get events feature — ITProPortal.com
Amidst the hubbub of the Google+ Local Release, events were announced for Google+. Integrated with your Google Calendar, the new events will integrate Hangouts and other Google+ features, allowing you even more personalization and real-life interaction. This expands the social layer to yet another Google property, giving users more reason to join Google+ and differentiating the network further from the social media giants it competes with.
Helping to Create Better Websites: Introducing Content Experiments — Google Analytics Blog
Many marketers use A/B testing to make sure they’re giving their users the best possible experience. For years, Google’s Website Optimizer tool has been a standalone product, separate from analytics tracking. But now, Google Analytics, which has undergone a swath of changes lately on other fronts, is taking over for the Optimizer. With Content Experiments, Google has streamlined the process of conversion optimization and added in the power of their analytics platform to make it even easier to test. If you’re interested in A/B testing, you can always check your gut with Which Test Won, which puts out a new A/B test every week to test yourself against the users.
Why You Should Care That .Com Can Be .Anything — LawLawLandBlog.com
Top-level domains, like .com or .org, are now open to almost anything. For $185,000, you too can have a personal TLD! Google recently bought a bunch with $9,000,000 of pocket change. LawLaw Land talks about the ramifications for business, though most businesses just aren’t big enough to handle such a problem, much less even worry about the proposition. Still, it’s worth checking this list of new TLDs to make sure that you don’t want to get in touch with the owner of the generic TLD for your industry to strengthen your brand.
Facebook Allows Varying Levels of Admin Access — MarketingPilgrim.com
In the light of Google+’s recent expansions, Facebook gave itself new tools to help make it stand out too. Facebook expanded its options for page administration this week, allowing you to set up different kinds of managers to monitor and interact with your fans on the site. Combined with scheduled posts, Facebook is clearly seeking to edge out 3rd-party management software, which has been shown to have a lower CTR anyway. Keeping it all on the platform gives small businesses on Facebook an easy way to meet best practices.
There’s a little lagniappe this week for our readers, too: I got to write a guest post for Practical SEO, which focuses solely on stuff you can do today to help your internet marketing efforts.
3 Steps to Protect Consumer Privacy and Be FTC Compliant — PracticalSEO.org
Recently, The FTC and White House have been clamoring for more protections for consumers on the Internet. A 75-page report yields three actions to take to make sure you’re doing the most to ensure your online customers are aware of their ability to control how their data is used on the web. Revising your privacy policy, setting up a Do Not Track cookie on your site, and avoiding “gated communities” focused on privacy-eroding sign-ups gives a marketer or business owner a set of tools to both follow the FTC framework and increase the trust of your visitors.
