Why is Content Part of a Smart SEO Strategy?

Over the last several years, search engine optimization (SEO) has matured quite a bit. Now, it’s no longer the practice of stuffing web pages with as many carefully-placed keywords as possible and hoping that Google notices. These days, it takes a much more sophisticated and refined approach built on fresh, original content that will provide value to visitors, while also attracting search engines and helping sites to move up the natural search rankings.

Quality is Key

Creating content for SEO today means going beyond traditional SEO practices like on-page keyword optimization or link building. Although both of these still play an important role in a business’s SEO success, they can no longer be relied on as the best ways to drive search traffic to a website.

As time goes on and technology gets more sophisticated, Google continues to push for a quality over quantity approach. Sites that offer visitors valuable content are going to be looked upon more favorably by the search engine, and will – therefore – appear higher in the search rankings. In Google’s digital eyes, this means providing high-quality, relevant content on a regular basis.

Obviously, what defines “high quality” content is up to the person reading or watching it, but that hasn’t stopped Google from trying to filter the stuff it finds to be the most beneficial to the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs). Some of the things that Google looks for to determine quality are longer content, images, videos, correct spelling, proper grammar, proper text formatting and, of course, links – including both outbound links to other high quality sites and inbound links (and social shares) from high quality sources.

It’s also important to remember that content must be relevant to the website publishing it and the people who are most likely to read it. This means staying around the general topic of the website (as in, only publishing content about tech gadgets on a technology review site, rather than – say – automobile parts).  This way, the search engines will see a common, consistent theme across all of a site’s content when they come to crawl it. Relevance is important to Google, because it means that visitors that end up at a website looking for information about a specific topic will be able to find it quickly once they get there and poke around.

Kinds of Content (And How They Help)

Admittedly, “content” is a vague term that can be applied to pretty much anything on the Web, in one way or another. But there are certain types of content that fit into Google’s loose criteria for “high quality” that can also help businesses move up the search rankings. The most obvious (and the easiest to produce) are blog posts.

It seems that every business has a blog these days (or, at least, they should have one) that allows them to consistently publish new long-form content related to their specific industries. With blogs, companies can satisfy both Google (and other search engines) and their target audiences by publishing original posts that provide readers with some kind of informative or actionable value. They also allow bloggers to stay on top of timely or topical news items – another thing that search engines like.

But really, the most obvious way that blog posts help improve a site’s search rankings is that they give writers more opportunities to insert relevant keywords into their sites in a natural, readable way that will attract the search engines and cause them register the site as being relevant to those specific terms. This benefit only grows and become more powerful as a site publishes more blog posts.

Blogs also provide businesses with a way to garner more backlinks from other high quality sites or blogs. This gives the business owner more authority with Google, makes the site more visible to its target audience and helps spread its content around the Web.

In addition, blog posts give companies content that they can push on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google +, in turn, giving their fans and followers a reason to visit their websites. Plus, when they like, share or retweet a company’s posts, it provides social signals that act as inbound links, which adds credibility to a website and results in another SEO benefit.

However, not everyone likes to read, so it’s worth keeping in mind that blog posts aren’t going to entice everyone in your target audience. That is why many businesses have started turning to infographics – large-format images that can be used to organize multiple data points on a single subject or topic. Many users like these because they can quickly read and understand a significant amount of information in a way that’s visually stimulating, making it easier to remember later.

Businesses like infographics because they represent a great way to increase traffic and to gain authority needed to help them move up the SERPs. Because of their visual nature, infographics (or well-designed infographics, at least) are far more likely than blog posts to go “viral,” meaning that they tend to receive more reposts and shares on social networks and other websites than standard blog posts. This results in more links, more traffic, a wider audience reach and, ultimately, more credibility with the search engines.

Content Optimization is the New SEO

Back when Internet technology and search engine algorithms where still in their infancy, web professionals tried to find crafty ways to artificially generate signals that would convince Google and other search engines of their credibility. This included tactics like keyword stuffing and low quality link building that were only concerned with manipulating the search engines into prioritizing a site in the SERPs. Nowadays, search engines take a much more sophisticated approach to the way they determine which sites should be given authority in their niches.

These days, search engines require relevant, high quality and fresh content that is published on a regular basis. This can be done in the form of blog posts or infographics, as well as other types of “viral” content, such as videos, slideshows and more. Search engines want to be able to provide their users with valuable information in the same way that businesses want to offer their target audiences something relevant to their interests. An abundance of quality content is the answer for both parties. 

