“Search Plus Your World” (SPYW or Search+) is the name that Google has given to a feature that not only includes but actually gives preference to personally relevant results in any given Google search. According to The Official Google Blog:

“Search is pretty amazing at finding that one needle in a haystack of billions of webpages, images, videos, news and much more. But clearly, that isn’t enough. You should also be able to find your own stuff on the web, the people you know and things they’ve shared with you, as well as the people you don’t know but might want to… all from one search box.

We’re transforming Google into a search engine that understands not only content, but also people and relationships”

Sounds very nice, but one can’t help noticing that ‘personalized results’ tend to give plenty of Google+ results. Facebook and Twitter are only the most well-known of social sites that have been left out of the results (in Google’s explanation, because they refused to have their data scanned). So any Google search will look for matching terms among people, businesses, and comments within Google+, and highlight them at the very top of the first page.

In other words, Google seems to be handing themselves (and their preferred partners) the ‘golden ring’ that SEOs work so hard to deliver to clients — not to mention creating serious concerns about anti-competitive practices, for which the company has been investigated, warned, and censured numerous times.

“The big questions for me are around regulation and government actions,” says Randy Fishkin of SEOMoz. “If Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and others rally their lobbying forces, we could see a serious challenge to how Google’s allowed to operate and leverage search to promote their own properties.”

Granted, one can easily see classic ‘non-personal’ results simply by not signing in, hitting the “hide personal results” button on the top right of the results page, or switching the service off completely in your Options menu (at the far right of the black Google bar). But critics assert that any of these steps are too much to ask, and that Google is abusing its position to push its own social networking platform.

This is merely the latest Google change that negatively affects traditional SEO strategies. After the 2010 “May Day” algorithm change and the following year’s “Panda” update, many SEO professionals began to feel that Google was specifically trying to freeze them out. Later in 2011, Google’s embrace of more privacy and secure browsing via SSL and HTTPS Everywhere sparked serious criticism from SEO pros who observed that referrer data was being lost for most, but preserved for Google’s clients.

Indeed, one “search engine guru” in particular — Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land — calls Google’s behavior throughout 2011 “alarming” and “a big step back.”

“Increasingly over the years, search engines — Google in particular — have given more and more support to SEOs and publishers,” Sullivan writes. “But 2011 marked the first significant reversal that I can recall, with both linking and keyword data being withheld.”

One must raise the objection that Google is simply attempting to deliver higher-quality organic results, and that it is precisely the efforts of SEOs (from the whitest hat to the blackest) that have forced Google to penalize certain practices — to tilt the search result ‘playing field’ back toward useful web sites, rather than simply those that know how to play the SEO game. And most seasoned SEO pros understand that change and progress is not simply to be expected but embraced.

“SEOs wedded to old style strategies are less likely to welcome Search+,” says Andrew Girdwood of Big Mouth Media. “SEOs who have evolved to a multi-signal approach, who already work with engaging content and encouraging social and other signals are in a strong position to do well. All SEOs will now have to work with clients to help produce the sort of content that will do well in Google’s new world.”

But the real danger is not a level playing field, but one that may be tilted too far in Google’s direction. Harvard Professor Ben Edelman makes a strong case that anything with Google’s name on it is a far surer bet than any SEO when it comes to moving up the search rankings.

“I’ve found more than a dozen Google services receiving favored placement in Google search results,” writes Edelman. “Some have developed into solid products with loyal users. Others are far weaker. But each enjoys a level of favored placement in Google search results that other services can only dream of.”

“Certainly myriad sites added Google +1 buttons (giving Google both data and real estate) not because they genuinely wanted Google buttons on their sites, but because they feared others would overtake them in search results if they failed to employ Google’s newest service.”

Author bio: Darren Bradley is a SEO professional who writes for deals.servicebundles.com which helps supply people with FiOS Internet. If you would like to learn more, click here.

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Article source: Is Google Trying to Put SEO’s Out of Business?

Peculiar tastes

I love pens and I’m a sucker for fine-liners.  There’s just something about them that makes the whole experience of writing and drawing a little more tactile, sensuous or retro.  I like tactile, I like sensuous and I like retro.  Despite making a living by using a keyboard to write with I still love a good pen and still write with them when I get the chance.  Now a good pen, when you find one, should be for life.  Then the gel-filled, fine-lined experience runs dry, you get that empty feeling, your world seems meaningless and is filled only with a dusty old keyboard with a dodgy “p” key that doesn’t always work.  Time to search the wondrous web for “Pen Refills”, here are two very different attempts by Google to satiate my peculiar tastes.

Sexy pens

The top result took me to a site which basically tried to appeal to my sense of being a sophisticated, sexy, mature individual.  OK, I’ve reached the dizzying heights of 40, and long ago lost any allusion that I am sophisticated.  I’m not much more than a big kid really – despite the fact I won’t see forty again my birthday presents usually consist of a bag of Drumstick Lollies and other delightful fizzy chews.  So that’s sophisticated and mature out the window, I’m not discussing the other technique they were trying to cajole me with.  Thing is, I don’t want a pen to make me look sophisticated or mature and I’m not sure it’s possible to look sexy with one – well not if you have a chewy lolly in the other hand, anyway.

We sell pen refills

This was the fourth result that came up.  You may be guessing by now this was the site I bought from.  No nonsense, no appealing to my ego, this company did exactly what they said on the screen.    It not only sold pens, they even had the angle that these were ‘cult pens’ – as if being obsessed with fine-liners made you part of some weird, but harmless, sect.  Well, we all like to belong.  The site also offered me a prize draw for something shiny and modern, called an I-phone.  I had to buy more pens than I wanted in order to enter, but in addition to getting the chance of winning something shiny and new that might go some way to making me look a bit younger and possibly sexy,  I now get regular updates tempting me with fine-liners and other gel based excitements.

Conclusions anyone?

I was going to attempt to draw conclusions from this experience but perhaps you should be left to draw your own.  One point that should be made is that as a copywriter I’m particularly difficult to sell to – with the possible exception of fizzy chews.  The first of the two sites had more SEO copywriting than you could shake a pen at.  It certainly appealed to the search engine but not to me.  Perhaps the harder trick in SEO Copywriting is to know your human niche and appeal to them just as much as the robot you’re trying so hard to please.

Apple Copywriting provide SEO copywriting which is not afraid to be simple.  Take a bite.

Article source: You Can’t Always Get What You Want – The Other Side of SEO Copywriting

What is Google Places?

In your previous Google searches, you’ve probably noticed that some search results produce a map to the right hand side with little lettered pins. These pins also correspond to listings in the search results that provide you with a URL along with an address and phone number. For example, if I was searching for a Bellevue Doctor, my results page would look sometime like this:

If you click on the “Place Page” or “Google Reviews” hypertext, it will take you to that particular Places page that provides you with more information like ratings, driving directions, photos, videos, business hours, etc. Every business can create their own free Google Places page – all they have to do is claim it and optimize it.

Why Does Google Places Matter?

It really comes down to two things: visibility and accessibility. Search Marketing is all about visibility, and Google Places provides an easy and free way for you to get exactly that. Most places listing show up at the top, or at least near the top of search results pages. Consequently, they are usually the first thing people see when searching for products or services in their local area. This SEOmoz blog post has some great visuals about this. The accessibility benefit stems from the fact that in one glance, any searcher can see your business phone number and address. And with one click, searchers can see a myriad of information about your business on your Places page, even third party reviews.

How do I Claim or Create my Listing?

First, you should find out if a Places listing already exists for your business. Anyone can create a listing for any business, but claiming, or verifying, that listing ensures that you are the only one who can edit and optimize that listing from then on. If you have found that a Places listing has already been created for your business, all you will have to do is claim it and you can be on your way to optimizing it. If no listing exists for your business, you can create one easily if you already have a Google account. There are a few different ways Google has set to verify listings, but the most common are by automated phone call or by sending a post card through tradition mail. Verification methods can vary by country, so be sure to check with methods are offered in your country. With whatever method you choose, Google will provide you with a PIN that will be used to claim your listing online.

What Information Should I Put on My Listing?

As much as possible! Part of Google’s ranking factors for local listing takes into account how complete your listing is. Obviously you want to make sure your Places page has the basics like your address, phone number, photos, and videos if possible. But you’ll also want to include, driving directions, business hours, public transit options, etc. You’ll also want to be sure to list for business for all relevant categories, and particularly those that are similar to your targeted SEO keywords.

What if I Have Bad Reviews?

If you are claiming your business listing that was already created, you might find that people have already left some less-than-ideal comments and reviews. While bad reviews certainly aren’t optimal, they’re not the worst thing that can happen. In fact, experiments by industry gurus and shown that the positivity or negativity of your reviews don’t affect how high your Places page shows in the local listings. The best thing you can do to recover from bad reviews is to A) respond to the review publicly as the owner and/or B) Ask your happy customers to help. You might be surprised at how many of your happy customers would be willing to write about their experience with your business if you just ask!

