Internet Marketing, Web Design, SEO, Web 2.0 Optimization
search engine optimization
The posts here look at SEO and how it can improve your traffic and conversion rates.
The Google Unnatural Links Update
01 week ago
Backl\inks
Ask any SEO specialist how important links are to a successful SEO campaign and they can tell you that links are certainly one of the important strategies to increased search engine result rankings. Recently, Google sent out an update that sent ripples across the entire SEO community. How will the Google update affect the types of link building strategies that we use? Or will it affect them at all? It is certainly worth taking a look at and double checking to ensure your site(s) are not unduly penalized.
Google’s Announcement
According to the official Google Search blog, many times links are used to help determine a topic of a linked page. The way Google evaluates these links is going to be different. They say that sometimes they “re-architect or turn off” certain parts of their scoring methods to help the system be easily maintained and clean. And that is about all that anybody is getting Google to say about the matter.
What many are discovering is that if the links provided to a site are all obtained by white hat methods there should be no penalty. It appears as though Google simply wants to crack down on sites that build back links through “unnatural” or “artificial” means. Those who are attempting to use artificial links to affect their Page Rank have experienced penalties by Google. Some webmasters have not received any notice before they noticed a sudden drop in the SERPs. The trouble seems to lie mostly with those who are engaging in buying or selling links and disregarding whether or not these are relevant or quality links. This is an obvious violation of Google’s Panda Update and can certainly affect a site’s ranking. There have also been some concern on the part of business owners who have hired SEO specialists. They are caught off-guard by the penalty and are unsure what to do to remedy the situation.
What’s Not a Violation?
It is important to note that all paid links are not in violation of these guidelines. It is really just part of the web’s economy, when the purpose is simply advertising and not trying to manipulate search results in any way. However, it is very important to note when links are purchased for advertising. One example of this is by redirecting links to a page that is not indexed by bots; such as .txt files. And another way to avoid the penalty is to add an “rel=’nofollow’” attribute to the tag <a>.
Google tries to make sure that it only penalizes sites that are purchasing links simply to manipulate the results. It will be looking for sites that engage in a huge amount of link exchanges or links that pass Page Rank. However, there are sites with many links that have been penalized in the rankings without cause. It is worth the time invested to make sure that natural links look more natural to the bots as well. For instance, if you have a link from a blog that is linked to your site alone, that looks unnatural. But a link from a blog that is linked to many different sites has a more natural look. A site that has a link from a professional organization will look natural as will a link to a relevant site. Large amounts of links from spam directories, loads of links from irrelevant sites or links from a “links” page will all send up some red flags to Google.
Impact on SEO
It is very possible that the recent changes in Google will directly affect SEO strategies. The Unnatural Link update is different from other updates because it is penalizing sites based solely on the link building strategies that have been used. For many it will mean no changes; for others it can be a clean-up headache. Based on the data available there are some observations that can be made about these penalties. If you get a message about unnatural links it is very likely that the site will be penalized within about 3 week’s time. These penalties seem to draw a correlation between the “unnatural links” and any anchor text that is used. Because the way that Google views anchor text has changed sites that contain large amounts of keyword anchor text are at risk.
For those who use commercial link building products, it is very likely that it will be or already is being targeted by Google. Some of the best known sites like Build My Rank are being de-indexed. Several SEO specialists have stated that they have been using their own blog networks for link building strategies. And some of them are aware that they have already been de-indexed. Sidebar links are going to send up a huge red flag so they should be removed. Links to any toxic sites should also be removed.
What to Do
It is really not that easy to clean up a site that has been penalized by Google’s updates. The first attempt should be to contact the link builders first and ask that the links be removed. If this is unsuccessful you can manually email the sites and ask that the links be removed. This can take a very long time and it will only work if a site has a real human who is managing the site and answering emails. This means that low quality sites will have no real means of contacting them so you cannot remove the link. This is why it is becoming very important to the SEO community to carefully guard link building campaigns and strategies. Google has yet to come up with a real way of dealing with this problem. However, you can link to Google Docs and state that you have asked for a link to be removed but have no means of contact and so you cannot do anything about it.
These changes are certainly having an impact on SEO agencies. This is especially true for those who rely on link building strategies for site rankings. On a good note, sites that are using spam methods to build links used to rank for about a year before they were detected; now they only last about 3 months at most. But for those who legitimately desire to build a lint term business it is necessary to develop a strategy that will deliver long term results.