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Panda Update: Cutts Call for Review of Site Content

Google’s maintains stress on “quality” of content with Google Panda-Index Integration

Google has always been pushing webmasters to better the quality of content on their sites, or face the penalty by being pushed to the far end of the search pages. Google’s “site quality algorithms” are designed to reduce the rankings of sites found to be hosting low-quality content as the recent Panda update tackles the difficult task of algorithmically assessing website quality based on content. What this means is that the sites with good “quality content” will gain their way up on to the first pages of search, enabling people (searchers) find sites with good quality first, which is, falling in line with Google’s overall intent of “enhancing the user experience.”

Cutts’s call on Content

Google’s Anti-Spam Chief Matt Cutts, in answer to a question on Panda’s integration in to Google indexing said, “If you are not ranking higher as you were in the past, overall it is always a good idea to look at the quality of the content in your site. If there is content that is scraped, or duplicated or not just not as useful ... (you should think of remedies like ) ....  Can I come up with something that is original, something that people would really enjoy …. those kinds of things tend to be a little bit more likely to rank higher in our rankings.” 

Panda Integrated into Google Indexing

The integration of the Panda into the normal indexing happened sometime in mid-March 2013.  Unlike the explicit, sudden changes that have hit sites with every Panda or Penguin update, the integration of Panda into indexing will be less noticeable though the site with low quality content are sure to feel the heat.  

In SMX West, Cutts revealed “In 2011, we launched the Panda algorithm change, targeted at finding more high-quality sites. We improved how Panda interacts with our indexing and ranking systems, making it more integrated into our pipelines… You are more likely in the future to see Panda deployed gradually as we rebuild the index. So you are less likely to see these large scale sorts of changes.” 

What this Means to webmasters

As sites with good content pick their way to the top in the search pages, sites with thin and duplicated content, scrapped content, outdated content, will be slipping down in rank till they become invisible on the search pages.  Getting right to the point, Matt Cutts calls for an immediate assessment of your site’s content, in case you have done everything possible including optimizing internal pages and carrying out a site audit in the recent past. What webmasters should do is replace old and thin content with quality content that is interesting, engaging and influencing. Google wants you to build the quality of content on your site, page by page, as just one page of bad content could pull the site down, altogether.

Here is the original Matt Cutts’s Q/A video on Youtube and the transcript below.

“Recently Google integrated the Panda update into the normal indexing process. Now, how will webmasters get to know their site is hit by Panda? And, if the site is already hit, how will one know the site has recovered from Panda? (after having done remedial SEO)

Panda is an update we rolled out a couple of years ago, targeted towards lower quality content. It used to be that roughly every month or so we had an update. We used to say there is something new, we’ve got a launch, we got new data and lets refresh the data. And it got to a point with Panda that the changes were getting smaller, more incremental we had pretty good signals… we pretty much got the low hanging winds. So there were a lot of really big changes going on with the latest Panda changes, and we said lets go ahead and rather than it be a discreet data push, ie. something that happens every month or so at its own time, when we refresh the data, let’s  just go ahead and integrate it into indexing. 

So at this point we think that Panda is affecting small enough number of webmasters on the edge. We put out a blog post, which I would recommend, penned by Amit Singhal. It talks about the sorts of signals we look at whenever we are looking to assess quality within Panda….basically we are looking for high quality content. And if you think you might be affected by Panda, the kind of over writing rule is trying to make sure you got high quality content, the sort of content that people really enjoy, that’s compelling, the sort of thing they would love to read, that you might see in a magazine, in a book, that people would refer back to, or send to friends, those sorts of things. And that would be the overriding goal and since Panda is integrated into our indexing that remains the goal of our entire indexing system. So if you aren’t ranking higher as you were in the past, overall it is always a good idea to look at the quality of the content in your site. If there is content that is scraped, or duplicated or not just not as useful…. can I come up with something that is original, something that people would really enjoy ….those kinds of things tend to be a little bit more likely to rank higher in our rankings." 

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How would fingerprint technology benefit iPhone 5S users?

Reports from factory production lines and leaked parts indicate that Apple is about to put a fingerprint sensor into its next-generation flagship iPhone 5S. But what exactly can a fingerprint sensor do for the average consumer?
 

What does it do?

A fingerprint reader or sensor does what it says on the tin – it scans your fingerprint and matches it to a pre-defined image of your finger. Since every fingerprint is unique, the system can then securely verify your identity. 

How does it do it?

A type of image capture system specialised for quickly capturing and storing the imprint of your finger will be embedded below a swipe panel – in this case possibly below the home button on the iPhone 5S – which the user runs their finger over. The sensor captures the image and software analyses it for the skin indentation pattern on your fingertip, comparing it to a set of pre-stored data and verifying your identity. According to a recent patent filed by Apple in Europe, the sensor will implement an RF sensing system that will not only accurately capture the ridges of your finger, but also image the live skin below the surface of your fingertip to prevent spoofing of the system with a Mission Impossible-style fake fingerprint. 

