This Week’s Industry News

Compiled By Rocket Clicks Staff

Google Finds New Way To Pump Google+ Into Your Veins

Google has made it easier for publishers to automatically incorporate authorship tagging into their WordPress and TypePad platforms by associating them with your Google+ signin. It does require configuration to set up (doesn’t everything?). Additionally, embedding Google+ posts (like tweets) is also easier than ever. Source: Search Engine Roundtable

Nofollows Can’t Hurt You…Unless They Do

The traditional SEO wisdom is that nofollow links on blog comments and forums don’t help boost a site’s rankings, and that’s still true. This week, Google’s Matt Cutts responded to a webmaster’s question from the other side of the fence, asking if nofollows can hurt a site on the SERPs. He said no, they can’t – unless you’re spamming, in which case they can. Source: Search Engine Journal

Mobile Banking Is Very Popular…Like Most Things Mobile

The most recent xAd/Telemetrics Path-to-Purchase Study revealed some interesting granular tidbits about how and when people prefer “mobile only” access to certain parts of their lives. Specifically, the study found that 50% of users deal with finances on their phones exclusively, with the numbers skewed towards younger demographics. The study also discovered that over 50% of mobile users “convert” to purchase on their phones, and the mobile web has a greater reach than the desktop web. Source: Marketing Land

Matt Cutts Records The Most Obvious Video Q&A Ever

“Can auto-generated content hurt a website?” asked a webmaster incapable of reading Google’s quality guidelines. Source: Search Engine Land

Tablets Becoming More Like TVs

A recent report from the video ad buying platform Tubemogul reveals that tablet video view trends are starting to mirror traditional TV viewing. Tablet video views spike during the primetime hours as well as before the morning commute. Interestingly, video pre-roll ad click-through rates are much higher on mobile devices compared to PCs, and iPad users are more prone to view videos later into the night compared to Android device users. Source: Marketing Land

Menu Items Now Available In Foursquare Search

Foursquare has been on an update rampage over the past couple months, overhauling their interface and, now, including menu items as searchable fields. The feature is pretty sweet if you’re in the mood for a very, very specific food. Or just food, in general, probably. Source: Search Engine Land

Bing Knows What’s On The Shelves

Microsoft just announced a partnership with Local Corporation (yes, that’s the company’s actual name) that will provide local retail store inventory data in Bing search results. For right now participating retailers include big box favorites like BestBuy, Office Depot and Walmart. Source: Search Engine Journal

Google Glass Now Operating Via Remote Control, Better App Support

On Monday, Google announced that Android users can now control their Google Glass devices via a smartphone app. Other parts of the XE9 software update include photo Vignetts (skinning Glass-taken photos over their display), and better Google app support and usage. Source: Marketing Land

Apple Totally Whelms At iPhone Unveiling

You probably already saw the new iPhone 5C (cheaper) and 5S (more expensive), so I’ll just tell you to click-through and review the new features of each before deciding where you’ll be throwing money in a year. Source: CNN Tech

Notable Commentary

Using YouTube For Local SEO

Few local businesses even attempt to drive traffic to their websites using video, which means there’s great opportunity for those that do. But we’re not talking about uploading a TV ad produced for the local 10 o’clock news. Chris Silver Smith at Search Engine Land shares the essential elements of a local video SEO strategy, from content ideas to geotags. Analysis by: Chris Silver Smith, Search Engine Land

A Very Smart Discussion About A Keyword-Less Future For Search Engines

“Without any context and out of nowhere, if you walked up to someone and said, ‘delivery’ — they might think you were nuts.” That’s easily the funniest, and best defining, sentence within this combo article from Paul Bruemmer and Barbara Starr, in which they discuss the future of SEO and Google’s ultimate mission to provide answers in the best context possible. Analysis By: Paul Bruemmer, Search Engine Land

It’s Hard To Complain About Google After Reading This

If you love ethical dilemmas with a sea of gray area, you’ll love this SMX West discussion with Matt Cutts and Patrick Thomas. Both Googlers let the audience try their hand at making decisions they have to deal with every day. Analysis By: Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land

A Look At Google’s Manual Quality Review Process

While SEOs obsess over the latest black and white animal-themed algorithm update, Johann Beishline reminds us that Google does use a robust manual system to determine how to display the highest quality search results. Analysis By: Johann Beishline, Search Engine Journal

A Case Study On An Advertiser Boasting An 8.8/10 Quality Score

Apparently an 8.8/10 average quality score is pretty good. Read about how it happened, thanks to smart PPC work from a more-than capable advertiser. Analysis By: Larry Kim, Search Engine Land

The 2013 SEO Ranking Factors In An Easy-To-Understand Pie Chart

Rand Fishkin digs into the 2013 SEO Ranking Factors survey and breaks down the relative weights of each category in a very aesthetically pleasing pie chart. MMM…pie… Analysis By: Rand Fishkin, Moz

Look! A Free Guide To Google+ Dashboard Insights!

Jeff Chiarelli has a great introduction to Google+ Dashboard Insights, which can help businesses monitor the pulse of their Google+ page and how users are interacting with it. Analysis By: Jeff Chiarelli, Search Engine Journal

New & Old Alternatives To Google’s Defunct Keyword Research Tool

Now that the Google Keyword Tool is six feet under, Ruth Burr takes a look at viable options that won’t cost you much, if any, cash. She includes pros and cons to each tool, which is helpful in case you have a specific research strategy in mind. Analysis By: Ruth Burr, Moz