We know backlinks are the lifeblood of SEO and unfortunately, they are harder and harder to come by these days. Search engines have devalued directory links, paid links and even links from press releases. Blog comments are mostly “nofollow” and unless you’re Microsoft, you’re never going to get your own page on Wikipedia.
In addition to Google pulling out of China, the other notable news last week was about SEMPO’s “State of Search Engine Marketing Report 2010″. The 112-page report takes a detailed look at SEO, paid search and social media marketing, and is based on a recent survey done on 1,500 advertisers and agencies in 68 countries.
I wrote previously about how a company cleverly defended its online reputation by focusing on a strong site and addressing all its PR issues there, instead of the traditional ORM idea of displacing negative results with spam using SEO. The recent introduction of search query suggestions by the major search engines reinforces this practical approach further.
I’ve just begun looking at Twitter (yeah, yeah I know) and looking at its merits from an SEO perspective. It’s an immensely popular microblogging service, although, a recent study by Nielsen found that 60% of users gave up after the first month.
