• Rand, over at SEOmoz has posted New & Interesting Insights Into Google Rankings and Spam ^[1] from Pubcon. One of the more interesting takeaways from the post is that while Google suggests a slow load time will not negatively affect your rankings, a fast load time might actually help your rankings.

• If you are looking for ways increase the time it takes for your pages to load, Search Engine Optimization Journal has a post this week entitled, Faster Load Times Really Matter. ^[2] Tips for speeding up your site include: using fewer photos and videos, using external files, and making your images smaller.

• Link building has come a long way since the 2000. The practice has gone through a dramatic evolution, starting with spammy tactics like link exchanges, link spam, and paid links, to more holistic strategies like content generation and social media. Check out Rand’s evolutionary map of the practice of link building ^[3] and ask yourself: am I behind the times?

• Improve your blog to increase your SEO rankings. Here are 25 Link Building Tactics to Improve Blog Search Rankings ^[4]. The first step is to make sure you have content worth linking to.

• The Holiday season is crucial for online retailers and SEO can help you meet your sales goals. Online Marketing Blog gives 5 SEO Tips for Online Retailers ^[5] to make sure you maximize your organic search.

• Patience is vitally important when building an SEO campaign, especially within a large organization. Search Engine Land’s, Damien Bianchi, offers “plumbing” as a metaphor for the time it takes to plan, execute and build a successful SEO campaign ^[6].

• Have you heard? Indications seem to be that Google might start considering site speed as a ranking factor ^[7] within the next year. If you can identify client sites…or your own sites…that would be disadvantaged by this…start working on it now! It really is a factor that matters to search users, and it seems likely to become a ranking factor.

• True, true: the harsh realities of social media marketing ^[8] by Sonia Simone at Copyblogger. A great summary of the most important things you need to keep in mind.

Jessica is an Account Supervisor at Hanapin Marketing ^[9], a search engine marketing firm focused on generating results through PPC and SEO.