What will it enable?

Potentially, fingerprint readers could sound the death knell for passwords. The multi-character password is a failing piece of security, given that pretty much any password can be cracked by high-powered computers these days, regardless of how long or complex it is. Two-factor authentication, where another piece of the security puzzle, such as a secret code or key, is used to strengthen simple password logins is currently the best system on offer to consumers.

In theory, fingerprint scanners could allow users to completely remove the need for passwords, securely logging into their phones, and enabling higher security functions, which would be particularly useful for online banking and shopping without the need for two-factor authentication.

A built-in fingerprint scanner could also make the iPhone more amenable to big business for security reasons, although in reality, according to Matthew Finnie, CTO at Interoute, the owner operator of Europe's largest cloud services platform, "the smartphone is now intrinsic to how people work, so it's time for businesses to change".

"Rather than focusing on the security merits and nuances of the devices, attention should shift to how businesses should secure and control corporate data and make relevant parts securely accessible from anything, anywhere." 

Will it really work?

Fingerprint scanners in the past have been a bit hit and miss. The technology, although relatively established in industry and enterprise settings, has never really been available to the mass market consumer or on anything other than secure laptops. That's generally because it has been a frustrating experience for the end user.

If Apple manages to make the process of secure login via an in-built fingerprint sensor a smooth and seamless experience, it could revolutionise the way consumers use their phones and bring about faster, more secure platforms for developers to expand upon.

However, there have been rumours that the sensor Apple is expected to build into its next iPhone flagship has a limited use lifetime. For example, a rumoured 500-scan limit "could be used up in only six months, based on users accessing multiple accounts three times a day. This would render the scanner useless for the remainder of a typical mobile phone contract, potentially 18 months," according to research by David Webber, managing director of Intelligent Environment, a specialist in the financial security field. If a consumer keeps their smartphone for two years, as is the length of many mobile phone contracts currently, there is a possibility that the fingerprint sensor could fail, or cease to work leaving users stranded without access to secure logins for their phone, banking or shopping. 

What alternatives are there? 

Biometric authentication, where a unique part of your body's function is used to verify your identity, is a growing field. Many different factors can be used to securely identify the consumer. Iris scanners were once hailed as the holy grail of identification, but the technology required to scan an iris accurately is both expensive and often bulky – not something suitable for phones yet. Recently the unique rhythm of individual heartbeats has been pushed forward as another tool in the biometric armoury, with a bracelet such as the Nymi that monitors your pulse on your wrist, which would offer a much more realistic and consumer-friendly entry into biometric security.

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Apple's New iPhones Launch

At a launch event in Cupertino, Calif., on Tuesday, Apple unveiled its latest hardware, replacing the iPhone 5 with two alternatives: the high-end iPhone 5S, which starts at $199, and the cheaper iPhone 5C, which starts at $99.

 The big news, in short: The 5S has an unprecedented 64-bit processor and a fingerprint sensor on its "home" button, while the 5C has a plastic case and comes in a wide variety of colors. Both will go on sale Sept. 20 in the United States.

The iPhone 5C is, in the company's words, "beautifully, unapologetically plastic." The casing for each phone is made from a single piece of polycarbonate, reinforced with steel and containing an embedded antenna. As widely anticipated, it comes in a splash of color options: blue, white, pink, yellow, and green. Like the iPhone 5, it will have a four-inch screen, an 8-megapixel camera, and an A6 processor, along with a revamped "Facetime HD" front-facing camera and a slightly larger battery. The 5C will start at $99 with a two-year contract for a 16-gigabyte version. A 32-gigabyte version will run $199.

The iPhone 5S is the shinier, fancier sibling, billed as the world's first 64-bit smartphone. Its aluminum body will come in silver, gold, and "space grey." While it will still run 32-bit apps, Apple has redesigned the phone's native apps to run on the new, 64-bit A7 processor, which the company says will make it twice as fast as the iPhone 5 and 5C. The phone appears to be optimized for graphics and gaming, with a demo at the event prompting my colleague Farhad Manjoo to remark, "No joke: The gaming performance on this thing looks incredible." Battery life will reportedly be the same as in the iPhone 5, which in my experience has not been great.

The 5S also comes with something called an M7 motion coprocessor, which harnesses the phone's accelerometer, gyroscope, and compass to get a fuller sense of your movements, including the ability to tell whether you're driving, walking, or standing still. The camera has also been upgraded, with a larger sensor and the ability to take multiple photos in rapid succession and then choose the sharpest one. A two-tone dual-LED flash is meant to result in more natural-looking colors when you take a picture in low light. And you can shoot video at 120 frames per second, which can be played back in crisp slow-motion.

