The latest updates to the Google algorithm have now been officially named Penguin by the search engine giant, and continue to have major effects on the way that SEO marketing is carried out.

Since the previous update was dubbed Panda by Google, this simply continues its tradition of giving cute animal names to the no-nonsense tweaks it has been undertaking in a bid to weed out sites which try and exploit the rankings system through methods other than original written content.

Online marketing professionals have been concerned by some of the effects of the updates, which have led to the severe downranking of some bona fide sites on Google, while other less legitimate ones have moved far up.

Some online marketing companies that specialise in SEO have even called Penguin “the Titanic”, after the way it has sunk previously strong websites below the waterline, but the more forward-thinking professionals are rising to the challenge and seeking to discover what Google looks for to make the distinction between genuine content and spam.

The key, as with most online marketing, lies in ensuring that you seek quality original content over short-term boosting tricks – no matter how many times Google moves the goalposts, quality will out.

Recently, search engine giant Google has been issuing updates which have the potential to drastically change the way online marketing professionals carry out their link-building.

Link-building is especially important in SEO marketing campaigns, and Google’s latest changes mean curtains for so-called “un-natural” or “inorganic” links.

Google has itself condemned what it deems “over-optimised” sites, although it has been less eager to explain exactly what it means by this. What is certain, however, is that SEO marketing experts will need to take heed and focus not only on the amount of backlinks on a given site, but who is linking to it.

Another knock-on effect of Google’s changes is the increased need for online marketing efforts to focus on shareable content, such as blog posts or videos. These attract more “organic” links and will find favour with the search engine’s increasingly picky algorithms. The future is all about sharing – and all about not just the quantity of linkbacks, but the quality too.

Online marketing professionals concerned with innovative software may wish to be aware of a new upgrade of Pardot, the popular automated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) program.

Previously, Pardot was mainly used as web-based software suite used by professionals looking to create and track online marketing campaigns. Now, for the first time, it has added new search engine optimisation (SEO) marketing tools to assist small businesses, with features for monitoring the performance of keywords and those of your company’s closes competitors.

The data is harvested from various online sources and online marketing professionals can access it all from the Pardot system’s dashboard. Website rankings on Google and Bing can be tracked, in order to keep precise tabs on how well a SEO marketing campaign is going.

Online marketing analysts can also see the ranking status of each keyword, the average cost per click if they are thinking of bidding for the keyword in Google AdWords and the word’s approximate search volume on Google.

Using the competitor monitoring tool, online marketers can see how their SEO ranks against their rivals, tracking key components such as their competitors’ Google PageRank, inbound links and indexed pages.

Leeds plays host to an important gathering of experts from across the online marketing sector later this month, when ionSearch takes place at The Carriageworks in Millennium Square.

The one-day event, on 18 April, will be focusing specifically on search engine optimisation, or SEO marketing, with over 20 speakers from a range of companies leading discussions on the best SEO strategies out there.

The headline speaker is Google’s advertising agency relationships manager for search engine giant Google – Matt Bush. Attendees will be listening with interest to what he has to say, as the Holy Grail of all SEO marketing efforts is a first page – and preferably first entry! – ranking in Google’s search results.

The event has been organised by local firm ionSearch, whose managing director Fergus Clawson told the Yorkshire Post that Leeds was rising above Britain’s overall economic conditions thanks to the effectiveness of its online marketing sector.

“Leeds has become a hot bed for SEO with a thriving digital community despite the gloomy economic outlook,” he declared, noting that since 2008 Yorkshire has enjoyed a 240 per cent increase in the number of online marketing jobs available, “with many traditional full-service agencies expanding their in-house marketing teams due to demand.”

The difference between this region and London is clear, when you consider that over the same period online marketing vacancies in the capital have only risen by 157 per cent, he pointed out, adding that “typically clients will receive the same quality of work, but at a much lower cost, both in terms of business overheads and wages.”

photo credit: anitakhart

New research by Econsultancy has revealed that the British SEO market is growing rapidly.

SEO is one of the cornerstones of online marketing, with businesses anxious to be ranked as high as possible on Google and the other search engine’s results pages.

Researchers estimated that the SEO industry in the UK was worth some £512,067,800 last year, compared to £434,703,600 in 2010 – an impressive 18 per cent increase over 12 months. The sum includes online marketing agencies’ fees, paid search, publicity on SEO, plus optimisation of SEO for mobile browsing.

Econsultancy senior research analyst Jake Hird noted that SEO experts are working hard to incorporate as many innovations into their methodology than ever before, especially thanks to the rise and rise of smartphones, tables and other mobile devices.

“It’s a complex landscape, but one that marketers are clearly engaging with,” he added.

The research also found that Google remained far and away the most popular search engine in the UK, with more than 90 per cent of searches carried out on it. The report noted that any changes made by Google have “significant impact to existing SEO efforts.”

Online marketing professionals from the UK may wish to take a note of the date and put their names down for a special webinar on the combined potential of Google+ and SEO next month.

The event has been organised by US company Search Mojo, and is being hosted by its CEO Janet Driscoll Miller and its Social Media Specialist Sarah Lokitis. They will be looking at the best practice in online marketing for creating Google+ profiles and managing pages. Many people believe that Google+ is the next big thing, and cite the success that Facebook fan pages have had in boosting online marketing campaigns.

“Google+ is rapidly growing with over 100 million users so it’s a great opportunity to interact with your customers and potential leads, especially since businesses have been slow to incorporate Google+ Pages in their marketing initiatives,” Ms Lokitis said. “This allows for a great opportunity for early adopters to establish a Google+ presence before their competitors.”

The webinar begins at 19:00 GMT on Thursday 5 April.

We’re going all the way back to 2007 this week, and the original Edinburgh seminar that gave the internet the well-received 13 Pillars of Internet Marketing.

As you will see from the film, the seminar leaders have identified 13 key principles for effective SEO and online marketing, which they believe can be applied to most businesses seeking to improve their internet advertising and marketing methods. Follow the topics in the seminar video as they cover:

Pillar 1 – Keyword Research

Pillar 2 – Website Design

Pillar 3 – Blog Technology

Pillar 4 – Auto responders

Pillar 5 – Paid Advertising

Pillar 6 – Press Releases

Pillar 7 – Link Building

Pillar 8 – Article Submission

Pillar 9 – Group Interaction

Pillar 10 – Viral Marketing

Pillar 11 – Visitor Analysis

Pillar 12 – Continuous Content

Pillar 13 – The Evolving Web