To run a smart SEO campaign it will involve about 5 areas. First, continue to produce quality and relevant content for the users of the site. Link building strategies should be natural through the use of content where other sites naturally link back to their sites. Stay on Google’s good side by providing quality content and a site that is engaging for visitors. Don’t over optimize. Use a well-balanced approach to develop a solid SEO campaign.
Top 10 SEO Tips
124 months ago
SEO Tips
Most businesses wouldn’t even consider not having an online presence in today’s economic environment. Maintaining a website is cheaper than most conventional means of advertising and most people who are looking for services or products will most likely begin with a web search first. This is why SEO strategies are so important. The point of a web marketing campaignis to get the site in front of potential customers so that they can find and use the product or services being offered.
1. Keywords
Keywords are a very key element in SEO strategies. They should be used in the site content, Meta tags and URLs. This may initially be how a customer finds your business site to begin with. Words that would most commonly be used to find your business should be included in keyword usage on the site. Keywords are also important in other forms of web 2.0 optimization. For instance, tweets are also indexed by search engines and therefore you can optimize tweets with your keywords as well.
2. Contact Information
The best web marketing strategies can drive tons of traffic to your site but it will be totally unprofitable if clientele cannot reach you. For this reason be sure to put contact information on every single page of your site. This is a common local SEO strategy that is beneficial for website optimization (search engines will look for it) and for customers to be able to make contact with the business. Include the business name, physical address (if applicable), phone number and email address. Make it easy for customers and search engines to find you.
3. Local Tags
Include local tags on the site’s Meta tag and anchor text. Also add the business location to various keywords where it is appropriate.
4. Maps
It is important to include a map on your site so that customers can find your business. And obtain a listing in Google maps. While working on Google and the other search engines, make sure that you claim your business in various listings.
5. Backlinks
Local business groups can offer very valuable and relevant back links. Check with your local Chamber of Commerce and other business or civic groups. You may also establish links with various businesses in your area.
6. Photos
Photographs can be used as SEO strategies in several ways. A photo of the business is always a good thing, plus you can geo tag or keyword tag the image description. You can also use various images to display your recent work so that potential customers can see your work. This area might also include various references so that they can see that you are a reputable business.
7. Domain Name
Even though it costs a little bit, it is important to go ahead and purchase your domain name. This will help establish branding. Registering your own domain name can help it be established for years to come. Longevity is one of the factors search engines look for when checking for a site’s relevance to a search.
8. Onsite map
Always include an onsite map. It helps customers find what they are looking for and makes the site easier to navigate. It is also an effective SEO strategy as it will make it easier for web crawlers to navigate the site which can help increase its ranking in search engine results pages.
9. Social Media
9. Social Media
Relevant backlinks are very important to web crawlers. They are seen as valuable to search engines and therefore are an important SEO strategy. One of the fastest ways to get relevant links is to make use of the various social media sites. This is the beauty of web 2.0 optimization. When you make the right connections the backlinks will come naturally. You will not have to build a huge campaign or pay for them. Facebook, LinkedIn, and twitter are only the beginning. Make sure to review the site’s TOS before using these powerful media, but when used correctly they can be invaluable.
10. Blogs
Blogs can serve many purposes. They can provide relevant backlinks to your business site. But they can also be used to disperse valuable information to your clientele. They can be used to give information about new products or answer questions that customers may have. Blogs can keep customers connected to your business and when they find your blogs informative they may also share. Make sure to connect an offsite, relevant blog to your site.
How to Choose a Domain Name
37 months ago
Choosing a domain name is perhaps the most important aspect of internet marketing. It is very important to choose an appropriate name th
Domain names
at will help drive traffic to the site. It can be a fine line to choose between options that are catchy and those that are confusing. The point is to select one which sums up the essence of the business, blog or content while keeping it easy for users to remember.
The best place to start when selecting a domain name is with 4 or 5 phrases or terms that sums up the site you are building. Brainstorm a few keyword phrases that might work with the site and that users might use when trying to locate you on the web. Don’t try to mimic a site that may be similar. This can be confusing to potential customers and actually work against you by driving traffic to a competitor’s site. This can be a frustrating situation for both you and the customers who are trying to find your information online.