How Can My Listing Get to the Top?

In addition to the number of reviews your Places page has, citations are also an important local ranking factor. A citation is basically anywhere where your business name, address and phone number are found together throughout the internet. Google correlates the number of citations that can be found throughout the web with how high your Places page ranks in the local listings. You can create citations for your business on lots of other local listing sites. Most are free, though you may have to go through a verification process as well.

Conclusion

With a little time and effort, your new Google Places page can produce big results for your storefront business. Not only does it provide a great opportunity for visibility and accessibility, but it gives you another platform where you can interact with your current and potential customers. You can always find more information about Google Places straight from the source at the Google Places Home Page.

Author Bio

Erika Potter is the online marketing specialist for a Salt Lake City Ad Agency. In her free time, she enjoyes freelance writing, traveling, and enjoying the beautiful Rocky Mountains.

Article source: Google Places 101

Spelling Mistakes and Grammatical Errors

You might have the best ideas in your blog but if you lack basic grammar skills then you’ve reduced all your hard work to nothing. Readers don’t want to read poorly executed articles. They visit your website for help and information and not to correct grammatical errors.

Even the simplest mistakes make reading extremely difficult and excruciating. So why would they linger on your website if they could get the same information on another website. You could always search for a terms proper spelling using the internet. Search engines are not English teachers that give your website a failing grade each time you misspell a word. It is when people start leaving your websites that search engines gives your site a corresponding downgrade.

Poorly Organized Content

Reading an article should not be a roller coaster ride. It should be a smooth ride guiding your readers towards an end you want to achieve. If you don’t organize your articles properly, readers lose sense of where they are going. Outline your article and find out the best ways to arrange the topics before you pound on the keyboard.

Continuous Flow of Ideas

Readers want to read something well-organized. Your article should be a smooth downhill glide from top to bottom. It helps if you finish your articles in one sitting. It’s perfectly fine to take breaks in between but be sure to hit those keyboards as soon as possible to get you back on track immediately. This way, you are able to retain your subconscious coherence and create a smooth-flowing article. Of course, be sure to proofread and edit your articles before publishing.

Search for your Personal Voice

Blog articles don’t have to sound professional all the time. Sometimes, readers want to read something crisp. As a blogger, it is your privilege to give your opinion once in a while. Letting the world know a piece of your mind is not exactly a safe undertaking. You are likely to get opposition and criticisms. But it is these reactions that increase participation in your blog. Stand up for what you believe in and you will get the respect of others.

Poorly Researched Content

It would be a sin to comment on a topic you haven’t done any research on. Making an opinion based on the tip of an iceberg can get you in a lot of trouble that what you’ve bargained for. Be sure to do your research before writing on any topic. Your articles should reflect a solid grasp of the topic before commenting either way. Remember you are trying to market yourself as an expert and not another rumor monger.

You must be aware that readers do not have time for poorly written articles. They have a whole bunch of great articles on the web to choose from just waiting to be clicked. So better learn how to turn your website into a virtual space where people could spend quality time and keep coming back for help and information.

This is a guest post by Suzzane Edwards who is a financial advisor and currently works as a consultant for small businesses. When she’s not writing for Cash for Gold, she could be found blogging about simple tips on how people could take advantage of the internet’s numerous business opportunities.

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Article source: 5 Common Mistakes That Drag Your Search Engine Rankings Down

1. Use a spell-checker. Although most document creation programs offer some sort of automatic spell-checker, be sure to recheck your post using a spell-checker before it goes live. Sometimes, in the heat of typing, we miss that squiggly red line telling us something is misspelled.
2. Print before posting. Print your post before you publish it on your blog and read through it thoroughly. Seeing it in print instead of on your screen can help you spot elusive errors.
3. Read your posts out loud. To ensure your blog posts are flawless, read them out loud to yourself before publishing them. Your ears often recognize awkward phrases and mistakes more easily than your eyes.
4. Take a break. Before clicking “publish,” take a break from your blog. Do something completely different and then come back and read your post. Even just a few minutes away is often enough time to make it easier to spot errors you originally missed.
5. Ask for help. Have a friend, colleague or family member who has excellent writing skills review your posts before they go live. Even the most experienced writers have editors to help proofread their writing. Why shouldn’t you?
6. Hire an editor. If you don’t know anyone who will accurately review your blog posts for free, hire an editor. Professional editors can quickly review your posts for you, editing both for grammatical errors and content issues.
7. Double-check your posts for common mistakes. A spell-checker won’t catch misused homophones, so double-check your posts for this type of error. Also, check that your verb tenses are consistent throughout your posts.
8. Follow the basic rules of grammar. Although everyday American speech may have sentences that start with conjunctions like “and,” “but” or “so,” make sure the sentences in your blog posts do not. Also, be sure to never end a sentence with a preposition.
9. Double-check your facts. Don’t just rely on one source for the facts used in your blog post. An accidental misstatement of facts will make readers think they can’t trust your posts.
10. Double-check the spelling of proper nouns. Not only will this help ensure your blog posts are flawless, but it will also help to build your readership. For instance, if your post is about a group of Hollywood celebrities, misspelling their names will prevent your post from showing up in search engine results when potential readers search for the specific celebrity names in your post.

Randall Davidson is a co-founder of ProofreadingServices.Us, an online company that offers English proofreading services. ProofreadingServices.Us is particularly well-known for offering thesis proofreading services.

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Article source: 10 Ways to Ensure Your Blog Posts are Flawless Every Time

The Old Way

Previously, when people wanted to recall something, they had to do a little more work. They had to locate a specific book and page number and read through it. Or, they had to contact someone who did have the information via a phone call, letter or face-to-face meeting. They had to think a lot more about the facts they required, and the facts were easier to remember because they put in all that effort. They would be more likely to commit the fact to their own memory, because if they forgot they’d have to go through the process again to find out.

The New Way

Now, to find out anything, we simply type it in the Google search engine box. Instantly, thousands of potential answers are available to us. We very quickly come up with an answer, and because it was so easy, we often quickly forget the information as soon as it served its purpose for us. We don’t commit the information to memory because we know we can just as easily find it again whenever we need to. Rather than remember the fact itself, we remember where to find it again.

Downsides

While there are many positive aspects of Google, how it affects our memory is one of its downsides. The more we practice remembering things, the better we become at it. If we don’t have to remember anything because of Google, we won’t be as good at recalling something when we do need to. If we’re ever in a situation where we require facts but don’t have access to Google, we may feel very lost and unsure of what to do. Relying solely on Google for our memory can have great consequences if we are ever without it.

Allowing Google to become our memory can also potentially cheapen our thought processes. If we don’t remember simple facts, we will have a much more shallow understanding of concepts. When we lack informational memories, we are prevented from developing deeper thoughts and ideas that could be based on those memories. If we need deeper knowledge, we will only turn to Google again rather than using our own memories to come up with a practical answer.

The information-overload that comes with using Google is also bad for our memories because we’re faced with too many potential sources of answers to our questions. We can’t always focus on the information we need right away because we have to sort through many possibilities. We have to filter out information that could be incorrect or inaccurate, and we’ll potentially read many answers to a question rather than just the one we truly need. We can’t be expected to remember all of that, and we won’t, because it’s unnecessary.

What to Do

If you’re worried because Google has become your memory, you can try to take an active approach to enhancing your memorization capabilities. If you have Google-d a piece of information that you want to remember, do more than just read it and move on. Write the fact down in a notebook. The act of writing it will help you remember, and you’ll have it available to you somewhere other than the Internet. Read it out loud. Refer to it a few times a day until you have memorized it. Also, make it a point to use the information by sharing it with others or expanding upon it with more ideas. If you proactively try to increase the amount of information you remember, you can reclaim your memory back from Google.

From the desk of Terry Ford, a writer with a passion for technology who edits her work using Grammarly grammar checker with the confidence of a web tool designed to detect over 150 types of grammatical errors.

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Article source: Has Google Become Our Memory?

Image by LiquidSmokeBXNYC

The perception of being not famous

The first excuse that many people give is that you don’t have to be a famous blogger to make big bucks. They have the perception that even with a smaller audience they can make sufficient money if they provide their readers quality and authentic stuff with consistency. Some people are simply content with giving coaching classes for one hour and making 50 to 100 dollars. They are even content with having as few as 100 subscribers to their blog. This feeling of content hinders their progress and stops them from developing into famous bloggers.

Some people also have wrong perception about themselves. They consider themselves minors compared to those reputed bloggers which is not the right attitude because no matter how small you are you can promote your own product. You can also turn big bloggers into affiliates if your product is one that complements their own. They will write about their own product but along with it they will be indirectly promoting your product as well.

Why your website is not getting the desired results?

People also complain that they have been working on their site for three to four years but it has not gained any popularity. The precise reason for this is that people don’t know about your site so you have to let them know that your site exists. For this purpose the best way is to write guest posts on different blogs or promoting your site on social media web sites because people are more interested in reading new blogs as well as socializing. Therefore, involving new audience is very important for the growth of the site because internet trafficking is what improves the rank of your site or blog.