But the most novel feature is the fingerprint sensor. The touch sensor, built into the phone's main "home" button, allows you to scan your fingerprint so that only your touch will unlock the phone. You can also set it up to require your fingerprint rather than a password when downloading new apps or buying things on iTunes. To prevent someone from stealing your fingerprint, the scan is not copied to Apple's servers.

As with the iPhone 5 when it came out, the 5S will start at $199 for 16GB, $299 for 32GB, and $399 for 64GB, all with a two-year contract. While the iPhone 5 will no longer be produced, the previous-generation 4S will still be available, now free with a two-year contract.

The new phones will go on sale Sept. 20. That's two days after Apple's new mobile operating system, iOS 7, is scheduled to be available for download, purging the skeuomorphism from the iPhone's interface.

As usual, Apple executives were not at a loss for superlatives when it came to describing the new phone. Phil Schilller called the 5S "perhaps the most-forward thinking phone anyone has ever made." As for the 5C, Jony Ive weighed in with a somewhat Systrom-ian koan: "It's quite remarkable when something feels familiar and yet is new at the same time." Jony, I think the word you were looking for is "disappointing." As in, it's quite disappointing when a supposedly new iPhone feels so familiar.

Slow-motion videos and fingerprint sensor notwithstanding, the new phones may not have enough gotta-have-'em gewgaws to rebuild Apple's momentum. A dip in the company's shares on Tuesday suggests Wall Street, at least, was not overawed. On the other hand, the 5S seems to be quite a substantial upgrade from a technical standpoint, which should ensure that those customers who do upgrade are not disappointed. For now, Apple seems content to leave the gimmicks to its competitors—particularly Samsung, whose phones have been sprouting features like eyeball-tracking and optional $300 Dick Tracy accessories.

For a while there, Apple's products were both the most inventive and the most refined on the market. At this point, they'll have to settle for being the most refined.

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4 Reasons to Spend More on SEO

Google has made dramatic changes in 2013, with the May 22 Penguin update having the biggest impact for small business websites. After some severe reductions in traffic, some webmasters are at least seeing traffic increases in August due, in part, to a Panda softening from Google.

In response, many webmasters are making big shifts in SEO tactics. While long overdue, this is the right move.

Few businesses are looking to move to lower quality SEO services as they now fear Google more than ever. But small businesses run very close to the margin and traditionally resist increasing the SEO budget, regardless of the consequences. Here are four reasons why small business owners should reconsider.

1. Google Asked You To

While many will dismiss this as PR, Google has clearly communicated that they no longer will tolerate SEO tactics that used to work in 2008. Article spinning, keyword stuffing, excessive bookmarks, reborn domains, paid links, thin content, and duplicate content are all not OK.

Even if you haven't received an unnatural link warning, the writing is on the wall. Quality must increase for continued success in SEO. While this message is clearly self-serving for Google, it's important to respect their power in the industry.

2. Recovering From Google Updates is Expensive

There are plenty of websites that have partially recovered from Penguin downgrades, but each case is different. The level of returning traffic varies.

Technical issues on-site are the easiest to fix and should be addressed quickly using Webmaster Tools as the guide. Duplicate content needs to be removed immediately.

Keyword-stuffed titles need to be edited. Thin content, a favorite among many, should be replaced with real content marketing.

Off-site issues, such as bad link building, are particularly hard to fix. It is very ironic that firms now exist to send "link removal request" emails to other firms who were previously retained to build those links.

Small business needs to stop doing bad link building and embrace content marketing. They need to get creative and experiment with newsjacking.

All of these activities cost money. Smart business owners are thinking toward the future and deciding to spend more on SEO now (via higher quality services) to avoid repeating this activity in 2014.

3. SEO Has Merged With Marketing

Many small business webmasters were using a "set-it-and-forget-it" SEO strategy, believing that they need not worry about SEO after hiring a firm. This violates one of the major tenets of business process outsourcing, which is to outsource process and execution, but maintain strict performance monitoring and accountability.

It isn't surprising that many small businesses are feeling buyer's remorse, wishing they had done greater due-diligence in the vendor selection process and better understood the risks associated with SEO.

It should be clear at this point that SEO is no longer a technical exercise and is rapidly merging with marketing and public relations. Smart CEOs recognize the strategic importance of SEO in our digital world. For this reason, they find ways to amplify SEO in allmarketing activities. Ironically, many companies have SEO opportunities they don't harness.

For example, every employee should maintain a "work" Twitter account and share industry news, blog posts and company specials to help spread content. This type of integrated SEO marketing execution is the future, and will draw more budget dollars.

4. SEO ROI Remains High

The data suggests that SEO is still a great investment. This means that small business shouldn't necessarily shop for the cheapest SEO vendor, but consider the return they can make on their money if they spend more:

• SEO remains a very high ROI activity.
• The cost-per-lead for SEO is still very attractive.
• Google has significantly tightened the requirements for high-quality SEO.
• Integrated marketing strategies have big efficiencies.

