Every few years Google will go through a rather large and drastic algorithm tweak that leaves everyone in the industry running around and scrambling to try to fix any rankings their websites or their client’s websites might lose. There is a great deal of chatter in the industry lately that website load time is going to be a large factor for website rankings. Matt Cutts from Google has said that as it will be important it will not be a major factor yet. Matt describes it in a little more detail in the video below:
Google’s ultimate continuous goal with or without any search engine updates is to increase the speed and efficiency of the search engines which is always a very important aspect of anything technical and online. You really can’t blame Google for wanting to make their search engines highly efficient and lighting quick. After all it is all about the user experience when it comes to using a search engine and if over time the results take longer and longer to appear people will eventually be turned off. Is the search engine optimization industry just getting paranoid? Maybe a little bit but at the end of the day it is still really important to have a very quick and efficient website regardless of what Google says will be a ranking factor.
Every few years Google will go through a rather large and drastic algorithm tweak that leaves everyone in the industry running around and scrambling to try to fix any rankings their websites or their client’s websites might lose. There is a great deal of chatter in the industry lately that website load time is going [...]
The SEO industry is still in its infancy stage whether you want to admit it or not. The search engines are very young and sites like Google are just starting to get things right in the sense of really understanding how to catalog and display search data for users. Some websites come and go in [...]
The SEO industry is still in its infancy stage whether you want to admit it or not. The search engines are very young and sites like Google are just starting to get things right in the sense of really understanding how to catalog and display search data for users. Some websites come and go in short burst of energy and some stick around for the long haul. The same goes with various marketing efforts.
It is important to never avoid a marketing effort simply because you think it will not stick around for long. I still hear people say that Twitter is short winded and it will only be here for just a few years. Even if it is shouldn’t you be there trying to scoop up new business while you can? Everything in life is evolving including the business world. The internet has created a fast moving platform for people to express themselves and to communicate on. Regardless of an efforts life cycle you should always be using it to market yourself. In today’s marketplace there is no time or room for denial. Websites and marketing efforts move in large sweeping motions so it is important to take advantage of any new or existing marketing effort you can incorporate into your business plan.
5 Years ago MySpace was the big dog in the industry. Now the numbers have been steadily declining for about the last 24 months while websites like Facebook and Twitter have seen explosive growth leaping frogging the competition almost overnight. During the height of the MySpace era lots of businesses made a great deal of money and grew their business marketing themselves in that specific online community. Now the demographic has really shifted away as they continue to lose more users but that doesn’t mean that MySpace should have been avoided all together. If nobody used it years ago many of those businesses would not have made the revenues they did if they chose to avoid it all together. The point is many online communication vehicles are always changing so it is important to hop on now than to regret later you didn’t even show up for the party.
Social media marketing should not be looked at any longer as a white elephant. Social media marketing is happening right now and all businesses need to understand the value and importance to incorporate it into their daily search engine marketing routine. You might think it sounds extremely difficult to slide in those efforts now but [...]
Social media marketing should not be looked at any longer as a white elephant. Social media marketing is happening right now and all businesses need to understand the value and importance to incorporate it into their daily search engine marketing routine. You might think it sounds extremely difficult to slide in those efforts now but you might be surprised as to how easy it really is.
Do you currently write in your blog at least once or twice per week? A blog is perfect way for a business to get involved in social media. As you write your blog posts do you do anything with them? If you don’t you could be missing out on some great traffic not to mention additional search engine optimization benefits for your website. Remember that the search engines see almost everything you do to promote your business so taking a robust social approach will help strengthen your websites power over time. By dropping the link to your blog post in your Twitter and Facebook page you open the door to a whole new type of audience and web user.
Does Twitter still scare you? It shouldn’t. All businesses should be using Twitter in some way. I don’t recommend spending your entire day using Twitter but 30 minutes to an hour everyday will help you get some great exposure online. Start by just following your competitor’s followers for now. This is a nice way to give them a tap on the shoulder and just let them know that you are there and that you exist. This way you can really test the waters with slowly incorporating social media into your search engine optimization efforts. Over time as you feel a bit more confident and advanced you can certainly ratchet things up quite a bit. Social media is not something to be scared of any longer. Every search engine marketing campaign requires you to take an approach that assists in targeting your online social audience. Why wouldn’t you want to be visible where your audience is already hanging out? Start by setting up the profiles completely and filling in all necessary information and over time increase the amount of efforts you incorporate from a social level and you will see your web traffic increase tremendously.
Online personal branding and marketing helps not only your company search engine optimization, but also your own personal search engine optimization efforts. Whether you are trying to find a job or marketing your company, the bottom line is you should strive to build your name as a leader in your industry.
The following are some [...]
Online personal branding and marketing helps not only your company search engine optimization, but also your own personal search engine optimization efforts. Whether you are trying to find a job or marketing your company, the bottom line is you should strive to build your name as a leader in your industry.