Some people who are weak in social networking complain that they don’t know how to get in touch with people. The easiest way to bring new people to your blog or site is by using twitter. Twitter is one way where you can add more people and they will be interested in reading your tweets. If few people like the concept of your site then more people will follow you on twitter and that’s how your network will grow. This will bring more traffic to your site as well. You can also follow other bloggers on twitter and get to know about their blogging strategies and also start joint venture with them by agreeing to promote their product in return for promoting your own.

All these excuses should be kept aside when you are looking to be well renowned blogger because excuses only satisfy your conscience but they are no good when it comes to achieving the goal.

Looking for 3I0-010 exam help? Let’s take advantage of Self Test Engine self paced  3I0-008 training and pass your IT exams on first try.

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Article source: Top Excuses Given by Non-Famous Bloggers

Giving a Good User Experience Counts
Greg Makuch, owner of a Canadian hosting company, gave the straight goods on getting the best SEO performance from your website while providing a good user experience. Not only should your hosting provider have the ability and flexibility to choose the best options to boost your web page load time, but Greg stresses the importance of on page SEO factors as well.

Good SEO results are enhanced through fast load times coupled with proper on-page SEO techniques, as explained below.

Creating the appropriate on page SEO involves several variables. Looking at any page to find the best SEO strategy can be overwhelming. However, if the pages are broken down into sections, the webmaster can learn what is required from each area. This can be confusing at times, particularly with the vast amount of (often conflicting) information available. Here’s what you really need to know:

The Keywords
Long before the website pages are set up, it’s a good idea to have the keywords ready. Without them, webmasters won’t be able to enjoy “the fruits” of proper on page SEO. Keywords should offer high number of searches and low competition, which provides a better opportunity to reach the first page of the search engines for that word or phrase. Think about what your users are likely to enter in a search bar to find you. A little research should tell you which keywords don’t have a high level of competition, yet are still relevant.

Another area of concern will be the URL. This is what website owners will type into the web browser to access their website. The web address offers more benefits if it has at least one of the keywords in the domain name. While the domain should be short, it has to have words that will tell viewers what it is all about without visiting the site.

The Pages
Each page will have different keywords associated with it. In order to attract people from all different areas of the Internet, try to alternate the keywords per page. Also, adding the title of the page to the page’s URL is highly recommended.

For instance, if the title of one page is “How to care for flowers in the winter”, the URL should read www.yourdomainname.com/how-to-care-for-flowers-in-the-winter. Hyphens help differentiate the title, so make sure they are used all the time.

Title and Header Tags
There are several tips associated with header and title tags. The information should be somewhere in between 10 to 60 characters in length. The best way to utilize this area is by placing the keyword or phrase closer to the beginning of the tag (similar to how it is done in the title of an article).

Meta tags offer another place to let the search engines know about the website, but Google doesn’t rely upon them for on page SEO purpose in the same format. It’s still recommended that they are used, but only for theme purposes.

There is also a keyword meta tag area. Whatever keywords are placed in this area have to appear in the body of the page’s content. There should not be duplicate words either. Websites found with the same word more than once will make the site look like spam. Even though Google doesn’t rely upon this area, there are still other search engines that use it.

Content Body
Creating content is an art form, but there are basic formulas that must be utilized for on page SEO. A good place to start is by placing the keyword or phrase in the first sentence of the first paragraph. If the webmaster has different variations of the keywords or secondary keywords, they should be used as well.

The rest of the content should have the keywords sprinkled throughout it. There are several different strategies to this, so it’s partially a matter of whom or what you believe. However, no matter how good a keyword is, informative and helpful content is better.

Additional Help
All of the information here will maximize the benefits of on page SEO. A fast web hosting company is also recommended. Major search engines like to see the speed and load times of a site, so take advantage of it. The finished product will be one that produces more traffic and hopefully more conversions.

User Experience
Without question, good user experience is becoming more critical for good search engine rankings. All things being equal, Google favors web pages that load quickly and provide the visitor with a good experience. So you want to make sure you have a good hosting company offering reseller tools such as a WHM account if your reselling services to manage your clients web sites. Other good user experience signals used by Google include average time on page, bounce rate (the percentage of times one page is visited with the visitor leaving the site without visiting any other pages during a session).

To ensure fast load times, it is imperative that a site be hosted on a fast-loading server. With that in mind, make sure your hosting company ensures good load times.

About the author: Greg Makuch is the publisher and owner of a Canadian hosting service located in Saskatchewan, Canada.

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Article source: Good User Experience A Basis for SEO Rankings

Myth 10
Get an outside service to submit your site to search engines. We’ve all seen the ads and received the emails. The truth is that no one needs a service to submit their site to the search engines. First, eventually the search engines will find your site if you build backlinks to it. Second, if you want to speed up the process, every search engine has a page where URLs can be submitted.

Myth 9
Constant website updates are essential to high search results placement. It’s a fact that there are plenty of static websites that do quite well within search results. If your site is relevant it will find its rightful position within search result rankings. This isn’t to say that keeping your site fresh is a bad thing; no, it’s a good thing. But, when you update make sure the additions and changes you make are relevant.

Myth 8
If you really want to boost your rankings, submit an XML site map to Google. Google likes XML site maps, but submitting a site map to Goggle doesn’t bump you up with search results. The map is used to make sure it has found all the pages of the site.

Myth 7
For the best SEO, use a hyphenated domain name. I’m talking about domain names like: Just-Really-Funny-Cat-Videos.com. The hyphens in the domain name don’t do much for SEO. Overuse of hyphens and keywords do ruin your credibility and brand, though. Who wants to buy from my-super-awesome-green-funny-play-toys-online-store.com?

Myth 6
Hookup with a contractor to mass build links to your site. Everyone knows that search engines evaluate back links to your site when it weighs popularity within search results. The important word in the previous sentence is “evaluate.” Low-value links from sites that have been identified as spammers won’t enhance your SEO. In fact, they might do just the opposite.

Myth 5
Stay away from Flash, it ruins your SEO. Like any cool toy, Flash has become extremely popular. Flash animations by themselves do not hurt your SEO, as long as you have adequate HTML content and navigation that has been optimized. A Flash website, with no HTML, though, would be a problem.

Myth 4
Pepper your pages with hidden links for better SEO. Website authors have been known to hide page links in tiny fonts set to the background color with the hopes of improving the search engine visibility for pages deep within their sites. Google and its little cousins are smarter than this.

Myth 3
Don’t worry about creating links to all your pages. Eventually search engines might find these “orphan” pages, but you can’t count on it, and even then they may only appear in the most esoteric or specific keyword searches. Just do it – provide links to all your pages.

Myth 2
SEO your site once and forget about it. Your website, your competitors, and Google search algorithms are all changing and growing constantly. You need to continue your SEO strategies to stay on top of the rankings.

Myth 1
Optimize your meta tags for better rankings. He who speaks of floppy disks will tell you of the day when HTML programmers loaded up webpages with enough meta tag keywords to cover a medium sized continent. As with the warm tortilla chips at Chevys, the idea was that “the more the better.” Search engine algorithms have been updated many times since then and this tactic no longer works.

Chris Turberville-Tully is the owner of Inspiration Inc., a SEO Birmingham agency. With a Masters Degree in Information Architecture, 10 years public relations experience, and years of search experience, Chris creates client strategies to deliver real value.

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Article source: It’s Time To Kill These 10 SEO Myths

So how do I get started?

Before you begin, the first thing to consider is your target market. You’ve probably already established this when your business was taking shape, however when it comes to social media, you need to look at your target market in a new light.

Different social demographics use different social media outlets, and for different reasons. While we can safely say that Facebook attracts users of all ages, genders, nationalities and interests (making it a great place to start), Twitter has in general, a much younger user base while the new Google+ currently has many more male than female users.

These of course are only a small number of the social media outlets that are available to use. If you’re unsure of what sites are best suited to your target market, and how to use them, you may benefit from the help of an online marketing company or a specialist social media agency.

What’s next?

It is also important to consider what your target audience are using social media networks for, and how to communicate with your target market in order to gain the best response.

While it can be assumed that nearly everyone uses social media as a communication tool (since essentially, that is what the sites were created for) social media has grown into an apparatus for information, competitions and even gaming. This is where the user demographics start to separate.

It is mostly younger demographics that use social media sites as a gaming platform. If you’re targeting under 18’s you should keep this in mind. Integrating a game into your business Facebook page could gain you many ‘likes’, however if you don’t have the resources to design and implement a game, simply making your page as interactive as possible should gain good results. Try posting polls, quizzes or brainteasers in order to keep your younger audience entertained.

Young adults are more likely to be interested in information or ways to save money. They might want to know about a company’s ethical policies or have questions about other aspects of your business. They may also like reading news or other articles of interest.