Conclusions

All technologies and industries mature, and price-points typically change dramatically along the way. SEO is following the same playbook as most other young industries.

In the last few years we have seen SEO move from infancy to adolescence, with the Google algorithm updates as mileposts. While SEO will become more difficult and expensive to execute, the return on investment remains high for small business. In the end, ROI is more important than the absolute number of a budget line item.

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Great Social Media Content (checklist)

Interested in great social media content for your Facebook, Linkedin, or Twitter pages? No? You should, because social endorsements are very valuable and boost your SEO! Yes? Great! Here’s a list of the social media content ideas. Pick the ones that fit your product and target audience:

Product information as social media content

• FAQs
• Product videos
  • How To’s
  • Reviews & tests
  • Unpacking and first use
  • Use, maintenance, cleaning, storing, etc.
    (Tip: if you don’t have any content, you might be able to find it on YouTube)
• Infographics (here’s an example about SEO companies)
• Testimonials and quotes
• Top 10′s (Who doesn’t want to know the Top 10 sellers from Tim Horton’s?)
• Featured facts (Who else uses this product? What is the weirdest thing anyone did with it? Just how incredible is it?)

User generated content (UGC) for social media

• Polls, surveys, and quizzes (people love to interact with the brand they like)
• Images and video (customers using your product, celebrating the results, or even putting it in a blender)
• Contests (here’s another tip: share the results and a winner’s testimonial as well!)
• Thank You’s to your customers (e.g. when reaching a new level on Fiverr, reaching 1.000 Likes on Facebook, etc.)
• Thank You’s from your customers (a bit more informal than testimonials)
• Customer feedback can be a great way to engage loyal customers (e.g. players provide input on game development)

Provide service to leverage social media

• Discounts, special offers and coupons
• Updated blogposts (e.g. when Facebook changes their interface)
• How To’s (such as videos, manuals, screencasts, guidelines, forum help, etc.)
• Checklists (here’s our PPC and SEO checklists)
• White papers

Business information for your social media

• Presentations and screencasts (these are movies of presentations)
• News (e.g. events, results, product development, new features, go-lives, conferences, etc.)
• Awards (as long as they matter to your audience – not everyone is interested in ISO-certifications)
• Employee information (who are your customers dealing with?)
• Interviews (with clients, suppliers, experts, the board, etc.)
• Podcasts (as above, but with content that’s often updated)
• Images (of events, new HQ, concept art, etc.)
• Charity (How did your organisation make a difference?)

Great social media content is authentic!

Pick the topics that will interest your audience. Some content works better in some markets, but counterproductive in others. Use appropriate language and geotargeting if possible.

When it comes to good social media content, quality and relevance are key. Be authentic, be interesting and be concise. Once you’ve picked the content you want to push in your social channels, you should create a publishing calendar. Make sure you know where to find quality content, or that it knows how to find you.

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5 reasons why the US won’t go to war with Syria

Drums of war are beating loud, matched in turn by the high-decibel resistance of objectors, conscientious and otherwise. In the midst of this cacophony, Mr Obama is going to Capitol Hill to seek permission to bomb Syria. He is unlikely to get it. He is also unlikely to take any serious action against Syria without such license.

Contrary to the many who view the strikes as imminent and inevitable, Damascus will be spared that dreaded shower of Cruise missiles. Here are five reasons why Obama will lose the fight for the right to fight.

One, unreliable and unlikely allies. Left standing virtually alone on the international stage, Obama has been forced to look for friends in all the wrong places. The support of prominent Republicans like Senator John McCain and and House Speaker John Boehner has been tomtomed as signs of a likely victory in Congress — when the reality is a bit more complicated.

McCain’s investment in winning this vote is best summed up by photos of him playing poker on his iPhone during a Senate committee hearing on the proposed intervention. As for Boehner, sure he supports the resolution, but isn’t planning to lift a finger to help it along.

“While most top congressional leaders have vowed to back President Barack Obama in seeking authority to launch missile strikes, there’s little evidence that they can — or even want to — help him round up the rank-and file-Republicans he’ll need to win a vote in the House,” reports Politico.com,.

Speaker John Boehner’s spokesman said that he “expects the White House to provide answers to members’ questions and take the lead on any whipping effort.” Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), whose aides and allies run the whip process, isn’t yet in favor of Obama’s request for military authority in Syria. Several lawmakers and aides who have been canvassing support say that nearly 80 percent of the House Republican Conference is, to some degree, opposed to launching strikes in Syria. Informal counts by Obama allies show that support in Congress for Obama’s plans is in the low dozens.