The following are some low cost personal online branding resources to consider:
1. LinkedIn – If you have a LinkedIn account but haven’t touched it in many years now might be the time to get in there and really beef it up. If you don’t have one make the effort and launch one. Make it nice and robust by filling it up with every bit of information you can that will directly reflect your business. Utilize keywords that people might be using in the search engines for things like titles and descriptions. This will give you an opportunity to start ranking in search results.
2. Facebook – A Facebook account is a must. They often times rank extremely well in search engines so make sure it is appropriate and relevant to your business. Fill in as many fields as you can in order to make it clear on what type of service it is that you offer. Understand that if you are using your Facebook account for personal purposes, try creating two different accounts, one for business and personal. And whatever you do, please be careful of the types of things you post to your account if you are only using one account…everyone can see it 
3. Twitter – Twitter will be a great place to not only be visible but bring in some new possible business as well. Same principals apply, launch an account and fill it out completely and start following people that are following your competition. This will get you on the map in front of your audience and over time they will start following you as well.
4. Blog – Launch a blog and start writing about your industry and your area of expertise. Once you start writing you will then be able to leverage your blog posts through the social media channels list above. Over time you will build a loyal following of readers and eventually some of those readers could turn into clients.
5. Profile Image – Make sure to use the same profile image throughout all your profiles. This way you can brand yourself even more for when people bump into your other profiles. They will be able to make the connection almost immediately if you keep your image consistent. Your face will be the logo of your business with social media.
5. Profile Links – Make sure you consistently add your company website (or cross link your other social networking profiles) throughout all of your profiles. Also, some social networking sites allow links of your RSS feeds, please be sure to add this in as it will help generate more visitors to your blog and website overall.
6. Portfolio - Depending on what type of business you have you should keep some sort of portfolio to showcase your work for other potential clients to see.
These are just some of the things you can do to market yourself online and help your online personal brand. Most don’t even cost any money they just require time and patience.
With search engines now including video content in blended search results, video SEO offers one of the greatest opportunities for companies to cost-effectively drive increased site visitation. …
With search engines now including video content in blended search results, video SEO offers one of the greatest opportunities for companies to cost-effectively drive increased site visitation. …
There are many different ways to achieve good quality search engine optimization results online. When SEO was first introduced about ten years ago the approach was a very technical one. It came down to things looking like a science project rather than true marketing. Over the years there has been a slow transition. The search [...]
There are many different ways to achieve good quality search engine optimization results online. When SEO was first introduced about ten years ago the approach was a very technical one. It came down to things looking like a science project rather than true marketing. Over the years there has been a slow transition. The search engines where never supposed to be manipulated by a mathematical approach in order to get things to rank well. As the transition occurs it will be important to figure out what type of SEO you are. Do you like to market a business and build it through a variety of online marketing approaches or do you like to take a much more technical approach with your links?
Whichever approach you chose it is important to realize that the search engines are constantly evolving and moving away from a technical approach. As they grow their focus on offering the cleanest and most relevant information this will only become stronger. The search engines are already showing signs of rewarding those who market a business with the means of growing a business through a variety of quality online marketing and branding efforts rather than just putting a number value on how many links one can achieve. A technical approach is what the search engines are really trying to move away from. If you are an online marketer the search engines want to see you build rankings from building your brand online not through finding loop holes. Things like online PR announcing newsworthy topics and positioning yourself as an industry expert through proactive article marketing. Things a real business would do to market themselves if the internet never existed. Search engines want to see a heavy focus on social media marketing as well. Social media marketing takes time with a quality approach so no fly by night who wants to generate a specific number of links is going to take their time to actually communicate with their audience online through a series of conversations. The technical SEO approach has a shelf life that will soon expire. Those ridiculous promises of thousand of directories or “article blasters” will soon be a thing of the past.
While change is constant, publishers use SEO as a means for obtaining new customers from search engines. As long as search is around, there will be a need for people who know how to make that happen. …
While change is constant, publishers use SEO as a means for obtaining new customers from search engines. As long as search is around, there will be a need for people who know how to make that happen. …
Being an internet marketer for many years now I have heard some really out of whack misconceptions when it comes to SEO and how it helps grow a business online.
Here are some of the most important misconceptions of SEO that I think should be called out:
1. It is all Technical – Search engine [...]
Being an internet marketer for many years now I have heard some really out of whack misconceptions when it comes to SEO and how it helps grow a business online.
Here are some of the most important misconceptions of SEO that I think should be called out:
1. It is all Technical – Search engine optimization is only about 15-20% technical. The rest requires a marketing approach. Think about it, if you are trying to get rankings in the search engines don’t you have to put yourself in your audiences shoes and anticipate what they search for, what they read and what they want to see on your website? That requires a marketing hat.
2. Rankings Happen Quick – Search engine optimization is time and labor intensive. It takes time to get things moving in any direction. Nothing happens over night or even in one month or two.
3. I Only Need to Do It for 2 Months – SEO does not have a finish line. When you take a marketing approach to your SEO it is something you never really stop doing. Why would you stop marketing your company? You wouldn’t and that is why your SEO should never stop either. Rankings are not the only goal for search engine marketing. Building many relevant one way links is also a goal. This can only happen over time.