When it comes to those of a more mature age, keep in mind that much of your target market might be quite new to technology. They’re unlikely to be interested in gaming, but may very well be interested in factual information and developing a personal relationship with their favourite companies.

However age is only the first step in gauging your target demographic. Other factors to look at include gender, location, salary, marital status and social class.

When you have established these factors the next step is to explore the potential interests of your target demographic. For instance, what television programmes are they likely to watch? Would they prefer reading books or magazines, and what sort of books and magazines? Will they be more concerned with spending or saving? Will they have a lot of free time and what might they enjoy doing in their free time?

Running a successful social media campaign involves a lot more than talking about your company (in fact, doing too much of this could be your downfall). You need to post things of interest to your customers, making this the reason that knowing your target market inside-out is so important.

If you’re struggling to identify your target market, or to use social media to communicate with them effectively, you can get assistance from the professionals. An online marketing company or a specialist social media agency can help you to get the campaign off the ground running and to make a real success of it.

This post was written by James Harper on behalf of Boom Online Marketing. James advises organisations of all sizes on how to get the best return from the internet.

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Article source: Social Media and Your Target Market

The global hype of this cyber invention gave way to a whole new way of sharing your life with the rest of the world. But with so much personal information out in the open (regardless of settings that you can control), it is almost inevitable that your personal space and professional space interferes with one another. And oftentimes, the line between publicity and privacy gets blurred up. As these things can be much more avoided in real life, this is where The Google+ Project kicks in.

The Google+ Project is Google’s newest social media experiment. Google+ lets you connect with people on the web as you actually do in real life. The main (and unique) feature of Google+ is that it simulates how people really interact with one another, and how they actually manage their social spheres. Unlike other social networking sites such as Facebook, Google+ offers the following features:

• CIRCLES

As in real life, not everyone you know is your “friend”. Some are your family members, colleagues, acquaintances, or your significant other. And information you share with these different groups often vary as well. The Circles feature of Google+ allows you to segregate the people you know to their respective circle or group. Your friends from college may be put in one circle, your parents in another, and perhaps your lover in one circle alone. This feature makes it easy to choose which information you would want to share with a certain group.

• HANGOUTS

Whoever said random hangouts can’t materialize on the web? This feature is the next best thing to video chat. Let specific people know that you are “hanging out”. Have a face-to-face chat with whoever drops by to hang with you. If five of your friends wish to drop by and join the hangout, all of you get to chat face-to-face with each other. To make it even more realistic, the loudest one in the room gets to hoard all the attention as he/she will be at the center of the screen.

• SPARKS

Wouldn’t it be nice if instead of searching for links that match your interests, the related links find its way to you? With the Sparks feature, Google+ sends you stuff that you might like according to your indicated interest. It basically recommends specific items or news feed that pertains to the category of interest you type in the search box.

• INSTANT UPLOAD

This is one of the mobile features of Google+. Uploading photos is usually time-consuming, more so if it is taken from your mobile phone. With the Instant Upload, you take the photos, and Google+ does the upload. This automatic feature instantly copies every picture you take, and sends them to a private album in your account where you can manage them.

• HUDDLE

Gather your minions in this group chat feature specifically made for mobile phone use. Instead of texting each one from the group, invite them to the Huddle group chat where everyone gets to talk to one another, just the way you would in real life.

The Google+ Project redefines social networking as it creates a realistic interactive environment that provides a more personalized and efficient way of managing your relationships, interests, and other shared information. With real-life sharing made possible by The Google+ Project, it is not unlikely that Facebook will end up being the social networking site of yesterday.

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Search engine optimization entails the use of relevant keywords and phrases that play a big role in increasing the page rankings for our sites. Of course this helps get readers to our sites as well since it’s obvious that people use search engines to get information based on certain keywords. Once the results are produced, the person may not even go to the second page of the search engine results. This makes it important to use effective strategies so as to get high page rankings. Increasing web traffic is very vital in the web business. Of course, we all want to be on page one, but getting there is not as simple as wishing and hoping. The more competitive the industry, the harder it will be to get that great organic ranking but don’t lose heart. The more things you try, the more likely you are to succeed. Most importantly however you want to be sure you aren’t hurting you own conversion optimization and SEO efforts.

1. Not Being Selective with your Content and Keyword Selection
The content that you use on your website can either harm your efforts or reward them. There are times when web owners will use very competitive keywords that are used in high quality sites. When selecting the keywords to use, go for those that will increase the chances of your site getting high rankings. The more competitive the keyword or phrase is the lower your chances of getting a high page rankings. You may find you have more success with long tail terms in this situation.

Secondly, the content should be constantly updated since the spiders on the search engine are attracted by fresh content. Many people are satisfied with the initial content on their websites that they do not take time to provide fresh data. This can be damaging since other sites in your particular niche are constantly updating their data.

2. Choosing a Generic Heading and Poor Meta Usage
The headline that you choose to use can either be beneficial in increasing web traffic or not. It is therefore recommended that you test the headline first and analyze its effectiveness when it comes to lead generation efforts. Do not sit back and be content with your initial work. The home page and squeeze web pages should be under constant scrutiny with fresh additions being done. As far as using meta tags and descriptions, there is nothing wrong with comparing yours to other sites in your industry to see where your tags, descriptions and keywords differ. Make sure to check out the leaders in your industry so that you stay up to date with the latest happenings.

3. Having a Website Design That Doesn’t Convert
The colors you use for your website play a big role in picking the interest of the visitors. For instance, if your site receives high page rankings and is not appealing enough to capture the interest of the visitors at a glance, then the SEO efforts will be proved futile. It is important to test the different shades of the site before settling on your color scheme. The landing page design has to be very attractive so as to capture the attention of the visitors in less than ten seconds. The page should be simple and easy to use. Some of the sites that convert the best may appear plan to the user but when it comes to selling your service or product, often times simple is best. If you work with a conversion team you will have the opportunity to test subtle changes on your site to see which things turn readers into subscribers or customers.

Using the Wrong Type Faces or Font Sizes
While making a selection of the fonts and sizes you should be careful. Some font sizes and types would look ridiculous on a particular site. There are those fonts that are specially designed to add in humor and hence would not be suitable for a more serious business site. If you have done a good job with your keywords, the SEO page ranking will be high, but the visitors to the site should be captivated by the fonts and sizes that you have used as well as the content you deliver.

Elizabeth Murphy is an Internet marketer and enjoys blogging about SEO and conversion optimization.

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Analyze User Response Levels

Listen to what your readers are saying and find answers to the following questions:

1. What kind of blog posts do your readers like, and what kind don’t they like?

This is a little hard to do since many readers don’t leave comments and some leave only negative comments. However, you can use this method to evaluate responses.

• If a post gets very few comments other than a few negative ones, it could mean that the post was considered below average. This may not always be the case, since not all posts end up generating links.
• Don’t assume a post is popular just because it is informative and witty. If the topic is something that only a small percentage of your readers like or understand, it’s an unpopular post and never mind how good it is.

2. What blog posts get you the maximum comments?

It’s not just the popular that get the most comments. If anything, posts of a controversial nature that sparks off a debate get more comments. You might even notice that a short piece that you wrote about some new trend or breaking news gets a lot of comments. From an SEO point of view, longer posts might be better, but your readers may not like too much text. Perhaps your readers like to read interviews and product reviews. Maybe they love competitions and contests. Try posting different types of posts to get an indication of user response level.

3. How much do your readers know about your blog niche and topics?

You may be the subject matter expert as far as your blog niche is concerned. However, do you know if your reader is able to comprehend your niche topics as well as you do? Does your reader understand the technicalities, the subtleties and the depth of your subject? Check your readers’ comments to evaluate knowledge level. If you see that people are asking you to clarify points or give more information in some area, you should expand technical posts, provide examples, illustrations and links to references.

In complete contradiction to this, it’s possible that your readers know just as much as you or perhaps more than you do. In that case, do the proper audience analysis: try not to talk down to your readers, but rather, communicate at their level.

4. Which of your blogs have earned the most backlinks? What are their topics and coverage?

You need plenty of incoming links; not only is this good SEO, but it’s a traffic churner. Evaluate which of your posts has earned the most backlinks. Who links to your blog post? It’s usually another website owner or blogger, who wants to stay updated on events, news and happenings by reading your blog. Or, it could be someone who has discovered your post through a different site or a search engine. However, more backlinks are generated by other bloggers and website owners who’re subscribed to your blog, than by random readers. Understanding the kind of posts that generate the most backlinks will help you understand which blogs make good linkers. Make it a point to link back to these blogs as often as they link to you.

5. Last but not the least – do your readers respond well to your blog titles?

Your blog titles are not just important but acutely essential when it comes to grabbing the attention of your targeted niche readers. Your blog post’s content might be great but remember people read the title first and then decide whether they want to read your article. Your blog post’s title should actually enable people to visualize the post’s content. Your blog post title should indicate your intention and your blog’s purpose. For example, if you are writing a list, indicate the number of items in the list and order the items in the decreasing order of priority. Glamorize the title a little – for example, if you’re writing about ten unique water animals, call your list the Top 10 Most Amazing Water Creatures. The idea is to grab and hold the reader’s attention and generate enough interest in him or her to continue reading the complete post.

