Search engine marketing of websites often forgets the website technology. Here are some examples of good SEO Plug-Ins for WordPress (our current web development recommendation for content sites):

Here are some other examples of WordPress Plugins
http://www.pdxtc.com/wpblog/computers-how-to/upgrading-your-wordpress-blog/
http://mitcho.com/code/yarpp/
http://www.pdxtc.com/wpblog/wordpress/my-secret-wordpress-h1-hack/
http://www.pdxtc.com/wpblog/wordpress/wordpress-faq-plug-in-very-cool/
http://www.pdxtc.com/wpblog/seo/integrate-wordpress-google-website-optimizer/

If you want to know more about how to build a commenting and Facebook integrated website, here are some articles to check out:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/09/facebook-responds-to-myspace-with-facebook-connect/
http://mashable.com/2008/07/23/facebook-connect-launches/
http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/Facebook_Connect_Plugin_Directory
http://blog.disqus.net/2008/12/16/disqus-and-facebook-connect/

Affiliate Marketing is having a rough holiday season this year, but I still find this marketing channel (as an SEO) to be interesting:

http://www.sugarrae.com/examples-affiliate-branding/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_of_difference
http://www.shimonsandler.com/affiliate-marketing-networks/

Did you know that Organic Listings grab around 75% of all search engine clicks? http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-disconnect-in-ppc-vs-seo-spending

Here is an interested way to approach SEO, start with Paid Search and most SEO prospects should have already have this Paid Search data. http://www.seomoz.org/blog/headsmacking-tip-6-test-with-paid-search-before-you-target-with-seo

And while we are talking about paid search, here is a good resource list of best PPC articles. http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-big-list-of-ppc-resources-articles

Link Building Techniques (Another Good List) – http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/the-definitive-list-75-of-link-building-techniques-in-2008.html

When you are learning how to build links, don’t forget how to cover your tracks – http://www.winningtheweb.com/secret-link-count-seo.php

Free Keyword Research Tools – http://www.searchenginejournal.com/free-keyword-research-tools/8153/

It was a short week with Thanksgiving, but there were lots of SEO blog posts out there. I continue to find the most useful information on the Sphinn site, but I like to follow specific bloggers instead of reading what goes ‘HOT’.

After ‘browsing’ (hard to get motivated on Black Friday) through over 200 blog posts, here are a few I would like to share through our SEO White Hats blog.

http://www.juiceanalytics.com/writing/keyword-trends-google-analytics-greasemonkey/
Firefox add-on that shows referring and keywords trends in Google ANalytics

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/footer-link-optimization-for-search-engines-user-experience
Randfish SEO for footer links. There are some good SEO tips here including the use of nofollow and the fact that footers are de-valued by search engines, particularly Yahoo!

http://searchengineland.com/sempo-to-ring-nasdaqs-bell-15612.php
SEMPO will ring the NASDAQ bell on December 1st. Congrats SEMPO!

http://www.saadkamal.com/google/bloggers-best-practices-guide-by-google/
Google releases Best Practices for Blogs

http://searchenginewatch.com/3631829
I usually don’t read lists or follow web design threads, but here is 25 Design Best Practices for Your Small Business Web Site

http://seo2.0.onreact.com/searchwiki-power-to-the-people-great-news-for-seo-20
How GoogleSearchWiki and SEO2.0 might change the algorithm from links to people.

http://www.1stsearchenginerankings.com/2007/06/08/google-bounce-factor-research-data-is-in/
Does Bounce Rate affect SEO? Google Bounce Factor Research Data.

http://www.newedgemedia.com/blog/index.php/2008/11/seomoz-toolbar-a-review/
Review of seoMoz Toolbar. I did install it, but I am not currently running it. Randfish quickly responded to the review reminding everyone that LinkScape is in beta.

http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/2008-social-network-analysis-report/
A stats heavy review of leading social networks showing users and traffic of sites like Facebook, Digg, Flickr, Plaxo, and more. Good post if you are asked about current user and traffic levels of a particular social network platform.

Rand at SEOMoz does a good walk-through of the Keyword Research Process and how site hierarchy should be more important than just Keyword Demand. This is a common question that we come across as we try to interpret keyword volume research and overlay it into a website.

SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday – Implementing Keyword Research from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo.

Once keyword research is complete, it is time to overlay the identified keywords into the meta data and on page body copy (a writing task) and modify the site architecture and link structure (a development task). While not specifically mentioned, this is an excellent time to evaluate Page Rank sculpting and attempting to silo content.

Rand is putting this all under a Keyword Research and Implementation, while we tend divide this overall process into several smaller steps:

• Keyword Research – Brainstorm, research, presentation and sign-off by client.
• Meta Data – Mapping of target keywords to the website pages.
• SEO Content Optimization – On page body copy improvements to support target keyword by page.

While we break this up into some small deliverable items, we do view the overall process as one complete exercise to improve the on-site factors that affect SEO.