It’s been a few months since I have written for SEL. I had to take a short ‘sabbatical’ to hunker down and focus on a major phase of development and updates on our own site.

Along with the Crisis Map Google is making available and Barry writes about here, I’ve compiled a few more information resources that might be of interest as Hurricane Sandy and the resulting megastorm (aka “Frankenstorm”) pummels the east coast. We’ll be updating this page..

“The Joy of Painting” TV show host Bob Ross is celebrated on Google’s homepage today with a Doodle paying tribute to the artist known for teaching PBS viewers to paint landscapes, including mountains surrounded by happy little clouds and trees.

Most Search Engine Optimization experts find search engine submission services to be a waste of time and a scammy type of service. That being said, Google’s John Mueller took it a step up by saying using these services may hurt your rankings.

Below are some resources you may need throughout the storm and possibly after. If you know of any resources we can add please let us know. Stay safe

It is obvious that millions of people are going to need as much help as we can give them by the time this hurricane is over. The best thing we can all do is start supporting the organizations that help victims right now! If you know of other ways we can help please tell us The post How You Can Help Those Affected by Hurricane Sandy Now appeared first on Search Engine Journal

For those of you in the path of Hurricane Sandy, like me, knowing certain information about the storm can be vital to those stuck at home and preparing for the storm. Google announced a new crisis map for Hurricane Sandy at google.org/crisismap/2012-sandy and they have an additional more detailed… Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article

SEO can be, at times, overwhelming to its practitioners. After all, there’s nothing easy about designing and carrying out an effective link building strategy, or about adjusting any of the dozens of on-site variables that play a role in your website’s natural search performance. Considering how prevalent this mindset is, it’s important to take a The post Image Optimization 101 appeared first on Search Engine Journal .

User reviews are an incredibly powerful tool to use to your advantage, but collecting them simply isn’t enough. If you’re looking to lift the conversion rates on your product pages, try out some of these eight new formats in your reviews.

A great opportunity that comes with a marketing blog that has over 50,000 subscribers is to recognize people who are doing great and interesting things. We do that in several different ways and one of the most popular is the list of 25 Women Who Rock Social Media