Use Your Analysis To Grow Your Blog

Getting the answers to your questions helps you understand how much your blog readers understand and appreciate your niche, your topics and your posts. Use this information only to write targeted posts but don’t let reader opinion dictate who you are. At the maximum, knowing your readers better and targeting content towards your actual reader base is a marketing ploy, which will help you monetize your blog.

Be prepared, even as you understand your readers, for both appreciation and criticism from your readers. You’ll be patted on the back for getting something right and will be criticized mercilessly for getting something wrong. So even if you do go off topic at times, don’t let reader opinion totally dictate what and how you write. Only allow reader feedback to act as your guide so that you update your posts to flow in the direction of traffic and money.

David Smith works for conversion optimization company and help companies in optimizing their landing pages and improving conversion rate of their online campaigns.

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Article source: 5 Things You Can Do To Better Understand Your Blog Readers

Building Contacts

Depending on the type of site you’re looking to market, your target audience for an email outreach may come from an existing customer base. For this example, however, we’re going to assume that your contact list is empty and walk through the entire process of finding, filtering, and getting in touch with potential link targets.

So, let’s assume that we’re a site selling dog collars and are looking to target site owners with content dedicated to man’s best friend. We start by doing a quick list of the type of sites we could potentially get in touch with:

• Dog Breeders
• Charities
• Dog Bloggers
• ‘Mom’ bloggers with pets

These are the ‘obvious’ choices, with dog bloggers and breeders being the easiest to find and target (simply because our site is directly linked to theirs). The next step is to find as many of these sites as possible, along with listing important details about them. This will include things like:

• Site Name
• URL
• Email Address
• Contact Form (if no email)
• First Name
• Last Name
• Twitter Handle
• Facebook Page

An important part of this research is to build a ‘custom sentence’ for each site. This is just a few words relating specifically to the content which will help make your email sound like you’ve written it by hand and not automated it (as will be explained later). This needs some pre-planning as to the wording of your email and is part of the trust game. Keep things simple here, and make sure each sentence is written in the same tense / tone. An example would be:

“I really liked your post about keeping your dog cool in summer – it’s been sweltering here lately so I used your tip about keeping a bottle of water and a bowl in the car when we went to the woods yesterday.”

There’s no quick way to go about finding these sites, although directories will help, but if you have a list of clever Google queries (such as inpostauthor:guest +”dog blog”) and follow links pages / blog rolls the process can be sped up quite effectively. Also, it’s worth hiring a virtual assistant for this type of task (using a service like elance) as the cash outlay is likely to be fairly low.

An example spreadsheet for this can be found here.

The Trust Game

Before formally introducing yourself to someone it’s a great idea to plant a seed of familiarity. I like to call this the trust game, which sounds more sinister than it actually is – essentially all you’re doing is introducing yourself via social media without formally saying hello.

So, once you have your list of sites, hit the ‘like’ button on each Facebook page and follow each of the Twitter accounts. Ideally you’ll start doing this about 3 weeks before sending out your introduction email and in the meantime will be retweeting and commenting on content that the site owner is posting. If you happen to start up a conversation make sure to keep a note of this in your spreadsheet so that when the time comes to start sending out your emails you can cross your new friend off the list.

From a technical point of view this is a hugely effective way of increasing response and open rates but I’ve personally found that making friends and acquaintances this way is a great long-term solution. Although the aim is to build links, I take the view that not everything is purely business – making new friends, even if it’s just via a tweet or two, can be far more beneficial than an email campaign ever will be.

Your Offer

Before even starting to build your email campaign you need to work out what you’re offering. Site owners won’t always link back to you just because you asked them to, so having a compelling argument is really important here. Whether it’s your latest infographic, some research about canine habits, or a blog post featuring the latest and greatest dog gadgets I’ve always found that having some great content that the site owner could feature is the way to go.

“We’ve just released a new infographic about the most popular dog breeds around the world. This took us a huge amount of time to research but has been well worth it. Would you mind taking a look and, if you like what we’ve done, featuring us on your blog? Also, any feedback would be fantastic – I’m new to this so looking for any help I can get.”

I have used this technique for a personal project, Pet365, which is a retail site offering collars, leads and beds for dogs. A tip for those of you who are creating infographics is to include the embed code on the page you’re pushing people too with an ‘onclick=”this.select()”‘ tag applied to the text box. This makes it quicker and easier for people to copy / paste the HTML that you decide on, and so increases the chances that you’ll get the anchor text you’re looking for.

Building your Email

Before sending your email you need to choose how to go about it. Using a hosted service like MailChimp is the best way to go about things if you don’t want to be worrying about things like Sender Policy Framework (SPF) records. If, however, you’re more technically minded, make sure to have all the proper DNS entries, sign up to bulk email programs, and generally do your housekeeping before hitting the ‘send’ button.

The most important thing is that you use a service which allows you to automatically send and analyse the results of your campaign. With all of the data you have on each site you should be able to build a template based on the information in your spreadsheet. Including their first name at the top of your mail, adding the custom sentence, and making everything sound fairly informal will increase your chances of getting a response.

A/B Testing

Everything about an email will affect the open and response rates. From the time of day you send it to the subject line and body content. A/B testing is the method by which you create more than one version of an email, send it to a number of contacts, and compare the results. This is an iterative process that you need to be doing constantly so don’t be afraid to play around with your template to see what works.

As a general rule, the subject line is the most important thing. ‘Link Request’ probably isn’t the best thing to start with so try ‘Information about Dogs’. Something relevant. Something that raises a question and would make you want to read more.

The Future

This is a hugely lengthy and complex subject, but everything above should give you a quick overview for the process of automating an outreach campaign via email. Once you’ve run your first one there’ll be extra data and information that you can use. Be sure to monitor where your site traffic is coming from – chances are that as bloggers talk about your site there’ll be others who pick up your story and run with it.

About the author: Matt Beswick is a self confessed internet addict with a passion for everything search. He frequently writes on behalf of brands like Rotastak, while also running Pet365 – a UK pet supplies company dedicated to providing top quality collars, leads and beds for dogs.

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Article source: Email Outreach for Link Building

Help People and Search Engines to Get Results
The term semantics pops up a lot whenever people discuss navigation and information structures. Don’t be put off by the fancy word – for us semantics just means the relationships between words. As a writer or blogger, words are your stock-in-trade, so as with keyword selection you should have a good head-start!

Google’s crawlers will hopefully be visiting and indexing your blog regularly, so that they can direct people to your newest content. As well as looking at the technical guts of your site, these crawlers pretend to be people – evaluating your blog based on whether page content is what it purports to be, if titles match headings, and essentially – if it finds what it expects to find based on what you tell it. Yes – people do exactly that as well, usually without thinking about it.

Building Good Navigation Menus, Categories and Post Structures
The crawler’s artificial intelligence still can’t evaluate your humour – but it can tell if your grammar is good, whether you can spell, and how well you organise the information on your site.

For example, if a travel blogger made a post called Stuck in Miami Airport in which they never mentioned Miami airport, and put it in the post category Asia on their Camping page… Google would not think this was a great blog. I’ll leave the correct structure up to you

So, building good menus with your categories, sub categories and posts is an essential step to having semantically correct information structures which Google (and people) love. For example, a drop-down menu titled AUSTRALIA which expands into CITIES and OUTBACK, each of which expanding into SYDNEY-MELBOURNE etc and AYER’S ROCK – DREAMLINES – BUSH FOOD etc would represent good, sensible navigation and score you plenty of points from both the Googlebot and anyone looking for posts on those topics.

Use the concept of well-ordered semantic information structures throughout your site, not just in the navigation menus. Breaking up your posts in this way is so beneficial; use header and sub-header tags properly to help label and sort your content for everyone’s benefit. Wikipedia is an amazing example of semantic beauty – its structures are so perfect, and the information so extensive and inter-linked, that it gains an incredible number of high search-engine rankings without any self-conscious SEO.

Some Common Navigation and Usability Pifalls

There are some classic pitfalls to avoid. If you are using WordPress or Blogger much of this won’t apply to you, but could help allay problems with some things if you pay attention anyway

Don’t use images as internal links. Crawlers can’t read pictures, and why on earth should an image called menubutton_12.jpg lead to a page full of posts on… hitchhiking in Sudan?

Avoid Flash, Javascript, Silverlight etc. Many proprietary third-party web development tools such as these create pretty, exciting effects and graphics which are utterly useless for SEO. The search engines can’t see inside the files and understand the content, so any menus, features or over-the-top intro screens using these technologies are effectively wasted space. There is also the problem that many of your visitors will not have all those irritating plug-ins in their browser, so won’t see them anyway. Stick to good old text links, HTML, CSS, and every writer’s best friends – words.