This is hardly surprising since the Republicans gain little by supporting Obama, irrespective of their opinions on the wisdom of military action. If the strikes are successful, Obama will receive all the glory. But if the strikes turn into a military nightmare, they will share in the blame, and will have to answer to the unhappy Republican voters in their local districts. Better to find reasons — and there are many — to block the resolution, and leave Obama to act alone if he must.

Two, the ghosts of Iraq. The debacle may have not prevented the Obama administration from doubling down in Afghanistan or striking Libya, but it has left behind an electoral legacy in the United States. No politician wants another “Iraq vote” on his record. The 2002 congressional vote to authorise military action in Iraq turned into a political albatross for members of Congress and presidential hopefuls, who were forced to justify their support for George Bush’s greatest act of hubris. A reason perhaps why the two potential Republican presidential hopefuls, Rand Paul and Marc Rubio, voted against the recent Senate committee resolution.

“That vote has haunted several Senators for years, and many have said they wish they would have voted differently,” notes MSNBC.com. And the specter of Iraq looms larger than ever with the 2014 midterm elections round the corner. USA Today reports:

Whatever the outcome of the vote, Syria could be an issue in key Senate races next year, when Republicans hope to wrest six seats away from Democrats and take control of the chamber. “If (a war in Syria) gets complicated, then it could become a problem for everybody,” says Jennifer Duffy of the Cook Political Report.

The picture in the House of Representatives — where all seats are up for grabs next year — is bleaker still:

That opposition is evident throughout the ranks of the Democratic and Republican caucuses — and among their constituents — who haven’t yet, and may never, draw the conclusion that the horror of Assad using chemical weapons is a matter of urgent U.S. national security. Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) tweeted Tuesday that “constituents who have contacted my office by phone or mail oppose action in Syria 523-4 so far.” Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), who is libertarian, said on Twitter that four of about 200 constituents he encountered support action in Syria.

As Republican strategist Ford O’Connell told Xinhua, “If you’re not sure which way your political future is going, the ‘no’ vote is the safe one.”

Three, John Kerry. “[A]t this point, the overwhelming narrative is that authorizing military action in Syria will be one of the toughest sells of Obama’s time in the White House,” notes Politico And the White House has chosen precisely the wrong salesman to make their case.

“Our intelligence community has carefully reviewed and re-reviewed information regarding this attack,” Kerry said in an address to the State Department. “And I will tell you it has done so more than mindful of the Iraq experience. We will not repeat that moment.” But he didn’t point out the other big difference between making the case for Syria versus Iraq: Colin Powell.

Kerry possesses neither the gravitas nor the credibility of a Powell thanks to his unfortunate record on the electoral stump as a presidential candidate in the 2004 elections. In one of his more infamous moments of equivocation, he scrambled to explain his vote for an $87 billion supplemental appropriation for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, sayingq “I actually did vote for the $87 billion, before I voted against it.”

Kerry’s own fumbling alongwith the vicious Swift Boat attacks helped the Bush campaign to successfully paint the Democrat as an unreliable flip-flopper. His word may carry some weight with his fellow Senators, but will hold little water with their voters — who, as poll numbers consistently show, remain far from persuaded of the wisdom of yet another military intervention.

Four, permission to do, um, what? Kerry’s penchant for self-goals was evident in his testimony in front of the Senate Foreign Relations committee where he managed to flip-flop on exactly what kind of action the Congress was authorising. First he demanded a broad resolution that would permit the White House to do pretty much anything, including putting boots on the ground:

In the event Syria imploded, for instance, or in the event there was a threat of a chemical weapons cache falling into the hands of al-Nusra or someone else, and it was clearly in the interests of our allies and all of us — the British, the French and others — to prevent those weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands of the worst elements, I don’t want to take off the table an option that might or might not be available to a president of the United States to secure our country.

Faced with a series of anxious follow-ups from committee members, he retreated in haste, saying:

This authorization does not contemplate and should not have any allowance for any troop on the ground. I just want to make that absolutely clear. You know, what I was doing was hypothesizing about a potential; it might occur at some point in time, but not in this authorization, in no way, be crystal clear. There’s no problem in our having the language that has zero capacity for American troops on the ground within the authorization the president is asking for.

Right. Confusion reigns over what the Obama administration intends to do, and how far it is willing to go to do so. It is one reason the President has failed entirely to persuade the American people. The ambivalence — and resultant skittishness — will only increase as various factions in Congress pitch in with their versions of the resolution.

Five, Obama the unhappy warrior. He incautiously drew that red line in the sand, and now has to put his arsenal where his mouth was back in August, 2012, when he promised “enormous consequences” if Syrian President Assad used chemical weapons. Obama did his best to ignore small-scale chemical attacks for a year until ghastly video footage of dead babies left him with little face-saving choice. Syria’s defiance has now been framed as “a defining test,” as Time magazine puts it, of America’s reputation and might.

