This is a very detailed study on how the various criteria correlates with rankings.

Now, the big caveat is that correlation is not causation. For instance, the #1 correlation observed between the number of referring domains and the position in Google can be the result of a virtuous and amplifying cycle: content with backlinks from several domains get well ranked which means that other domains tend to refer to it as it's easily found in researching for a new piece of content. 

Still, this post is a very interesting read to get a better of sense of how SEO works. 

The lean content marketer's image sourcing problem is being slowly but surely. I've shared some other lists of similar websites before but I like this one which is curated and short.

When it comes to guest blogging, there's bad guest blogging and good guest blogging. 

Behind its good and provocative title (original title: "We're ignoring Google & it's working - here's why"), this article details why guest blogging is still a very valuable technique when done in a natural, respectful and meaningful way. 

Ever since Google's Matt Cutts openly criticized guest blogging and announced that Google was making change to put an end to it, content marketers have been puzzled. My analysis is that the guest blogging Google targets as spammy is the one any somehow successful site receives offers of: the spammy, completely irrelevant guest blogging propositions from cheap copywriters who are employed by black hat, old styles SEOs to try to create backlink artificially. If you haven't come across these proposals, good for you! But if you do, you've probably turned them down anyway out of pure common sense.

Notwithstanding that, there is still great value at doing natural guest blogging to develop your visibility by leveraging other blog and media's audiences. There's a trade-off: you can't convert from sites you don't own but it's definitely worth exploring to bootstrap and develop your readership. And here's a great article from MarketingProfs on what to expect from it.

Because Content Marketing is about publishing content, a common confusion is that it must be news.

But while content marketing can certainly be newsworthy, entertaining or even spectacular, it doesn't have to be. In boring B2B industries (not to say that all B2B is boring!), interesting doesn't mean necessarily mean fun. For prospects eager to be educated on a given topic, there's nothing more interesting than the perfect blog post that explains in a simple and actionable way how to solve this or that problem. 

Content marketer and entrepreneur Sujan Patel did a great job at giving 10 inspiring examples of how to thrive through cotnent in a boring industry.

SEO has been completely disrupted over the past 5 years: from a technically-driven, complex and obscure field, it's been changing to focus on publishing great content. A lot of SEOs failed to follow that trend but the good ones like Jayson DeMers give an articulated view of the new SEO which makes total sense - as he does in articles such as this one. 

Blogging is probably the most accessible format for content marketing. But it's also the easiest to give up: urgent priorities to deal with, lack of inspiration..., delivering enough blog content frequently to raise above the noise can be harder than it seems. 

But out it doesn't have to be. 

We put together this ebook with some of the greatest content marketers to come out with a lean methodology to deliver a consistent blogging experience to your readers based on content curation. 

Tell us us what you think!

Fantastic story of a black hat SEO link builder who became a millionaire working 10 hours a week before Google's algorithm changes destroyed his business and pushed him to embrace content marketing and inbound strategies. 

A great story on the rise and fall of he old SEO.