It’s hard to keep up on the latest thought leadership, ideas, trends and news in the web marketing industry, which is why we bring you the Final Lap each month. Each member of Pole Position Marketing Pit Crew, and the office alter ego, Max Speed, bring you their winning article to help your business.
Topics include SEO, paid search, usability, link building, local search, content marketing, social media and other areas of marketing and business. Plus, you’ll find articles that have earned “honorable mentions” and are also worth a read. Enjoy and feel free to comment with your winning articles.
The Winner’s Circle
Stoney deGeyter, Lead SEO & CEO
- How To Troubleshoot Google Authorship Issues, A Step-By-Step Flowchart, by Janet Driscoll Miller
Having trouble with your Google authorship? Janet takes you step by step on how to troubleshoot authorship so you can get it working right for your blog. A must-read guide for everyone who takes authorship seriously, and if you’re serious about your web marketing, that should be you.
Mike Fleming, Analytics, PPC & Conversion Strategist
- Conduct Market Research in a Single Afternoon With the 80/20 Rule, by Perry Marshall
Maybe the biggest mistake in marketing is the inability of brands to differentiate themselves from their competition. This article provides some easy (and free!) ways you can do just that online.
Deb Briggs, Content Marketing Strategist
- Image Optimization: How to Rank on Image Search, by Dave Davies
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but optimizing the images on your site does have a cost in the amount of time it takes. If you’re going to invest it, Dave tells you what you need to consider, from what to name the image to ALT text attributes.
Kathy Gray, Social Media Marketing Strategist
- Facebook Admits Organic Reach Is Falling Short, Urges Marketers to Buy Ads, by Cotton Delo
Are we really surprised by this? Facebook is a business. Businesses need to make money. It would be foolish to think that any marketing channel would stay free forever and underlines the need to take control of the one space you own on the web, your website. Social networks may come and go, but a blog with a well-nurtured community and email lists will always be yours.
Max Speed, Pole Position Marketing’s Alter Ego
- Ron Burgundy’s Year in Review
Illustrious anchorman, Ron Burgundy, reports the top internet searches of 2013 in this Yahoo! video. Here’s hoping Capt. Diaper Pants and twerking don’t make the 2014 list!
Honorable Mentions
- Long Live the Social Media Manager, by @engagementlabs
- How click-to-call generates sales, by Dan Matthews
- 9 Free Sites to Promote Your eBook, by Ann Smarty
- Google+ & SEO: How Google+ Impacts Search Results, by Eric Enge
- The Multi-Platform Majority Has Arrived. Are You Ready?, by Eli Goodman
- What Google ‘Hummingbird’ Means for Your SEO Strategy, by Asher Elran
- How to Make Your Slides Mobile-Friendly, by Andri Kristinsson
Share your winning articles in the comments below.