But as the same cover story makes clear, this US President has little appetite for intervention in the Middle East, having laid low through the Arab Spring, and struck against Libya only when European allies stepped forward. Above all, Obama is a man of great caution, a quality that is both his great weakness and virtue. The decision to seek a congressional vote — “overriding all his top national security advisers” — is likely motivated by a desire to avoid being rushed headlong into battle. As Amy Davidson writes in the New Yorker:

This may be the first sensible step that Obama has taken in the Syrian crisis, and may prove to be one of the better ones of his Presidency—even if he loses the vote, as could happen. Politically, he may have just saved his second term from being consumed by Benghazi-like recriminations and spared himself Congressional mendacity about what they all might have done. It will likely divide the G.O.P. Although he said that he didn’t really, truly need to ask Congress for permission, he is doing so. Presidents—including Obama, in his decision to ignore the War Powers Act in Libya despite its clear application—have abandoned even the pretense that they need to seek Congressional approval.

However, a president who seeks approval when he doesn’t need it is unlikely to ignore the outcome of Congressional vote. When he loses in Congress — as he likely will — Obama will have take it on the jaw, as the price of being “the President of the world’s oldest constitutional democracy,” as he describes it.

If Congress is loath to make history as being the first to deny a sitting president the authority to wage war, the resultant brouhaha will end instead in a whimper, as in a one-time authorisation for a single strike that will achieve little, either in symbolic or military terms. And that may constitute a greater defeat for Obama, who will spend the rest of the term as a lame-duck president both abroad and at home.

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Drums of war are beating loud, matched in turn by the high-decibel resistance of objectors, conscientious and otherwise. In the midst of this cacophony, Mr Obama is going to Capitol Hill to seek permission to bomb Syria. He is unlikely to get it. He is also unlikely to take any serious action against Syria without such license.

Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/world/5-reasons-why-the-us-wont-go-to-war-with-syria-1087359.html?utm_source=ref_article

Google May Be Updating Their Algorithm But They Won’t Confirm It

In short, many SEOs and webmasters were complaining that their rankings in the Google search results have declined drastically. In addition, many sent me images of their analytics, showing a clear significant drop in traffic from the Google organic source.

I asked Google about both these updates, and for each one, they said they have “nothing to announce.” Meaning, they won’t confirm if there was or was not an update.

We can confirm that the various search results monitoring tools, such as Mozcast, SERPs.com, SERP Metrics and Algoroo all showed volatility on August 21st. Since the September 4th chatter began this morning, we will have to wait for tomorrow to see if the tools show activity for today (the tools are about 24 hours delayed).

Although, there are hundreds of comments on the August 21st post and well over fifty comments on the September 4th post in less than seven hours.

Google does not always confirm updates but we think you should be aware that on August 21st and September 4th, there was enough noise to report to you that Google may have done some sort of algorithmic update.

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10 Ways Google+ Will Improve Your SEO

There are still people that argue for a wait and see strategy before using Google Plus. They will often point to lower numbers of people using Google Plus. These people fundamentally misunderstand the nature of Google Plus and the way it can improve your SEO results, even if none of your clients actually use Google Plus itself.

There are ten ways that Google Plus will improve your SEO:

1. Google Plus content is treated by Google just like any other page on the web. Google Plus content will be efficiently indexed by Google, it will gain page rank and appear in Google’s search results.  With two thirds of searches in the US taking place on Google you want your content indexed and searchable in this way.

2. Your Google Plus posts allow you capture SERP real estate as they appear on Google search page results, thus your audience may find your Google Plus content through a standard Google search.

3. Google Plus content stays around, gains page rank, gives page rank and appears in search results over a long period. It appears Google Plus posts can retain ranking indefinitely with some posts over a year old still top of search result pages. Compare this to the 14 minutes of life a standard tweet is estimated to have.

4. Google Plus authorship provides you with a higher visual profile in search results.  By validating your Google Plus profile with sites where you publish, you will enable your image to appear next to the search results and attract greater visual attention on search pages. To manually claim authorship on a page you just use a rel=author tag linked to your Google Plus profile such as 'by Steve Rayson'.

5. The use of Google authorship is closely tied to content authority. Google is keen to give a higher profile to authoritative content in search results. If an author posts interesting content which is shared and receives plus ones, this will potentially lead to higher authority. There is growing evidence that Google+ authorship improves your authority and search performance. Mark Traphagen argues that “over a broad sample of bloggers with G+ profiles, those who use Google authorship tend to average a full Page Rank higher than those who do not.”

