Internet Marketing, Web Design, SEO, Web 2.0 Optimization
Archive for March, 2011
SEO Tip # 21: What is Black Hat SEO?
21 year ago
Image via Wikipedia
I would like to welcome you to my twenty-first SEO tip of the day; here I will discuss the meaning of “Black Hat” SEO.
As “search” has developed into a viable industry and as search engines have refined their algorithms in order to deliver best results what is acceptable (legal, or White Hat) and what is not acceptable (illegal or Black Hat) has changed and continues to change. Google employs armies of people whose job it is to improve their search results and part of whose job it is to discover deceptive SEO practices and penalize the sites that employ such Black Hat techniques. There are a number of SEO companies around that use Black Hat SEO techniques and that claim that you’ll never get caught; the reality is that you will get caught and when you do your site will get penalized and you will loose your business, while the company you hired will not be punished. There are a number of Black Hat SEO techniques that are common today and a number of SEO’s attempt to pass these off as “legal” or “low risk”, the reality is that although these may be low risk for the SEO company (who may loose you as a client if Google catches what they are doing) this can be very high risk for the client b/c they can loose their business. Despite what some of you might want I will not be going over examples of Black Hat SEO (for fear that you may be tempted to do some of these things), the one example of Black Hat SEO that I will provide is one that was recently in the news, the website of JCPenney (a venerable department store) was recently hit with a heavy penalty by Google for buying links (link buying is an example of a Black Hat practice) it seems that they were able to outsmart Google for months, b/c for months their product pages were raking #1 for various terms such as “baby furniture”… but eventually they got caught and now their entire site is being penalized. Another example of Google punishing a site for using Black Hat SEO is a recent case where Google punished overstock.com for paying college students to put links to the site on their blogs. In addition to buying links, excessive link trading is also seen as black hat (although trading a few links here and there will not cause you harm; although trading links is highly unlikely to help your overall SEO)
My advice to you is this, talk to your SEO company and ask them what they do to get results, and ask them if they use and Black Hat SEO techniques, you should only hire an SEO company that uses White Hat SEO.
If your site has been hit with a penalty by Google for using Black Hat SEO please contact us, we will work with you and Google to get your penalty lifted; we are a highly respected SEO firm that uses only White Hat SEO.
Social Media and Egyptian Revolution
11 year ago
Image via Wikipedia
Social media is no longer limited to status updates and posting photos from a friend’s birthday party. It has quickly become one of the most influential factors in grassroots socio-political mobilization across the globe. The January 25 revolution in Egypt gained a major foothold with the application of Facebook and Twitter. Ever since communication media have existed, individuals used them to demand more governmental transparency and mobilize allies.
On February 9 former President Bill Clinton gave a lecture at New York University about the Dayton Peace Accords, which ended the 1995 Bosnia-Herzegovina genocide. Clinton compared constant news media coverage in Bosnia-Herzegovina with the role of social media in assisting communications during the revolution in Egypt. While he noted that the coverage of Bosnia-Herzegovina was different from the social media-assisted revolution in Egypt, both captured global attention, springing from the human desire for information.
Clinton reflected back on the quality of technology available during his presidency 16 years ago, “There were just 50 Internet sites and the average cell phone weighed 5 pounds”.
Inspired by events taking place during the recent successful revolt in Tunisia, many Egyptians began protesting against the unemployment and poverty resulting from 30-year s of autocratic rule by former President Hosni Mubarak. They used social networks like Facebook and Twitter to show the world what was happening, arrange protests and share information about governmental and military responses to the unrest. On the second day of mass protest the Internet, PDA access to the Internet and text messages were shut off by the Egyptian government, but these efforts to disable ‘insurgent’ communication were unsuccessful. A handful of transnational human rights activists, translators and bloggers used social media platforms to relay messages from Egyptian protestors, journalists and activists to further grassroots social mobilization. The world witnessed, day-by-day, what was going on inside Egypt.
Social media makes social organization easier and effective. In Egypt, citizens used social media to bring together individuals who shared common goals and ideas, and it also became a medium for planning. Social media forced the government to take accountability. These days, international social networks make it nearly impossible for governments to lie to and hide from their citizens. As January’s events have shown, social media interconnects individuals creating a transnational network armed with information.
While the Bosnia-Herzegovina genocide and the recent revolution in Egypt are two completely separate events rising out of different politics and history, the human desire for information has always been insatiable. At many points in history individuals have combined ingenuity, passion and technology to link with people, societies and movements across the globe.
