Here is today’s round up of important and interesting news in the world of search and design. It never hurts to stay up to date with the latest trends keeping your web design clean, freshening up on your seo skills and creating video content that lasts.

Web Design: Nice and Clean Layouts
I’m always a fan of clean professional design. Here are 11 exceptional designs to draw inspiration from Paulo Gabriel @abduzeedo.com.

The Social Media Marketer’s SEO Checklist
Most SEOs have blown off links from Twitter and Facebook because they did not have direct SEO value. They are almost always nofollowed. We now know Google and Bing use Twitter and Facebook to influence regular search results, It’s time to start thinking about how you and social media can start working together to reach your SEO goals.

Here are 9 things you should be thinking about when it comes to SEO.

• Do Keyword Research
• Set Up Social Segments for Tracking
• Remember, URL Shorteners Matter
• Make Sure Content is Easily Linkable
• Canonicalize The Page (what the what?)
• Check Page Load Time
• Title Tag – Use Those Keywords!
• Meta Description
• Measure & Improve

Are older links better for SEO/ranking?
Rand Fishkin interview BlueGlass LA 2010

Why Airlines On Travel Search Engines Are Going Missing
2011 is already shaping up to be an interesting year. There is an immanent stand off taking shape between the airlines and the OTA’s. From the airlines perspective there is an opportunity to really take hold of the brand experience and create an Apple like persona for their customers. On the other hand OTA’s drive tons of traffic and revenue which impacts the airlines bottom line.Let’s not even get into Google and ITA’s relationship and how this can impact the entire travel space. It will be interesting to see how this pans out over the coming months. Read on this is a great in depth article from Elisabeth Osmeloski @searchengineland.

The 6 Biggest SEO Mistakes
Whether you are just getting started or have been doing this for years Simon Heseltine @searchenginewatch recommends keeping these 6 SEO no no’s off your list:

• Home is Not Where the Traffic is
• Moving the Staging Robots.txt to the Production Site
• Duplicate Meta Tags
• Using “Click Here”
• Set it and Forget it – SEO is not a once and done process
• Impatience

Eight Ways to Create Enough Video Content to Last 18 Months
Why creating online video content is key in keeping the attention of your desired audience
If you’re a B2B marketer, churning out awesome content in the form of whitepapers, articles, case studies, and the like is good—but you’re going to need more if you want people to keep paying attention. Today’s audiences love watching online video. Studies show that online video improves email click-through rates, sales conversions, and search engine rankings; it’s no wonder marketers are funneling more budget dollars into this tantalizing medium. Here are Pete Savage @marketingprofs.com‘ s 8 ways to create lots’o video content.

• Repurpose
• Whitepapers: Create Video Executive Summaries
• Case Studies: Create Video Versions
• Webinars: Snip and Expand
• Give a Sneak Peek at Upcoming Content
• Tradeshows and Conferences: Interview Customers
• Create a Content-Rich Microsite
• Get Personal with a Q&A Session