* Like most people, SEO practitioners reflect on the past year and attempt to improve their skills in the new year. If you haven't made up your mind what exactly you want to change in the coming year, check out these suggestions for 30 SEO resolutions for 2012 that draw on modern industry best practices and growing trends. Content Creation I will create less shallow content and more quality " one of a kind " pieces of content.

* Sharing is the key activity when it comes to proper social media participation and beyond . When you don't share anything on the web today, you can't compete with those who do. They get all the attention, links and ultimately sales or whatever they are after. So where are we sharing online? How do you actually share? What tools help you with sharing? I compiled a list of 36 Social Media sharing resources that cover a variety of content types, such as how to articles,

Recently I've written about Klout score optimisation . Since then I and others who outed themselves as actively using Klout have been attacked by self proclaimed SEO stars and other people who seemingly "hate Klout". Can you hate a metric? Obviously people get very emotional when it comes to Klout. Klout measures the social media influence of people . While it fails at determining your real life influence,

* It's this time of year again! In the previous years my web trends lists were very successful, both as predictions and by traffic or number of shares. People working in the web industries want to know what's ahead. So for 2012 I want to tell you again what's coming up. Basically I'm not predicting anything here; instead I just list trends you can already see and measure, but which will be obvious next year.

While the search industry has been all abuzz with the bad news of Google SSL search , most average people might not even understand what happened. They may wonder " why is )not provided( my most popular keyword in Google Analytics? " )Other analytics solutions might not even show up this data at all(. Also: how can you fix it? First off, I want to explain in simple terms what happened. I tried to explain it to my wife recently and she didn't understand at once.

In an ideal world everybody uses analytics tools in a way that ensures that conversions leads sales ROI get tracked and both client and SEO can see where the most valuable visitors come from and how SEO efforts contribute to the overall success of a site. Sadly, in reality it's not always as easy to accomplish . While it's now easier to sell analytics services to clients )as everybody agrees that you need them and clients are quick to give you access to Google Analytics(,

​In recent months, a few non-SEO related and one search marketing publication gained significant attention with the good old technique of " SEO myths " posts. A while ago I argued that I prefer to spread the correct SEO best practices than to repeat SEO myths, even when meaning to debunk them. You know the brain does not always remember the "no". It remembers the myths, so writing about them perpetuates them. Well,

* ​ Google is now not the only monopolist on many search markets including the UK, but the mega-corporation is overtaking new markets, crushing the competition with more or less ruthless tactics. Some SEO industry pundits such as Aaron Wall already advise you to prepare for a time after SEO when Google will finally keep most clicks for itself. The tendency is already there,

Bookmarks are now links . The artist formerly known as social bookmarking site Delicious.com has been relaunched by the new owners Avos , run by the former founders of YouTube. The new site is clean, simple and image oriented. Obviously Delicious has learned from the many image bookmarking sites out there that have sprung all over the Web in the recent years. On the other hand the new site focuses on social sharing and commenting as well.

* Just a few years ago SEO was really simple . You had to be in the top 10 or rather in the top 3 for relevant keywords. Then the traffic came and with it the leads, sales or whatever you wished. Today there is no real top 10 anymore . Even if you are at #1 in the organic search results, you might be below the "fold" so that users have to scroll to see your site on the Google search results page aka SERP .

* Recently there has been much talk about Klout . You could call it a swelling hype. Usually a new service goes all out to get noticed but Klout has been around for quite a while . Over time the service which attempts to identify and classify influencers on social media has gained considerable influence itself. There are already lots of lists with Klout score optimisation techniques. Some remind me of old school SEO. Indeed,

* When recently asked "what is your favorite SEO tool?" I could think of none other than Google Webmaster Tools . While many SEO experts will probably disagree and suggest to use some paid SEO tools suite, I'd like to explain my choice and present you with 44 Google Webmaster Tools resources . Over the years Google has greatly improved the free Webmaster Tools.

* The Google+ honeymoon might be over but many people are still active on the site. As Google+ has some shortcomings, lacking features and usability flaws, there are now numerous tools to deal with these issues. I've compiled a list of the most promising ones. I haven't tested all the tools, just a few, so please report issues in the comments. I have chosen only those that seemed to make sense and have been recommended by other publishers or social media friends of mine.

* Initially Google+ was the darling of most media pundits . It was shiny, new and it grew like no other social network before. It was a typical infatuation with a new hype. Now that most Internet power users have already joined and been trying Google+ for a while the honeymoon seems to be over . Several issues have marred the rise of the new Google social network. Most of the issues are home grown. The dynamics of a top down social media launch,

Other SEO blogs linking to us While perusing the SEOptimise Google Analytics reports for last month, I noticed a few traffic spikes where I did not necessarily expect them. Upon taking a closer look, I discovered that many major traffic sources only show up as such on blogs , or rather blogs that are popular on social media. I write for and contribute to several blogs so that I can compare the stats of other top blogs as well.

* On SEO forums one of the most often discussed topics are Google penalties . Webmasters seek help to determine whether and why they have been penalised by Google. They also want to know how to deal with the penalty once it's established that they have been hit by one. What is a Google penalty and what isn't? There seem to be different definitions floating around. While Google employees will tell you that many SEO issues described as penalties aren't actually penalties,

With the start of Google+ your Google Profile is more important than ever. I've seen lots of Google Profiles that were broken in one or more ways recently when trying to find out who the people are who put me in their circles. Also my name is by no means easy to remember, so I had to optimise my profile as well. Let me tell you the most important ways to optimise your Google profile. Make sure you use a bigger image than just the tiny thumb you'll see elsewhere on Google+.

* Over the weekend I struggled to find out what Google+ actually is and how I can use it. I didn't even bother to use advanced features where I have to install additional software to use. I don't want Google Installer to mess with my new computer, and I was unable to delete it from my old one. I couldn't even stop the process that automatically started with each boot. So I don't trust Google software anymore.

* Trunk.ly is the killer app nobody really talks about . It deserves the hype of Friendfeed or Quora, but barely anybody notices the huge impact it may have in future and it's only rarely that someone explains how useful it already is. A few articles urge you to use it, but Trunk.ly is indeed the solution for half a dozen Web-related problems almost everybody faces. First and foremost,

One of the few products Google doesn't offer yet* It seems Google wants to inundate us with new tools, products and services these days. Is this a way to divert attention away from all the bad news about antitrust lawsuits, the FTC and the like? I don't know. In any case, there are lots of new tools to test. Many of these will have a huge impact on search and the Web as a whole in future. Others mights seem less noteworthy at first,