This post was written by Thomas Morrison
Thomas Morrison is a co-editor of Everything Left and writes on topics that are current and progressive
Related Articles
- Social Media Sparks Egyptian Revolution (socialnetworkingnewsdaily.com)
- Upheaval and Revolution in Egypt, and the Powerful Effects of Social Media (fastgush.com)
- Egypt’s Social Media Revolution (kylelacy.com)
- Energtek Signs a Natural Gas Purchase Agreement with BH Gas, the Transmission Gas Provider of Bosnia and Herzegovina (prnewswire.com)
Featured Client: Farm at Green Village – Organic Gardening
101 year ago
We will be having a new feature on this blog where we will showcase some of our clients (once every few weeks). The purpose of these posts is to give examples of what good SEO should look like. If you are interested in improving your SEO on a budget I would urge you to learn form the work that we do for our clients and try to emulate this on your site.
Farming and simple gardening are rewarding in many ways, organic farming and gardening is even more rewarding. Rewards you will experience in organic farming and gardening are many. The Farm at Green Village is the organic gardening headquarters for New Jersey residents. With a friendly and extremely helpful staff they are the place to visit for their wide selection of tools, soils, plant seed and stock. The Farm at Green Village knows best about organic farming and guides us to the key principles in doing so; pest control, fertilization, water collection, weed control, and composting.
Pest Control
Organic garden supplies that are needed for a job well done include environmentally safe pesticides, fungicides, herbicides and products such as netting and tents to keep your organic garden safe from insects, animals and weeds.
Organic repellents, made from essential oils and other natural pesticides can control insects such as aphids, leafhoppers, Japanese beetles, mealy bugs, scale, and other garden pests. The Farm at Green Village offers organic repellants that are made from natural substances, that aren’t toxic to humans and pets. If you have clidren or pets or if you simply care about the environment organic pest control is the way to go!
Fertilization & Water Collection
Be it your lawn, flower garden, trees and shrubs, there are many organic fertilizers that will improve plant growth and the health of your plants overall. Don’t stop there, what about water that is good for your plants? Many of us are limited to when we can water our plants due to drought seasons and many of us know all to well that water from the hose can hold many pollutants. Harvesting rainwater is great for organic gardening. The Farm at Green Village has rain barrels and other great products to help support organic gardening when it comes to these problems.
Weed Control & Composting
Composting allows for better weed control because rich soil keeps your plants healthier. On top of great soil with composting, you can control weeds with organic herbicides and fungicides, and other organic gardening supplies that are healthier for your plants. Choosing from great composting materials and tools at The Farm in Green Village will ensure you’re headed on the right track as well. All of these steps and seeking great advice from professionals at The Farm in Green Village will lead you to acquiring a beautiful and healthy organic farm or garden.
SEO Tip # 19 Value of Backlinks
91 year ago
Image via Wikipedia
I would like to welcome you to my nineteenth SEO tip of the day; here I will discuss the importance of backlinks to improve your SEO.
Backlinks are a vital component of SEO b/c the number of backlinks and the quality of these backlinks is still the primary method through which Google and other search engines determine how a site will rank for a certain keyword. The value of backlinks has ebbed as search engines have refined their search algorithms (search engines today consider many factors not just backlinks) but backlinks are still the dominant way that keyword rankings are determined.
Trading links is one of the primary methods through which you can get backlinks – this is when you make an arrangement with another site that you will link to them if they will link to you. Trading links is seen as an artificial way of building links (since links are supposed to measure the popularity of your site). Although link trading is still a dominant method through which most new sites/blogs get backlinks, link trading is seen as a Black Hat SEO practice by Google (illigal) and if you engage in too much link trading it can get your site penalized; also Google tends to ignore two way link trades, so much link trading is a waste of time, but if done right trading links can be a useful way to improve your rankings (organic backlinks are always better though). Two way link trades are frowned upon by Google (site “A” adds a link to site “B”, and site “B” adds a link to site “A”) such links are not given much weight. It is much more valuable for you to do a 3 way link trade, this is simple a link trade between 3 sites instead of just 2, and is seen as more organic.