By following these 6 simple tips, you can rest assured that your blog is built on a good foundation, helping your site attain better search rankings and increasing your content’s visibility.

This is a guest article by Gez Hebburn is a writer, musician and SEO blogger based in south-east England. He is currently researching a series of of pieces on social media, travel blogging and luxury holidays.

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This is a guest article by Gez Hebburn.

Long ago, in an internet far, far away… a search was a search, and a Google was a Google. This is no longer true; many factors are taken into account to give you ‘the best’ results Google thinks you want to see. What can you do about it?

Once upon a time, when we searched the internet for information on a subject, the results offered the most relevant information on a global scale, with the only filter being language.  Many people valued the original global reach of search very highly for its effectiveness in accessing the most pertinent, highly specialised information the world had to offer – regardless of your location, search history or individual tastes.

Localisation case study: Yang Li, an imaginary student from Beijing
Yang-Li is a social science student from Beijing working on his dissertation, and wants to find a specific academic thesis about freedom of speech.

When he opens up Google in his browser, it detects his geographical location from the IP address, and directs him to Google China. When Yang-Li types ‘freedom of speech’ into the search box all he will find is local and officially approved government-sanctioned information.

Of course, localised search has its benefits. A couple of days after his risky internet search, Yang-Li may well be looking for a local human-rights lawyer in Beijing. His Beijing China-specific localised search will work wonders, and show him they are all in Chinese jails – without returning any irrelevant, annoying and unhelpful results from the rest of the world.

Search localisation is also very helpful when Yang-Li wants to find a restaurant in Beijing, or get some flowers delivered – and allows Beijing-based businesses to target him more directly with their Google advertising campaigns.

After a few months of covert monitoring by Chinese secret services, Yang-Li is getting a little paranoid, and starting to feel like someone is watching him. Unfortunately, Google – or perhaps Amnesty International – probably can’t help, unless he can somehow access a foreign or international internet service.

Localisation of Search Results and How to Avoid it
Luckily, for those of us living outside of China (Tibet, Iran, and a few other countries) we have the option to search Google international; a Google service that combines regional search results into one. While I couldn’t recommend anything illegal to anyone in a censored country, Google international may be your best bet for unfiltered searches – if you can find a way to access it.

Simply visit Google International http://www.google.com/ncr and see global search results.

Personalisation of Search Results and How to avoid it
As well as location, personalisation also skews your search results. Google collects a lot of information about you, your tastes and habits, and those of your friends. While you are logged into any Google account, Gmail account etc, the search results as well as sponsored advertising is biased towards what Google thinks it has learned about you.

So to make your search results even more universal, global and real, log out of your Google accounts before you make a search.

Enjoy your proper, unfiltered, un-censored, old-fashioned internet search results – it should be a basic human right.

Gez Hebburn is a writer, musician and daddy based in south-east England. He most enjoys writing about technology, computers, gaming, music and the internet, but is currently engaged in a project examining accident claims. The subject has opened up a whole can of worms; due to the impending removal of legal aid in the UK, no win no fee solicitors will soon be the only option for the poor.

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SEO – The acronym stands for search engine optimization, a vital parameter that one must consider while running a website, blog, an online business or any digitally owned space that one wishes to populate and earn returns from. SEO involves the process of optimizing a particular webpage with certain keywords or key-phrases that is relevant to a users search. For example: if you are trying to cook pasta, your Google searches will probably look like, “How to make pasta”, “pasta recipes” etc. Now, a webpage that talks about pasta, would incorporate such keywords which are indexed by the search engines. The strategic and the better your keyword concentration within your relevant content is, (note relevant content), the better is your chance to show up in the first 10 positions of a search page. This is called ranking- the higher your ranking is the higher is your chance of getting noticed, being clicked on to and get sales. Clearly, as an e-commerce company, you can very well understand the importance of having a chiseled SEO in getting your business soar sky high.

Although some aspects of SEO can be quite arcane, yet the main principles more or less stay clear and the same. Here’s a checklist for you to pin on your board while you have an e-commerce website.

Mainly, before preparing a checklist, one would need to jot down these three areas where SEO is possible and is important. They are:

1. On-page optimization: optimization that would happen in your own web page.
2. Site-wide: Navigation and linking structure that you’d use across your site.
3. Off-page optimization: The incoming links in your site.

For on-page and site-wide you must define good company policy. For Off-page, you must incorporate an effective link building strategy that you will incorporate in your business process.

Let’s begin!

On-Page Search Optimization

Basic Keyword Clarity: To achieve a good on page optimization focus on good keywords. Limit yourself to only one or maximum two keywords per page; choose a keyword that is highly competitive and use it with relevance to your content and flow for the best effect.

Offers: Nothing works better than freebies. Consider optimization by offering some discounts or free gifts. But remember not to go overboard, lest you might sound desperate.

Optimize according to pages: It is important for you to have a clear demarcation between administrative and content pages. Because it’s the content paged you want to optimize.

Renaming: Try to use the keyword you are focusing on, on the title of your post, meta descriptions or on the file name. To top, modify your forum and CMS software to do follow all these rules.

Site-Wide Optimization

A search engine recognizes a site primarily through links and text links. Hence it is important to link to a page with the same URL and incorporate the target keyword wherever possible.

Pick your domain name: Do not use both www.xyz.com and xyz.com. Choose one and stick to it, for all you know you must be sharing your SE mojo with a ghost site.

Linking your home page:  Do not link your home page as index.html as Google only recognizes link targets. Instead divide it. http://www.mysite.com/index.html

Keyword friendly URL: content pages should be linked to a consistent URL and never with parameters. For example: http://xyzsite.com/forum.php?topic=811111 is bad. On the other hand http://xyzsite.com/my-keyword-tp811111.html is good

By linking: Link one content of your page to the other by simply bylinking. This drives a lot of traffic site wide too.

Off-Site SEO Optimization – Your Link Building Strategy

One of the most important part of SEO, Offsite optimization is all about getting “quality inbound keyword links. Conventionally, the best way to get inbound links is to have a great content throughout.  But probably that is really not all. One must go and let oneself show in order to be recognized.

Submission: Make sure to submit your site to standard directories. Also, one can submit their article-style content for syndication to make sure that the content has just enough keywords that links to your other content pages.

Create RSS feeds: This will get you thousand of minor links per content page.  

Deep Linking: In every content page, add a button to link up to that particular page.

Giveaways: This is a great way to generate traffic. Device a way where they can share your content or like your content and a random lucky winner gets a free prize! Why do you think the décor blogs are so popular? They give away all the time from their etsy shop.  

Contact: Locate the quality sites that link to your competitor. Suggest them to mention your site to their visitors. There is some room for personal politeness and decency too in online business.

Make this checklist and learn it by heart for a website that really brings you sales.

This guest post has been contributed by Nitin Aggarwal, the owner of Offshore Ally. His’ is a company of competent and smart virtual assistants and link builders. If you need a professional VA for real estate services, visit his site.

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Article source: The Ultimate SEO Checklist for E-commerce Sites

Google is probably the most well known online search engine on the planet. Sure, it’s got a little bit of competition, but when website owners and designers are trying to streamline their content in order to optimize it in search engines; they’re usually thinking “How can I make my content more Google friendly?” After all, the trick to expanding your business and getting yourself seen online is to make sure that Google loves your website so much that it’s directing more and more traffic to it. The following 7 tips will come in handy when you’re trying to write content that Google, with its always ongoing changes and developments, will be sure to love.

7. Appropriate and Creative Site Design

You want to make sure that your website has good graphics and photos as well as a good layout. If someone visits your site and is either not impressed or not able to read it because it’s a little too colorful (in both the figurative and literal sense of the word!) they may move on to the next. Focus on building a website that has a creative and content appropriate design to score higher on Google’s search results.

6. User-Friendly Site Design

You also want to ensure that visitors to your website are able to easily navigate through it. If you have too much going on, no one is going to want to visit your site, and that’s going to push it further down in the Google search results.

5. Useful, Engaging, and Original Titles

The first identifier that pops up on Google search results to any website is the title of that website. Make sure that your title focuses on what your website or product is all about, but make sure that it’s different from any other like it if possible.

4. Utilize AdWords and Other Keyword Tools

Buying ads that show up when certain keywords are typed into the search engine can help increase traffic to your site, making it more Google friendly and generating more website traffic for you!

3. Do Some SEO Research

Search engine optimization is a key factor that most successful websites participate in. You don’t want to go overboard, but either learning the ins and outs of SEO yourself or hiring an outside contributor to do it for you can greatly improve your Google rankings.

2. Limit Photos, Videos, and Animations

It’s a great idea to add some appeal to your site by including some things to make it more visually attractive. What you don’t want to do though, is have so much going on that the text no longer stands out because the search engine is going to pick up on the text of your website, not the pretty designs and videos.

