While the rest of the online world was fixated on what may/may not have been a certain congressman’s member (oh wait, yes, it was indeed!), we here at Anvil did our best to keep our attention on more important matters of search & social…

PPC

• Google Removes Checkout Badge From Ad Display – Google announced that as of June 2011, AdWords will no longer be displaying Google Checkout logos in AdWords ads. The logos will, however, continue to be displayed on product search result pages.
• Google Introduces Embedded Sitelinks – Google keeps playing around with text ad formats — if your ad is in 1st position, and text in your ad exactly matches one of your sitelinks extensions, that text will be hyperlinked to the sitelink destination.
• Add +1 to Help Your Ads Stand Out – Site owners can now add the +1 button to their pages with code available on Webmaster Central.  The more people +1 your page, the more likely Google is to include that annotation in organic & paid results.
• 5 New AdWords Campaign Experiment Demo Videos – Looking for fresh ideas on things to test in your AdWords campaigns?  Match types, bids, creative and ad group focus.
• How the Search Alliance Is Paying Off – A report from SMX Advanced full of facts, figures, tips & best practices for advertising in Bing/Yahoo.
• Communication Ad Extensions – New AdWords ad extension format allows lead gen companies to include “Request Call” or “Request Email” extensions in ads.

SEO

• The Periodic Table of SEO Factors – This unique infographic comes from Search Engine Land and outlines the majors factors for SEO.
• Be Aware of Tags in Your Website – If your website features pages that summarizes all pages or posts labeled a certain “tab”,  be aware of how that could be affecting your navigational pages.
• Google Now Supports Author Tag – Google announced support of the authorship markup, enabling content sites to help identify their authors on the site and across the web.It uses the rel attribute, so all you need to do is add the rel=”author” to your author’s hyperlink on the article page.
• Schema.org: Google, Bing & Yahoo Unite to Make Search Listings Richer Through Structured Data – Today, “in the spirit of sitemaps.org“, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo have announced the joint alliance of schema.org. This alliance provides a common foundation of support for a set of microdata types.

Analytics

• Webmaster Tools to Integrate with Google Analytics – Initial release will include reports for query information, impressions, clicks, click through rate and average position. [INTERNAL] Sign up to get in the pilot now

• Google Buys PostRank – Google beefs up social media analytics with the purchase of PostRank.
• Google Analytics Account Setup Checklist – Good post on all the steps to take when performing an account audit (even before you get into their GA account) [INTERNAL] Integrate into directions for WAAP

Link Development

• Interview With Julie Joyce – The Link Specialist – Get great information from this insightful interview, where link building expert Julie Joyce talks about what works and why, and where link building is headed in the future.
• Three Effective Ways To Jumpstart Your Link Building – Feeling like link building is a drag, or not sure where to start? Use these techniques to get out of the link building rut.

Social Media

• Product discount for Likes – Snoop Dogg’s new body spray receives a 10% discount for every 100 likes during it’s product launch.
• McDonald’s Gaming Billboard Gives Winners Free Food VIDEO – Interesting way that McDonald’s is incorporating social gaming with their stores.

Local Search Engine Optimization

• Google Calendar Appointment Slots – Infrastructure for Places Scheduling? – Google may be preparing to offer scheduling within Places.
• The 2011 Local Search Ranking Factors – David Mihm’s annual Local Search Ranking Factors survey of local SEO experts is out, detailing the Top 10 Ranking Factors for Google Maps/Google Places SEO.

B2C

• eBay Acquires Open Source Ecommerce Company Magento – Magento will join eBay’s X.Commerce initiative, with more details coming in October. Still unclear as to the fate of Magento, “will Magento continue as a standalone product?”.
• Display Ads Lift Branding Metrics – Users exposed to display ads are 24% more likely to recommend a product compared to users unexposed to display ads. Rich media ads had the highest lift at 34%.

B2B

• Setting Relationship Goals for B2B Social Media – Overview of how B2B companies can utilize Twitter, LinkedIn and blogger outreach to develop long-term relationships with potential prospects.

Retail/Storefront

• 8 Reasons Why Every Ecommerce Site Should Use Video – With YouTube being the 2nd largest search engine, video is serious business.  This article outline 8 reason why ecommerce sites should embrace more video.

Web Design

• Obsolete Features in HTML5 – A list of current html elements that will become obsolete with the release of HTML5
• 15 Alternatives to WordPress – A list of Content Management systems besides Drupal, Joomla and WordPress that could be a solution for your website.

Mobile

• iOS5 and iCloud Announced – Apple uses WWDC to announce the latest version of iOS and their new cloud storage drive: iCloud.  Now you can keep all your iTunes music synced, although it’s not a streaming service as some speculated.
• Half of Twitter users access via a mobile phone – Keep in mind that Twitter users are mobile.  Optimize Twitter outreach specifically for mobile users, testing to see how the responses change when mobile users are catered to.