There is nothing new about Twitter tweeting, but on September 12, Twitter’s tweet was significant:

Obviously, some online reviews are fake. According to a 2012 report from Gartner Research, “between two and six percent of online reviews are fake or deceptive.” Jenny Sussin, a Gartner analyst and co-author of the report, found that, “In the hospitality industry, you are more likely to see bookings go up when you have better ratings. For restaurants, a half-star increase in the review average can cause 7:00 pm bookings to go up 30 to 49 percent.”

Keyword data encryption is on the way from Google, which means the search engine giant will no longer reveal the keywords that sent traffic to websites from search queries. By the end of 2013, Google intends to encrypt all organic keyword search activity, with the exception of clicks on Adwords PPC ads. What does this mean for website owners? Any keyword search done through Google will eventually come back with the wonderful (not found) message in your Google Analytics account.

Recently we have been looking over some of the SEO factors from the last couple of years. Some of them made us laugh, because a lot of them are still very relevant. Of course some of the factors seemed a bit elementary compared to what we are doing in today’s search environment. It goes without saying that we are still trying to achieve natural-looking link profiles. This is something that will most likely always be relevant and a consideration to Google, unless they take a completely different direction with their algorithm. Let’s face it though, anything is possible at this point. But what pieces of the SEO puzzle do we need to consider in order to be successful with SEO in 2014.

When you think about ranking high in the search engine results or getting a good traffic source, you probably aren't thinking about Bing or Pinterest. But, it’s time for that to change and it’s time for you to ramp up your Pinterest SEO efforts. This sounds a little silly, but Bing now includes your pins in their search results. This means if you do an image search on Bing, they will now display results from your Pinterest boards. This is huge for many marketers, not to mention Bing is one of the only search engines that is still providing keyword search data.

If you own a small business and you aren't advertising on social media, it's time to start thinking about it. Facebook is one of the best options at this point with their advanced targeting features which allow you to hone in on certain demographics and interests. The social media companies look to make a lot of money because, simply put, advertising on social media works. That's why most small business need to start thinking about how they can best utilize social media advertising as part of their overall online marketing strategy.

Article spinning, keyword stuffing, excessive bookmarks, paid links, thin content, duplicate content, excessive blog commenting, etc. were once widely regarded as acceptable SEO tactics. Now these tactics can land you in big trouble with Google. For example, more than 400,000 websites were penalized by Google in January according to this webmaster support video from Matt Cutts. Thanks to Google's Panda and Penguin updates, nothing about SEO is quick, easy or cheap which is why the cost of SEO is rising. In fact, if you find a cheap SEO company that promises quick results the best thing you can do for your website is run away. Just this week another major link network was penalized, affecting a large number of business websites. Hiring a cheap SEO company is like paying a high school kid to stand outside of your store and flip a sign or wear a funny outfit. It might attract attention, but it's not the type of attention your business wants.

Billions of internet searches happen every day, yet people do look to other sources for information and answers. As unlikely or even crazy as it might seem, some people still consult the encyclopedia! In 2010, after 244 years, Encyclopedia Britannica went out of print, but encyclopedias live on in DVD format.

If you own a small business or provide some sort of service to the community, whether it’s a local lawyer or a landscaping company, you most likely have a website. But, just having a website is not enough in today’s competitive online world. If you want to be in one of the first 3 spots on Google, Bing and Yahoo you will need an SEO strategy that uses your ability to build links.

Google recently updated their Link Shemes/Unnatural Links document. They did it so quietly that almost nobody noticed. This is strange for Google as they usually have a ton of fanfare when they are making a change to the way their algorithm works. This change in policy didn’t even have a funny animal name to go along with it. Barry Schwartz, editor of Search Engine Roundtable, has a page change tool app set up for the exact URL Google uses to announce changes and it didn’t even catch this change for several days. Does this mean the change in policy is a sign of bigger changes on the way?