1. Original Content

Above all, to generate the most traffic to your website through Google, you’ll want to ensure that you have original content that others find easy to use and relate to. Don’t use a lot of “fillers” just to take up space. Your readers want information, so you need to make sure your page is actually informative.

As long as you follow these 7 key steps, Google is sure to love your website and content no matter what the topic!

About the Author: Nicole is a full-time writer and blogger with a passion for personal finance, web development, and SEO. She enjoys writing informational articles for businesses developing their online brands and can often be found sharing financial advice at CreditLoan.com.

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Article source: 7 Tips for Creating Content the New Google Will Love

Social site SERPd.com – a great resources for all things SEO, SEM, and web development – recently announced their new forums. So in addition to the aggregation of user-submitted content, users will also be able to interact with each other through the forums.

In just the first day of its existence, there have already been several good questions posted and quality answers given. This will hopefully develop into a robust resource for anyone who may be interested in information relating to the various topics SERPd.com covers.

There are currently forums covering broad topics like Search Engine Optimization, Internet Marketing, and Blogging – with each of those forums allowing for individual threads more specific to users’ needs. There’s also a Guest Blogging forum which will ultimately be a valuable resource for individuals both looking for guest content and offering guest content.

As far as I can tell, the login information for the main site – your account that lets you vote and comment – is not connected to the forum. This means you’ll have to create an additional account in order to participate in the forum. This obviously isn’t a huge issue, but perhaps there will be some integration (or perhaps similar options to the main site of signing in with a Twitter, Facebook, WordPress, or other account) in the future.

If you really do have something of value to offer – and aren’t just trying to shamelessly promote your website – getting in on the ground floor of a forum can be a great way to do that. While it’s certainly possible to join any forum and become a prominent voice, it’s a tad easier when you don’t have to compete with all the din. Of course, you’ll have to be sure you’re bringing good insight to the discussion and adding value to the forum, but if you’re not able to do that you shouldn’t really be in the online game anyway.

So head over to forum.SERPd.com, register for a new account, and take advantage of the new service the great people at SERPd are offering.

A blogger and writer, Scott Spjut has contributed to various newspapers and magazines, as well as online publications. He’s been featured on SearchEnginePeople.com and dailySEOtip.com. He currently works with PMI Coaching.

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Article source: SERPd Announces New Forum

Of course writing great articles is all about creativity. Volume writing is not going to cut it anymore – and many webmasters have found that out Post Panda. Yet there is still a need to keep your blog relevant and frequently updated. So where is your inspiration going to come from? How will it be possible to write a few great posts in one week let alone one day? Your readers are hungry for more content, so are you going to give them pretzels or a full course meal?

One of the many problems of having to write each day of course comes with having to think up great ideas. Your SEO work is what will bring your readers to your site – your ideas are what will keep them there. Here are two huge reasons why you have to write creatively and with inspiration for a good idea post-Panda:

• Bounce Rate
• Time Spent on Page

Just ask some of the writers at Suite 101 how important quality is over quantity these days. Suite 101 was a revenue sharing website where freelance writers pushed out tons of articles for them a day – and they were doing very well in the SERPs. The only problem is that they emphasized volume writing rather that quality writing and for that Google put a big target on their back.

So we can all learn from sites like Suite 101, that emphasize quality rather than quantity. However achieving both is optimal, and although obtaining a crazy amount of volume isn’t achievable on your own without sacrificing quality, it is possible to write a few great posts each day. The idea behind it is staying motivated and staying inspired.

The goal you should have with your writing is to expand your spatial-temporal reasoning. Because without a great idea, let’s face it, you’re not going to be able to write one great post let alone three of them.

Classical Music. There are tons of studies that suggest that classical music increases your spatial-temporal reasoning, yet there are also many studies that show that it doesn’t really do anything for your “think tank” at all except stimulate it and provide it with entertainment.

That being said I encourage you to try it. Within one minute there is a great chance that you will find yourself more focused, more inspired, and more motivated to not only write, but to write an excellent post. Classical musicians like Mozart can provide more juice for your brain that 3 cans of Red Bull, and there are even iTunes backed classical music playlists that were designed to help you study for exams.

Handwriting. Handwriting will help you write better. This is because your brain actually has to do more thinking when you are handwriting because handwriting involves making strokes while typing only involves pressing down on one key. The more your brain has to do to accomplish a goal, the more you allow it to think outside the box and the more you have to put into it personally. Handwriting sounds treacherous to a lot of people in this Internet age, but I sincerely encourage you to try it!

Research and Reading. All of your research doesn’t have to be directly related to what you are writing about. Indirect reading can give you a lot of insightful ideas on the topic you are writing about, and not all of your reading has to come from the Internet. Reading books are supposed to help you think, and not only that, many great ideas for posts can come from them. Even reading many different articles on the web will help you. Many books dive deep into each specific topic that comes up when telling a story. This is exactly what you will want to be doing with your writing. The “side notes” of topics can really increase the value of your writing – and that is only going to be accomplished if you put your nose to the grindstone and do some hardcore researching.

Using these three concepts will help you push out great content at relevantly high pace. It won’t get you 10 posts a day (or perhaps not even a week) but it will ensure that your blog will build a solid foundation of readers. And these are readers that will keep coming back – which is exactly what you need in a world dominated by the SERPs of Google because at any time your website may be susceptible to an algorithm update – and quality and value is the only way to beat Google at its own game.

This article was written by Anthony Benedict. Anthony helps to run and maintain inetzeal.com. This website is an entity of an Internet marketing company which provides many services, which includes a white label link building service, as well as many other white label SEO services.

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Article source: How to Write Three Great Posts in One Day

It doesn’t matter if you have the best product in the world, or if you have the greatest service in the world. If people don’t know about it, then people won’t get it, and then it’s useless. You need to get the word out there or else your product is useless.

Media advertising is the best way of getting your product and service out there. With an effective ad campaign, you won’t need to look for clients. You’re clients will come to you. If you know how to attract their attention and curiosity, how to tickle their fancy, then you’ll have a steady stream of clients and customers.

So How Do You Do It?

The best way is to mix up your ad campaigns. Don’t just rely on one arm of media advertising. There are different ways for you to get an effective ad campaign. Try and mix up your Television ads with print ads and online ads.

Online ads are the cheapest. Compared to the prices of traditional media advertising arms, online ads are close to free. Online media advertising provides you a lot of freedom. There are no limits to the length of your online commercials. There have been online commercials that are 10 minutes long. There have been some that are as long as a short film. You also have freedom regarding the content of your ads. Since the internet enjoys more freedom than traditional media and doesn’t have as much restrictions, you are free to put whatever you want (so long as it’s in good taste). Another benefit of online advertising is that it reaches the most people compared to all other media arms. Once online, the ad can reach anyone anywhere, so long as they have an internet connection. The problem with online ads is that it doesn’t have the same credibility as traditional media.

The most common approach is going the TV route. Television ads are, arguably, the most popular and will reach more people compared to other traditional media advertising arms. However, out of all of them, TV advertising is the most expensive. The prices of TV media advertising take a lot out of your budget.

The other two are Radio and Print. Radio, compared to the other media advertising arms, is deemed to be most creative, since it is limited to hearing. You need to have a catchy and creative ad to be effective with radio.

The last is Print. Print ads refer mostly to ads found in newspapers, journals and magazines. Companies prefer print ads because of the amount of information you can include. You can put a lot of information regarding your company, your product, and your service in print ads.

Again, it’s best that you consider mixing up your ad options. Don’t stick to one arm. Use two, or if it’s possible and realistic for you, use all of them. You’re bound to reach more people if you use all possible areas available to you.

George Peterson works for one of the leading media agencies (interesting to know is that the Danish term is mediebureau) in Denmark – Maxus. He likes to share his experience and knowledge in many popular blogs such as TechWench.

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The following are eight different standards of measure that aid you in determining the success of your website:

1. Page Views – This number means the amount of page views that your website has in totality. Example, if you had 80 visitors for a single week and each of them visited just 10 pages, then you have 800 total page views.
2. Visits – This probably is a simple factor that needs to be measured but also is the most important. If you know how many visits you get in a day then you know how many audience and how much attention you are getting. This will help you have an idea of the number of consumers that visit your site. One of the programs that can help you in measuring the amount of visits that your website gets through a certain amount of time is Google Analytics.
3. Unique visitors – This factor can only determine the number of new people who visit your website in a certain span of time. This number does not take into consideration the repeated visits. But the number of unique visitors is always lower that the regular visits that your website has.
4. Bounce rate – This can be a factor that website owners should pay attention to as this can measure the quality of the visits that you are getting. This is the percentage that measures the page visits wherein the visitors leaves the website at the entrance of a page. Using Google Analytics will help you in finding out your bounce rates effectively. Furthermore, it is also important to know the industry average of bounce rates and tell if you have higher or lower bounce rate than average.
5. Pages per visit – This amount equals to the average pages that are visited every time a person checks your site. Unfortunately, this does not separate the unique visitors that you are getting.
6. Percentage of the new visits – This can only point out the percentage of the new visitors that your website is getting over a certain period of time. This can either be a bad or good thing depending on the business model that you have adapted.
7. Traffic sources – This helps you in identifying the sources of all the traffic that you are getting in your website. This can tell the number of your direct visits by people who type your URL directly, those that come from search engines and from other referring sites. This can also help in identifying if advertising campaigns work, especially for those sites that have their own campaigns.
8. Average time on site – This is actually the average time that a visitor usually spends time on your website. This is also an important factor for your site. This determines the relevance of the traffic that you are getting. It wouldn’t be good if you do get traffic but visitors only spend about a couple of seconds on your homepage and transfers to another site. Google uses this to determine if your site is indeed relevant to your visitor. If visitors are spending more time on your website than with other sites then you are quite sure of getting higher ranking.

