Some use the term ‘March Madness’ and when you look at State of Search, that could very well fit the description of our month. We’ve had the Tools Week, we’ve had events like Linklove, SMX, SES and RIMC and we’ve had brilliant posts by our authors.
That makes this months overview of best read and most shared posts on State of Search very interesting. Because there is so much to choose from! Looking at the top ten best read posts you will recognise a lot from Tools Week but looking more in depth to the most shared posts gives you some other interesting angles as well.
So without further ado: here is your reading list for this weekend :).
Best Read
1. How I use Followerwonk, and Why I Love It – by Gianluca Fiorelli
Gianluca Fiorelli explains how he uses Followerwonk in his everyday worklife as a marketer and how it benefits his business.
2. Google did De-Index Digg, but by Mistake. Digg is back now – By Bas van den Beld
Google completely de-indexed Digg.com from their search results. It turned out to be a mistake. Someone deleted the entire site instead of one page.
3. How to Perform a Complete SEO Audit for Your Website – guestpost by by Philip Petrescu
One of the most important things in an SEO Audit is not finding what is wrong with a website, but rather to find a list of things that need to be changed
4. St. Patrick’s Day 2013 celebrated with animated Google Doodle – by Michel Wester
Google celebrates St Patrick’s Day with a special Doodle. Watch it here.
5. Easy step-by-step guide to finding low quality links – by Paddy Moogan
A step-by-step guide to finding what are likely to be low quality links. With steps, tools and examples.
6. Hreflang and canonical international SEO test – guestpost by Grosen Fris
Google’s hreflang option for international SEO has been available for over a year now, time to conduct a clinical SEO test to see if it works as promised.
7. 8 Free Technical SEO Tools – by Nichola Stott
A list of free technical SEO tools that help with header checking, crawling, on-page and tech diagnostics and code-generation for snippets and embeds.
8. 6 Great Project Management Tools for Improving Agency Efficiency – by Paul Rogers
Paul Rogers takes a look at what requirements for Project Management Tools in SEO are and which one are living up to that standard.
9. Is Paying for SEO Tools Worth It? – by Paddy Moogan
You probably don’t need to pay for SEO tools in order to learn your trade or get results. But they can sure make your life a hell of a lot easier
10. Where Does SEO Belong in the Overall Marketing Mix? – by Ned Poulter
SEO is going through changes. Those that used to be called SEOs, now have several job titles. But why? Don’t we all do the same job at the end of the day..?
Most shared
But, most read doesn’t mean ‘most popular’ per se, after all, some posts have been there less long than others and others get found through search! So looking at how much posts were shared on Social Media is also interesting.
Here are the shares on all our posts from last month:
| Tweet | Like | G+ | Buffer | Total | |||
| Google did De-Index Digg, but by Mistake. Digg is back now | 186 | 85 | 70 | 27 | 0 | 24 | 392 |
| How I use Followerwonk, and Why I Love It | 142 | 27 | 35 | 112 | 32 | 17 | 365 |
| How to Perform a Complete SEO Audit for Your Website | 132 | 43 | 45 | 81 | 20 | 26 | 347 |
| Hreflang and canonical international SEO test | 104 | 16 | 45 | 39 | 17 | 8 | 229 |
| Where Does SEO Belong in the Overall Marketing Mix? | 121 | 19 | 24 | 18 | 21 | 21 | 224 |
| 8 Free Technical SEO Tools | 95 | 23 | 32 | 40 | 13 | 20 | 223 |
| Majestic SEO Launch Webmaster Tools | 133 | 6 | 13 | 13 | 1 | 8 | 174 |
| 7 Aspects to Drive Your International SEO Industry & Audience Research | 80 | 19 | 23 | 15 | 9 | 26 | 172 |
| 6 Great Project Management Tools for Improving Agency Efficiency | 76 | 14 | 8 | 39 | 13 | 16 | 166 |
| 9 Pinterest Tips for Business Profile Pages | 76 | 29 | 9 | 12 | 5 | 26 | 157 |
| Is Paying for SEO Tools Worth It? | 73 | 13 | 12 | 23 | 19 | 14 | 154 |
| Baidu Comes to Britain: New Opportunities for Online Marketing in China | 64 | 11 | 10 | 6 | 4 | 53 | 148 |
| Can an SEO be a Good SEO Without Using Tools? | 93 | 6 | 11 | 13 | 7 | 10 | 140 |
| How Should Businesses Use Facebook? Avinash Kaushik – Be Wizard 2013 | 70 | 18 | 5 | 15 | 9 | 13 | 130 |
| St. Patrick’s Day 2013 celebrated with animated Google Doodle | 39 | 74 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 118 |
| Majestic SEO Announce Firefox Extension & Add-on | 60 | 20 | 8 | 12 | 2 | 11 | 113 |
| SEO Brand Marketing – Looking Beyond Keywords | 70 | 3 | 8 | 11 | 8 | 9 | 109 |
| Is Google turning up the heat on Link Spam? | 59 | 14 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 20 | 107 |
| Can SEO Be Made Obsolete? | 58 | 19 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 9 | 98 |
| Who To Take out to Lunch? The Importance of Knowing the Network | 50 | 10 | 22 | 5 | 0 | 10 | 97 |
| Entrepreneurship & Content Marketing Half Day #SearchLondon | 63 | 4 | 11 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 86 |
| How to Transform Your CEO into a Link Building, Social Sharing Machine #LinkLove | 55 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 1 | 7 | 84 |
| Head Smackingly Simple: Post Conversion Link Building Tips | 42 | 4 | 3 | 17 | 6 | 11 | 83 |
| Small Business SEO for £350 per month | 57 | 6 | 0 | 9 | 2 | 7 | 81 |
| Free Content for Free Spirits: MyBlogGuest WordPress Plugin Review | 60 | 3 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 80 |
| Case Study: Rebranding from a Search Agency to a Digital Agency | 32 | 13 | 13 | 6 | 1 | 9 | 74 |
| The Sacrifices We Make for Social Media: Real-Life, Sleep and Sex | 38 | 6 | 17 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 67 |
| The Future of Link Building, Will Critchlow at #Linklove: | 37 | 5 | 10 | 7 | 1 | 7 | 67 |
