Linkarati Roundup #22

Hello and welcome to another edition of the Linkarati Roundup, where we feature the best link building and SEO content of the week.

This week has been as busy as ever, with tons of great information, insight, data, and news. Let's jump into it.

1. Gene McKenna's "Experiment Shows up to 60% of "Direct" Traffic is Actually Organic."

McKenna of Groupon reports the results of an absolutely fascinating experiment: deindexing Groupon's website from Google for six hours resulted in a 60% drop in "direct" traffic. Staggering implications, meaning that search traffic is potentially even more valuable (and misreported). SEOs take note.

2. Bill Sebald's "Content Alone Can't Build Links."

Sebald beautifully articulates why content alone isn't enough in today's online marketing era. With the amount of noise online content needs promotion, and promoters that understand the web and how to gain links (SEOs).

3. Larry Kim's "The Smoking Gun: Deleted Google Author Photos Boost Ad CTR."

SEOs have been less than pleased with Google's decision to pull author photos from Google Authorship rich snippets. More than a few have theorized that real reason is due to author photos negatively affecting ad click through rates (CTR). Larry Kim is able to show, with data, that for at least one SERP this is true.

4. Mark Traphagen's "Author Photos are Gone: Does Google Authorship Still Have Value?"

Traphagen, as perhaps the largest proponent for Google Authorship, writes a long and detailed post concerning the recent changes of Google Authorship and whether or not it's still worth the time and energy. No spoilers here - go read the post for yourself (it's worth it).

5. Cassie Gillette's "5 Bad Link Building Habits to Break Now."

Great for beginning link builders, this post highlights five potentially bad habits link builders need to shake. Link building has changed greatly since 2012 and the release of Penguin. Gillette highlights bad habits from a bygone era.

6. Nemek Nowaczyk's "Quick SEO Wins: 31 Ideas from the Experts."

All SEOs have felt the frustration of trying to tame client expectations and push the concept of long term project versus just quick wins. However, it's always best if you can net a few early wins to show progress and justify expenditure. Nemek interviewed 31 influential SEOs asking for their advice when it comes to quick campaign wins. Definitely a post you need to make time to read.

7. Jennifer Slegg's "Google Rewrites Quality Rating Guide - What SEOs Need to Know."

Slegg's title says it all: Google's completely rewritten their Quality Ratings Guideline, which helps their team of quality raters review websites for Google. Slegg does a great job breaking down the relevant information and making it easy to process and digest.