Rand Fishkin provides options for discovering local citations after Google removed third-party reviews and listings from Places pages in the Local/Maps results. Fishkin explains what prompted the action, notes that the companies claimed unfair practices, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, and provides details on a workaround. Some of the tips include performing competitive research using Google's standard results, and methods to query multiple businesses simultaneously.Read the whole story...

Harrison Jones tells us that YouTube allows for one followable link on the channel page. While that link holds a "very high link value," there are a few non-followable links that contribute to the video's optimization. Jones explains the importance of video optimization, along with the proper method to tag and promote videos.Read the whole story...

Google has responded to the recent wave of Google+ account suspensions intended to enforce the company's common name policy outlined in section 13 of the company's User Content and Conduct Policy. Last weekend the company began enforcing the policy, deleting a large number of Google+ accounts. Ben Parr points to Google executives' admitted mistakes "with its first attempt at cracking down on fake profiles."Read the whole story...