Author Resource:
Rigette Saycon is a writer for www.StudioBanks.com a Digital Marketing Agency where big-idea creative meets leading edge technology.

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As your online presence continues to grow, you may find it difficult to maintain your social media responsibilities. While you should continue to regularly post original content, there are occasions when it’s acceptable to set your marketing efforts on automation mode. Here are five examples of great social media marketing automation tools you can use in addition to regularly posting original content.

Social Oomph
When your online popularity begins increasing, you’ll find it nearly impossible to personally thank each new follower you generate through social media. While it’s important to recognize your new followers, you can set this process to automation mode by using Social Oomph.

This automation tool will automatically send a direct message each time you generate a new Twitter follower. You can also use Social Oomph to automatically begin following those that follow you, if that’s how you prefer to operate.

Twitterfeed
If you follow a variety of blogs specific to your industry, chances are good that your audience members will also enjoy those blogs. As such, keep your Twitter and Facebook accounts from going stale on your off days by using Twitterfeed to post updates each time new posts are released on your favorite blogs.

Of course, it’s perfectly reasonable that you may not want to send your readers off to other blogs when they could be reading yours. In this case, Twitterfeed can also be used to only release updates when you add a new blog post.

Tweet Old Post
If you have a long standing WordPress blog, you likely have some great nuggets of information buried deep in your archives. Rather than letting these old useful posts go to waste, you can keep them fresh in the minds of your readers by utilizing Tweet Old Post. This is a great automation tool for those bloggers who fear their earlier posts were never read due to a slowly established online presence.

HootSuite
These days, if you want to be successful online, you can’t rely on one social media platform to achieve the results you desire. Rather, you’re likely currently managing multiple accounts including Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, WordPress and more. Updating each account manually can be tedious and will ultimately detract from valuable work time. HootSuite allows you to automatically update all accounts in one fell swoop.

TweetBeep
If you enjoy tracking what others are saying about you and your business via social media, you’ll love TweetBeep. Use this automation tool to instantly receive updates when your name or the keywords you specify are mentioned. It’s sort of like Google Alerts but catered to the social media world.

Social media provides great power to generate an online following and spread the news regarding your products and services. However, as your online presence continues to expand, managing your social media accounts can become tedious. Your best option to free up more time and still receive your desired results is to use automation tools for your marketing efforts. These tools are like valuable virtual assistants that can simplify your online operations.

Annie is an Aussie frugal mom of two. She blogs for HomeLoanFinder, the best free tool that allows to easily compare refinancing home loan. You can follow Annie’s saving and marketing tips via Twitter at Twitter: @ViralMomTweets

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When it comes to marketing trends, the most probable reason for why they have become so popular is because big businesses have found them extremely successful. Take for instance using social media. In order for smaller businesses to take maximum advantage of social media and harness all of the benefits it can offer, they need to look at the players who first tried out this new strategy and, to some extent, follow their game plan.

BrightStar Franchising

Led by its co-founder Shelly Sun, BrightStar Franchising ranked first in the list of Top 50 Fastest-Growing Women-Led Companies. According to Sun, social media has allowed BrightStar’s web traffic to increase by a hundred per cent leading to a total of 55,000 unique visitors per month. Just last year, their unique monthly visitors totaled only 33,000. Tapping on social media has also allowed BrightStar’s annual sales to spike to 60%, grossing $99.6 million in 2010. If this continues, the company projects that it sales will reach $150 million by 2011.

So what is BrightStar’s secret? This company hires employees whose tasks are to solely to manage BrightStar’s social media efforts and its online reputation in general. These employees post helpful articles in BrightStar’s blog as well as its Facebook page. And sometimes, they upload videos and event footage on YouTube too. In-bound links from these pages with helpful content lead to increased traffic.

Rebecca Minkoff

Rebecca Minkoff is the sixth on the Top 50 list and is a renowned accessories and apparel designer. According to Minkoff, social media has allowed her customers to reach her directly and for her to respond to them with ease. Although it is quite difficult to establish in terms of figures the success of utilizing social media websites, Minkoff asserts that having 23,000 Twitter followers and 15,000 Facebook fans has helped her designs find their way to 300 stores all over the country leading to a spike in her annual sales from $5.5 million in 2008 to $17.5 million in 2010.

What’s in Minkoff’s bag of tricks? According to her, it always pays for businesses to host web-centered events. For instance, she celebrated her business’s five year anniversary by giving away some of her clutches. The event which was carried out with the help of Facebook and Foursquare attracted a total of 1,000 participants. Minkoff has even sought the help of her avid fans through social media website Polyvore which allows users to learn about the latest in fashion trends or make their own unique creations.

Chris Marentis writes from experience about lead generation, closing the sale and leveraging social media. He is the founder and CEO for a local internet marketing company Surefire Social, a resource for local search marketing

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Article source: Social Media Marketing: Following Their Lead

One of the most under-utilized features of Google Analytics is the Intelligence Alerts tool. Think of Analytics Intelligence as your assistant analyst. This tool monitors your blog’s traffic data for anomalies and automatically alerts you when one is discovered. You’ll be able to receive alerts on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. The system automatically creates alerts for major changes in your site’s behavior (such as a major decrease in visits or increase in bounce rate) so you don’t need to set anything up! However, Google Analytics Intelligence also gives you the ability to create custom alerts. For example, you can use Intelligence to automatically send you an alert for when the keyword or keywords that you’ve been trying to obtain greater organic exposure for (either through off-site link building or on-site copy optimization) finally start to generate traffic. Below, I’ll outline the steps to setting up your Google Analytics Intelligence alert.

A significant challenge for online marketers today is effectively tracking the exposure a blog or site has for its targeted keywords. There are search engine results position (SERP) tracking tools available which enable you to track the position of keywords you care most about across search engines though rarely are these tools free or even inexpensive. An entirely free solution to this problem is to utilize Google Analytics’ Intelligence. While it won’t tell you the current position of your keyword in say a Google search result, Intelligence will be able to show you how much traffic that keyword is getting. This is in my opinion a more meaningful key performance indicator (KPI).

The first step is to “Create a Custom Alert” by clicking on the Intelligence tab. You’ll then need to determine how frequently you’d like Analytics to check for noticeable changes. I’d recommend setting a weekly alert as changes you make to the site and your off-site optimization tasks won’t have an overnight impact on your target keyword’s SERP. The next step is to set the alert conditions. You’ll need to indicate what metric the alert applies to as well as when the alert notification will be triggered. Under the “Applies To” setting, you’ll first need to choose Keyword from the Traffic Sources list. Then you’ll need to choose the Condition type. The Condition will instruct the alert how to treat the keyword you are interested in tracking. If you are looking at one particular keyword, then I’d recommend using the Condition of Matches Exactly. Under the Value text, simply type in the keyword you’d like to track into the text box.

Next, you’ll need to tell the Intelligence tool what KPI will trigger an alert notification. Since we are looking at organic traffic, you’ll want to select “Visits” which can be found under the Site Usage list. Just like the “Applies To” setting, you’ll need to set a Condition criterion which will depend on what exposure you already have for the tracked keyword. For example, if you are tracking a keyword that you are currently on the second or third page for and thus seeing little or no traffic for, then I’d select the “% increases by more than” option. Enter a relatively low number into the “Value” text field, that way you’ll be alerted to even the slightest changes in organic search traffic generated from the tracked keyword. If on the other hand, you are tracking one of your “golden keywords” (one which either drives a high volume of traffic or converts well) then you might want to have an alert set to alert you to a decrease in traffic which could be an indication that the keyword’s SERP fell.

The last step is to give the alert a name and save it. Optionally you can choose to have the alert sent to you via email or even via text message. That’s it; your alert is all set and ready to go. This is only one of numerous uses for Google Intelligence. What other ways are you using (or could use) Google Intelligence to help you make smarter marketing decisions?

Wil is a freelance writer in the online education space. He typically writes about Masters in Social Work or Masters in Nursing programs but also has a passion for web marketing and small business. Outside of writing, Wil enjoys bicycling and all boating activities.

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Article source: Using Google Analytics Intelligence to Track Keyword Exposure