| Test: Fresh Web Explorer | 35 | 21 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 65 |
| SES New York Interview: Clayburn Griffin about Facebook Graph Search | 30 | 19 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 64 |
| Think Visibility Roundup – TV9 – March 2013 | 34 | 15 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 10 | 64 |
| Social TV: New TV or Another Layer on Traditional TV | 42 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 62 |
| 23,787 Ways to Build Links in 30 Minutes #LinkLove | 41 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 59 |
| Four ‘Obvious’ SEO and Two Social Tools You Can’t Miss | 39 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 58 |
| Sharing Your Story Through Images Has Never Been So Powerful | 37 | 4 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 56 |
| The PC is Dead. Long Live Mobile… & the Tablet! #RIMC13 | 41 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 54 |
| Top Alternatives for Google Reader: Desktop, Tablet or All Platform | 31 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 54 |
| Spain & Search Marketing: The 5th Edition | 40 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 53 |
| Google Launch Help for Hacked Sites | 43 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 51 |
| Douglas Adams Google Doodle, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy | 42 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 51 |
| What Tools were We Using (And what are we?) | 31 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 51 |
| Content Isn’t Just King, It’s Also Queen and Ace #SMXWest | 30 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 50 |
| Tools News Update: Updates, changes and additions to different SEO Tools | 39 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 50 |
| SEO Campixx: Conversion on Steroids | 36 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 47 |
| Link Tools of the Trade | 31 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 45 |
| Social Media Wins and Fails | 34 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 45 |
| Google Trends now Show Video Data from 2008 | 27 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 44 |
| Why Should I Choose You? | 33 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 44 |
| Bloggabase: Bringing the Right Marketers to the Right Bloggers | 33 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 43 |
| All About Infographics: Claire Stokoe #Linklove | 30 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 42 |
| RIMC 2013: Tools of the Trade #RIMC13 | 32 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 41 |
| Going Viral on YouTube #SMXWest | 27 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 40 |
| I act on impulse and I go with my instincts – Applying Ramsay logic to SEO | 30 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 39 |
| How Tools Are Developing | 26 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 39 |
| Do The Harlem Shake on YouTube – Easter Egg | 31 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 39 |
| How do I Get Them to Link? Lyndon Antcliff at #Linklove | 23 | 1 | 5 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 38 |
| Enterprise Link Spam Analysis Ian Lurie at #Linklove | 28 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 37 |
| YouTube Launches One Channel To All Video Content Creators | 23 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 37 |
| Majestic SEO now Supports 9 Languages | 27 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 36 |
| A Photo Is Worth A Thousand Links: SMX West | 26 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 34 |
| SES New York Interview: Marcia Kadanoff about Mobile | 25 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 32 |
| How Google Makes its Mobile Money | 23 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 32 |
| Is PlayStation Dying as a Brand? | 22 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 32 |
| Make Google Shopping’s Paid Service Work For You | 25 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 31 |
| Miriam Makeba Google logo, South African singer best known for Pata Pata | 25 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 30 |
| What Revenues and Profits do Tech Giants Have? | 24 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 29 |
| RIMC 2013: Site Architecture the Right Way – Shari Thurow #RIMC13 | 25 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 29 |
| The State of Search & Social – #RIMC13 | 21 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 27 |
| State of Search News Update: What happened in week 11 | 20 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 25 |
| Friday Talk: An Interview with Mark Zuckerberg and Cheryl Sandberg | 21 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 24 |
| RIMC 2013: Duane Forrester – First Keynote #RIMC13 | 17 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 24 |
| Harlem Shake Bigger than Gangnam Style | 19 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 24 |
| State of Search News Update: What happened in week 9 | 19 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 24 |
| Friday Talk: Larry Page Q&A Zeitgeist Americas 2012 | 19 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 21 |
| State of Search News Update: What happened in week 10 | 17 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 21 |
| Keynote: Web Strategy – Kristine Schachinger #RIMC13 | 16 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 19 |
| Friday Talk: Dealing With Tough Calls In Organic Search, Matt Cutts and Patrick Thomas | 17 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 19 |
| Friday Talk: Sharing Personal News Online – Geraldine DeRuiter | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 12 |
