Hey folks Austin here and it’s time for another Weekly SEO Recap (Gravity Kills Edition).

What happens if you Google SEO?  You get all the latest SEO articles Google thinks are relevant to your search. But are they relevant to you?  Let me be the judge of that and help you cut to the chase.

 

New Title Tag Guidelines & Preview Tool

Google redesigned the SERPS landing page by increasing the font size of title tags being displayed.  They also got rid of some underlining of links and replaced it with some bold.  Now I personally hate the new design for a number of reasons, but it doesn’t matter if I like it or not we SEO-ers got to adapt.  One thing that might have slipped through your radar is the new guidelines for title tags.  The long story short is word widths change things up so keep it around 55 characters.

Pros

  • Tackles Big Serp Changes
  • Lots of Details you never though of before.

Negatives

  • Almost too much detail
  • Could have been a little shorter

Overall: Read It

 

How to do SEO for Local Business, WITHOUT Content Marketing

I have mixed feelings about content marketing.  On one hand I think it’s effective and a good tool in our tool-belts, but on the other hand I think we use it too much and limit our skill growth. This article gives you 10 alternatives to doing SEO and promotion without having to create written content.  There is actually some interesting ideas like creating a game, but most of the ideas are things that should already be in our tool-belt.  Anyway you look at it it’s a good refresher.

Pros

  • Some unique ideas
  • Good redirect of focus for beginners

Negatives

  • Nothing you haven’t heard before
  • Could have been a little shorter

Overall: Skim It

 

How to Use Schema Markup for SEO: Making Your Site Easier to Find for Stupid Machines

There has been a lot of debate on if using schema markup for your website actually does anything at all.  If you don’t know what Schema is it basically helps search engines read your website easier.  The thing is Schema markup data doesn’t really do anything for your rankings, and the data doesn’t really prove anything.  Some people swear by Schema, others just let it slip to the wayside.  But if you don’t know much about it this article is a great introduction, and you might be persuaded to do Schema.

Pros

  • Great Schema Introduction
  • Using Schema for Social Media

Negatives

  • Could use a little more step-by-step
  • No data presented to support ideas.

Overall: Skim It

 

Dominate SEO With Long Tail Keywords

Ever since Google switched to their Keyword Planner tool for PPC we SEO-ers have had a much more difficult time finding good keywords.  Harder might not be the right word, we’ve had to get more creative.  One thing I’ve found myself doing these days is becoming more Long-Tail keyword focused instead of finding low competition, high search, exact match keywords.  The results of incorporating more long-tail keywords into our SEO strategy has actually produced better results than I expected, and this article gives you a good introduction in using more long-tail in your own strategy.

Pros

  • Shows the difference in results between keyword types

Negatives

  • Leaves me wanting more
  • Needs more next steps

Overall: Skip It