6. Google Plus authorship and the Google Plus social layer provides a wide range of social signals that may improve the social media optimisation (SMO) of your content and SEO. This is not as simple as the number of followers, people in your circles or number of Plus Ones. What appears to be far more important is the interaction between you and your content and others of a high authority. Thus if a high authority person shares your content this will improve your own authority.

7. Social signals from platforms such as Google Plus will become more important in determining search results. Joshua Berg has called this the social media optimisation (SMO) of SEO. He has explained that “social signals provide a much better way of filtering out the noise and improving the quality of search results” and “this is a trend that will continue because it is a much better way of understanding what people really want, which is one of Google’s founding principles.”

8. The featured link in a Google Plus post will pass page rank to the page to which it links. Note there is a no follow for links included in the body of a Google Plus post, you must use the featured link. If you connect a Google Plus page to your website this will increase the relevancy of your website content and support your search ranking

9. Links from regular websites to Google Plus content can also pass page rank authority in the other direction back to your Google Plus posts and pages.

10. Finally, the use of hashtags in Google Plus connects every post to a search on the platform.

You are simply losing out in terms of SEO if you are not using Google Plus effectively. Hopefully, the ten reasons outlined above will make you look again at Google Plus and reconsider your social media optimisation strategies for SEO.

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9 Ways to Improve Your LinkedIn Marketing

LinkedIn is known as a networking and recruitment site; however, the unique nature of LinkedIn makes it a very attractive platform for B2B marketers. For example, a Hubspot research study found that more companies had acquired a customer through LinkedIn than any other social media channel. There are now over 225m registered LinkedIn members, including 77m in the US and 50m in Europe.

In my view LinkedIn should be a cornerstone platform in any B2B marketing strategy. Below are 9 ways you can use LinkedIn to improve your B2B marketing.

1. Actively use your company page

You probably already have a company page on LinkedIn, if not, you should create one.  The company page is more than a nice visual page with banners. The company page allows you to:

• produce targeted status updates
• display slide presentation content
• promote your services and products
• create brand ambassadors from your employees
• customise your company page for specific audiences
• build an audience of followers

 HP has attracted over 1 million LinkedIn followers and are a good case study of how to leverage followers and extend your marketing reach. See the HP LinkedIn marketing case study for more details.

2. Join Groups

Where do your customers hang out? Join groups where your customers are present and try to be a helpful member of the group and respond to questions. This takes time so don’t spread yourself too thin.

3. Share content that adds value

As with all of your content marketing, share all forms of interesting content and make sure it will be valuable to people in your industry. Share content regularly and vary your content, including pictures, videos and links.

4. Encourage your friends and colleagues to share and like content

People can be reluctant to be the first to comment in a discussion but once you have a discussion going it can be hard to stop people. One simple way to get things going is to encourage your friends and colleagues to share your content and to comment on it. Another way to engage your audience is to ask questions when you post content. A number of studies have found more interaction when the post starts with a question.

5. Listen and participate

Make sure you listen and participate in the groups you have decide to focus on. This is essential if it is your own group, see next item, but it also important if you want to actively participate in other groups.

6. Set up your own Group

Setting up your own group on LinkedIn can:

• help establish you as a thought leader in your industry
• enable you as moderator to develop a very focused group without the spam that can afflict many groups on LinkedIn
• highlight and showcase your own content as you wish
• be a more select group as you can control membership
• develop relationships through interactions
• potentially generate interest and enquiries about your services

 If you establish a Group remember it is your responsibility to lead it. Post regular content, encourage discussions and comment on discussions. It is hard work and takes time but it is your responsibility.

ProjectManager.com is a great case study of how to build a LinkedIn Group.

7. Ask for recommendations

It may seem obvious but ask people to recommend you or your company on LinkedIn. Recommendations are still one of the most powerful ways to establish your credibility.

8. Use LinkedIn Services

The LinkedIn sales solutions team a mine of useful information and advice. There are many paid services from premium membership to ads which may help you. Many people use Google Ads but LinkedIn ads can be equally as effective as LinkedIn allows you to focus on people rather than keywords. You can decide the level of executive you want to target in specific industries and sectors, you can place an ad directly on their pages.

9. Monitor your performance

As part of your LinkedIn strategy you should set yourself performance targets. The targets to monitor might include:

• the number of followers of your company
• the number of people joining your group
• how often your posts are shared
• the level of engagement through comments, discussions and polls
• number of  click throughs to your website or landing pages from LinkedIn
• number of leads, track where your leads come from and be sure to have a lead category for LinkedIn in your CRM
• conversions achieved

With the purchase of Pulse and Slideshare, LinkedIn is going to grow in importance as a marketing platform. Take your time now to fine tune your LinkedIn marketing strategy.

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