While everybody is talking about content farms right now, most people seem to overlook the far more important change that took place recently: Google has incorporated social search results right into the regular ones . Until now they displayed searches by your Twitter, FriendFeed or Google Buzz friends below the regular organic results. These changes are even more profound; I can't explain them in a few short sentences.

* It's 2011 and by now I expect most people to know what Twitter is and how it works. Still, many people who should know better commit unpleasant mistakes - or rather they ignore the Twitter netiquette . They do things that make me unfollow them. I'm on Twitter for business and I expect to get valuable information from it, as well as some serious social networking with my industry peers.

* Site speed has been the foremost discipline of website optimisation since even before SEO appeared. In the early days of the Internet, connections were so slow that people jokingly referred to the WWW as the world wide wait . I remember those days. I used to type in a URL and then take a book to read while it was loading. I've been using a high speed connection )DSL( for a decade now and most people now do too. Nonetheless, some people are still using modems,

* For most people, SEO still is either a complete unknown, magic​ or the scapegoat for almost everything that doesn't work on the Web.​ In particular, bloggers seeking attention, publicity and links love to leverage all the ignorance and prejudice​ and launch attacks on SEO as a whole again and again. Recently, another popular blogger, who leads one of the most important technology blogs )which uses all kinds of SEO techniques​( did it again .

* The hype of 2011 is Quora , the new Q&A site that attempts to become much better than Yahoo Answers by aiming at high quality replies.​ Everybody and his mum is on Quora it seems, especially SEO industry leaders like Rand Fishkin or Danny Sullivan. ​ I'm not very active at Quora yet but I watch it closely. While at it, I collected so many resources and opinions that I wanted to share them with you.​ As usual in such cases,

* Web tools are useful when they don't require a significant time investment to master them or use them. The best tools out there save time and make money at the same time. They don't even have to deal with time and money like time management or micropayment tools do. They just have to make sure you reach your goals as fast as possible and that you finish the tasks you work on as quickly as possible.

At the end of 2010, Google propelled local SEO to new heights by not only showing local results for search queries​ with a local ​modifier )e.g. [seo london]( but letting local results dominate such queries. Additionally, Google shows local results from Google Places by default, without users even adding a geographic signifier. So when you search for for [hotel] from London, you will be directed to hotels in London. This means that there is a lot of opportunity,

* Google's latest algorithm update has been specifically targeting so-called 'content farms'. Most people probably still don't know what a content farm, is while some sites may already be affected negatively by this update. So today I want to suggest ways to avoid being labelled as a content farm in order to stay afloat on Google. A content farm is, generally speaking, a site geared towards search engine users​. In most cases,

SEOptimise link profile on Blekko. Every site owner engaged in SEO has to strive for a natural link profile . Just as you want to have natural-sounding copy on your page without keyword stuffing and other antique spam techniques, so you want to have a link profile that does not look like one powered solely by artificial SEO. A site having only comment directory footer links most probably from link exchanges does not have a healthy link profile,

Recently I bookmarked a good entry level SEO glossary of current SEO terms. A few weeks ago I complained ​about some people still using obsolete and inaccurate SEO terms such as "keyword density" . Additionally, I missed many new or important terms on this list which I read about and often use, but many people, on the Web at least, don't. Thus I won't assume that everybody knows them already. Instead I want to define here 30 )new( SEO terms you have to know in 2011 .

It's not only the black hat and the paranoid who are increasingly wary of Google's privacy issues. Google Analytics has come under attack repeatedly in Europe. Recently, German government officials even threatened to ​declare Google Analytics illegal. While I consider Google Analytics a minor threat to privacy compared to other Google products and services )like Doubleclick, Google toolbar or Google Chrome(, I think there is still room for improvement.

* While we Web professionals may assume that virtually everybody is using social media these days it's far from the truth. People use social media but businesses don't . A recent study shows that 94% of businesses actually do not use social media even for the most obvious task it's good for: Getting feedback . That's akin to not using cars, phones or electricity​ in the first half of the 20th century.

* Do you measure keyword temperature to improve your SEO? You don't? Well what about keyword density ? Also there are other exotic metrics​ to fool you into believing you do something for your site's SEO. Sounds weird? Then read on. The story starts like this: In recent days I've been haunted by the ghastly specters of the past. In several cases I've had to do with metrics long gone or which weren't ever meaningful in the first place.

* Michael Martinez of SEO Theory published an article a few days ago that explains in depth how useless it is to chase Google's algorithm. I won't repeat what he wrote here, you can read his explanation in case you haven't yet: Martinez refers to reverse engineering the Google algorithm as futile and decries good old ranking factors as obsolete. I would probably not go as far as he does but nonetheless my approach is similar.

After writing the rather humorous post on predictions for 2011 I noticed more and more trends so I finally decided to write a 30 trends for 2011 list again this year. These trends are the ones you really have to know about if you ask me. These changes take place already or are unfolding and you can't afford to ignore them as an SEO, web design or other Web professional.

OK, for 2009 and 2010 I had made my huge 30 Web Trends lists. Some of them turned out be true others did not. No surprise here. This year I turned a bit lazy. I won't offer you 30 predictions for 2011 I'm quite sure about I will predict only the things I'm almost absolutely sure about. OK, maybe some of them are a bit funny or over the top but who wants business as usual? SEO won't die in 2010.

Recently both my own SEO Blog SEO 2.0 and the SEOptimise blog have been featured in a few "top SEO blogs" lists. While I was of course delighted to get so much appreciation for publication I write for I also noticed that some of the " best blogs " weren't best at all while other really good blogs about SEO were missing. Thus I decided to compile a list of 30 great SEO blogs you might not know yet . These blogs and the respective bloggers involved are often funny,

* The UK SEO community was so inspiring during the last several days. After the sudden death of Jaamit Durrani , one of the most popular UK SEO specialists the community has proven that even a huge loss like this one can have a positive impact. The way people have come together to support Jaamit and his family and to spread the love all over the Web and in real life as well has made the virtual tubes feel a bit warmer this winter.

* E​very time I read somewhere that " SEO is dead " I get scared. I'm not scared because I'm afraid my clients will read such a post and then quit paying me for SEO services. I'm terrified because I know that SEO is a zombie! Every time it's dead it gets up and becomes even more complex, eating up my brain. Lately the "SEO is dead" meme turns more and more bizarre though. The more SEO booms by the numbers )and I mean money not just traffic!

* Those who know me outside of my role as an SEOptimise writer are aware that I advocate a new approach to SEO called SEO 2.0 which encompasses both social media and SEO elements. I haven't pushed my own agenda here on SEOptimise but I still believe that it's true. On the modern Web you don't focus solely on Google or other search engines. Some people mistake SEO 2.0 for a buzzword that means social media marketing but it's not that either. SEO 2.