Related Articles
- SEO Lessons from JCPenney (netlz1.wordpress.com)
- What Are Backlinks: Get Backlinks most from tools directory … (what-are-backlinks.blogspot.com)
How to Market a Specific Niche Online
21 year ago
This guest post was written by Lance Williams
Lance Williamsis an avid blogger and a man of many talents, he enjoys everything from rock climbing to blogging. At the moment Lance is working with short sale in Las Vegas to improve their marketing.
The internet has become the major source of marketing in recent years. It is where the majority of people search for what they need and is also the place people look to connect with others who may be able to help with problems they are facing. The potential for an audience is limitless, but going for the largest audience is not always the best method. For most marketers the need to find a niche market is paramount. The following guidelines will help you reach that market you desire and see more return on your online marketing dollars.
Forums
First, establish a relationship with others that are interested in your line of business. If you are a carpenter, join forums that discuss woodworking and projects in that field. Make a sincere effort to reach out to others because people will catch on if your only goal is to gain exposure for your business. The leads will not lead to overnight success, but a consistent effort will lead to a natural development of relationships and advice from others. There are forums for nearly every type of business on the Internet, and usually several, so make an effort to participate in the ones which suit you best.
Social Media
Using Facebook to highlight your business and your skills is a great way to find those who are interested in or in need of your services and goods. Start with your family and friends and spread the word about what your business does, what services you provide or what goods you sell. If you run a boutique selling purses, those who are interested will see the exposure on others’ Facebook profiles and check it out themselves. This method is completely free and you will find those that are already interested in your type of business.
Blog
Starting a blog is also free and a great way to keep potential interested on your business’ activities on a daily basis. Show sneak peeks about what you are working on, before and after pictures of your work or share information that will help educate people about your line of work. In addition it is also important to use best SEO practices when blogging and to optimize your blog.
Keywords
Tagging your website with popular keywords that people are using to search on the Internet will be a great way to connect with those that are in your desired niche market. Be specific with your keywords, for someone considering a short sale that lives in Las Vegas they will most likely enter the keyword short sale Las Vegas. Think about your location and specialty when deciding what keywords to connect your site with.
SEO Tip # 18 Blogging to Improve SEO
21 year ago
I would like to welcome you to my eighteenth SEO tip of the day; here I will discuss the importance of blogging to improve your SEO. I know that I’ve already talked about this in an earlier tip, but I am very passionate about blogging for SEO and for this of you who may not have read my earlier tip I wanted to repeat myself.
Blogging is in all likelihood the most worthwhile and cost effective thing that you can do in order to improve your SEO. Although they were not started with this intention today blogs have become the leading way that businesses can communicate with their customers/clients. When blogging there are a few important things of which you should be aware (see my article on blog optimization), in addition to being well optimized it is important for you to blog often, (at least once every other day) and it is important that each blog post relate to your core business in some way, for example, if you are a doctor you can blog about types of hormone replacement therapy, or if you are a business services consultant you can blog about offshore business formation jurisdictions… To have a successful blog it is also important for you to promote each post that you write, you can do this by utilizing the RSS feed to sync your blog with Twitter, Facebook and other social media that you use. Again, the most important thing about a successful blog is that you blog often and that your posts are well written and interesting to read.
Related Articles
- SEO Tip # 17 Using Squidoo for SEO (netlz1.wordpress.com)
- SEO Tip # 13 Using Twitter for SEO (netlz1.wordpress.com)
- SEO Tip # 8 Blog Optimization (netlz1.wordpress.com)
- SEO Tip # 7 Benefits of Blogging for SEO (netlz1.wordpress.com)
SEO Tip # 17 Using Squidoo for SEO
61 year ago
Image by coreyweb via Flickr
I would like to welcome you to my seventeenth SEO tip of the day; here I will discuss the importance of Squidoo to improve your SEO.
Squidoo is currently one of my favorite web 2.0 platforms. Squidoo is a platform, (similar to blogs) which allows you to create a page on a specific topic (ex: Offshore Business Formation Benefits) and to add a variety of content on that topic, articles, pics videos etc… The reason that I really like Squidoo for SEO is b/c in addition to being able to create quality content you can embed links to other content of yours (your site, blog, another Squidoo lens…) and these links are typically given much juice (weight by Google and other search engines). Squidoo is also highly interactive and allows you to rate and vote other lenses (pages) and also to let others rate your lenses… In addition Squidoo lets you add your blog/RSS feed of your blog to every page and will automatically update this info based on your most recent blog posts, which means that you can get automatic quality links to each new blog post that you create. Visit Eugene on Squidoo.
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