4. SEO Costs $39.95 – When it comes to search engine marketing you really get what you pay for. That doesn’t mean it should cost an arm and a leg but price should be appropriate to amount of work and man hours put into a certain effort in order to get it right. Prices that sound to good to be true usually are. Do you really think you can grow a business online successfully for the same cost as a cup of coffee per day?
5. SEO Software Should Do the Trick – Search engine optimization cannot be put on auto pilot by some software program. Some software’s are capable of isolating gaps or errors in your website or campaign but that still requires you as a business owner or marketer to make the necessary changes to get things moving in the right direction.
There are many misconceptions in the SEO industry and over time they should all be cleared up as the industry continues to mature and evolve. I only highlighted several that came to my mind, please feel free to share any that you may have heard.
A friend and fellow search engine optimization expert asked if I knew of any good link building tactics. I thought he must know the same thing that I know. That is, that relevant link building is getting harder and harder…it has been over the last 3 to 4 years. We both agreed that the [...]
A friend and fellow search engine optimization expert asked if I knew of any good link building tactics. I thought he must know the same thing that I know. That is, that relevant link building is getting harder and harder…it has been over the last 3 to 4 years. We both agreed that the best way to get links is to simply write great content and over time, people will then link to your great content. But what about beyond that? Directories? Articles? Blog comments? Online Publicity?
The search engines always seem to be playing this never ending game of cat and mouse with links and search engine optimziation folks trying to build them. Truth is, link building is not for the faint of heart. A good link today may turn sour next week or next year. Then what? Reality is if you develop a blended white hat (by the book or following each search engine webmaster guidelines), then you should not have any issues in the future. Meaning, if you know a link source is not the best, for instance, not relevant, link exchange or paid link, then stay away from it. Also, never abuse any type of link building activity. If a particular source of a relevant link is generating visitors to your website then continue, but don’t overdo anything. The reality is the search engines always change things because SEO folks (or black/grey hat ones) tend to abuse a certain link building activity. I remember 6 years ago, link building consisted of some of the same things as it does today, but you could have a site with good content and good site optimziation and then exchange links and do very well. This is NOT the case today!
But that doesn’t mean link building is a fruitless activity. I still believe in the power of good links even if they’re getting more and more difficult to find. But what makes for a good link?
Based on my experience and various industry sources that I have seen in recent times, the criteria still come to:
- Relevance
- Authority
- Anchor Text
- Age
Not necessarily in that order, but those are the important factors to locating a good quality link. So now that we know what kind of links to go for – relevant links from authoritative sites with strong anchor text that have aged – how do you get them? First, what you should NOT do is run out and start spamming directories and social bookmarking websites. That will get you nowhere. What will get you places is to write great content and market that content to your target audience in the places where your target audience likes to hang out. If you’ll do that on a consistent basis you’ll see the links. But a moderate submission strategy to top-notch authoritative websites within your niche is a nice augment. And don’t sweat the small stuff. The most important advice that I can give you is do your research and plan out your link building activities in advance, not only does this make it manageable, but keeps your link building program on track.
Search engine optimization is not a dash of this and a pinch of that anymore. These days if you are trying to figure out a road map you are already taking the wrong approach. The right approach is fist analyzing every possible communication vehicle online for your website. Find all the national websites where the [...]
Search engine optimization is not a dash of this and a pinch of that anymore. These days if you are trying to figure out a road map you are already taking the wrong approach. The right approach is fist analyzing every possible communication vehicle online for your website. Find all the national websites where the masses are visiting and then find all the smaller niche sites and become visible in all of them.
Here are some things that might be obvious that people over look sometimes that can help your overall online presence and SEO efforts:
• Free Business Profiles: There are many different free business profiles where you can list your business and have a nicely robust business profile with a link to your website that can help businesses move along with new traffic.
• Video Sharing Websites: These days you can launch a relatively inexpensive company video using a variety of online tools. A short forty five second video you can push through all the video sharing sites will tremendously help your SEO efforts over time. Not to mention the video could find its way into search results if optimized correctly.
• Social Networking Profiles: Many people don’t approach this as a source of link building but in reality it does help your overall SEO efforts. The link that the profile gives you allows for communication to the search engines to let them know that you are a legitimate business. Once you start using your social profiles the search engines will understand even more that you are truly trying to market your website with a marketing hat and for this you will be rewarded over time.
• Blog Comments: If you come across a blog post that is relevant to your business make sure to leave a comment behind that is educational and also informative and ads to the blog post. There has been some talk recently if Google will eventually make a change regarding if leaving blog post comments are beneficial. If they are sending traffic to your website even with no link power they are still beneficial regardless. Realize that links send traffic to your website.
When in doubt apply almost every possible communication tool to your business you can find. Some will work well and some won’t but it is important to have every angle covered. Search engine marketing requires you to really blanket yourself across as many locations as possible to really get good visibility within your industry.