Keep it simple to type in. Think about it from the user’s point of view. If it takes a lot of time and work to type the domain in because of spelling, or odd combinations you may lose a lot of traffic. Successful web design will contain a unique but uncomplicated domain name. It is good marketing to make sure it is easy to type. This means leaving out a lot of symbols, strange spellings and numbers. A good domain name will be a short one word or one phrase summary of the site without being too lengthy for users to type.
Successful marketing of a domain name will mean that it is easy for users to remember. This will do two things for your site. For one thing, it will help customers pass it on to their contacts because it’s easy to tell others about the site. The other factor is making it rank high in search engine results pages. A domain name that is properly set up will be ranked high in these results and will continue to come up in related searches.
For those who are serious about website marketing you will want to use the dot-com option. Driving traffic to a dot-net or a dot-org can be a successful endeavor, but over the long haul it is much easier to market a dot-com. Many people who use the internet still do not know the other extensions are even available. SO if it is at all possible stay with dot-com.
Always check with copyright.gov to make sure that you do not infringe on someone else’s copyright. Buying a domain name that is infringing on another’s copyright can seriously hinder your online business endeavors.
These are the basic elements that are needed to select a domain name. IF you apply these basic principles it will be easy to optimize the site so that it ranks higher in the search engine result pages.
Marketing for Contractors
18 months ago
Internet marketing for contractors requires much dedication to be successful. It is no longer sufficient to just put up a web page and say you have a web presence. SEO for contractors takes careful planning and diligence to make sure that their services are made visible to customers. Contractors want to let their clients know about the varied services that are available.
One of the many things that will be an ongoing process is keyword research. It is a good idea to do this before the website is built to see what types of phrases and keywords people are using to try to find specific types of services. For instance, marketing for contractors may require specific keyword usage such as remodeling, or house painting. You want to use the proper keyword to reach your audience and put the services you provide at the top of search engine results. This little bit of research needs to be repeated occasionally to see what targeted words get the most searches.
Marketing home remodeling websites
Creating relevant back links is also an important part of search engine optimization. There are a few ways to achieve this. Blogs offer a great way to create some relevant links to your site and offer valuable information about your services to potential customers. For instance contractors who do residential roofing can write a blog about the various types of roofing materials and how they perform in different climates. This offers customers some firsthand knowledge that can assist them in their choice of roofing material. The blog can then be linked back to the relevant page(s) on your site. The blog can be updated frequently with news about various types of materials and their efficiency.
Don’t over look the power of social media in the world of internet marketing. It’s pretty much a free platform with a lot of punch. Facebook, Twitter, Squidoo and StubleUpon are all great places to post the URL to your business. When an update on your blog or website occurs it is easily posted on Facebook and Twitter. And a Suqidoo lens can be used to create a page specific to the services you offer and can also be linked back to your site.
The new web 2.0 world allows for much interaction between businesses and clients. The ways to use the web for site promotion are limitless. Don’t count anything out! Forums, directories, articles and videos are all available as resources for successful internet marketing for contractors.
What is an XML Sitemap?
119 months ago
XML Sitemap
When an internet user is trying to locate specific information they will put a phrase or keyword into the search engine. Search engines send out web crawlers, some call them spiders, to crawl out across the web and find the most pertinent information to meet the request. When these bots come to a new site, if there is a Sitemap they will crawl through the site to see if there is any information worth being displayed on the search engine results page.
One thing an XML Sitemap does for your site is to list aspects of the site which might not otherwise be discovered. The Sitemap contains a list of all the pages on the site and you can see information about each page. This will let the search engines know about some of the specific kinds of content on the site. A Sitemap can also contain information about how often the site is updated and when the next update is scheduled.
Some benefits to having a Sitemap include helping crawlers find their way around a new site, or a site that does not yet have very many external links. It can also help make it more visible if there are not a lot of links within the site. Basically, it makes your site much more visible to search engine crawlers and helps them find the pertinent information on your site. It can then get the information into the hands of your readers, users or potential customers.
As far as an example, let’s say you just started a home remodeling business. You prepared your SEO content for your site to help the crawlers find the site, but without a Sitemap the crawlers may not be able to find the information that is most pertinent to the search. In your XML sitemap you can include metadata that helps the crawlers see where you have photos or videos of recent work your company has completed, along with all your specific geographical information.
When the Sitemap is created the extra information can be included so that the search engines will find their way around. The Sitemap can contain a list of all the URLs on the site, which makes them more visible. It can also include relevant prioritization. This means you can rank each page according to its priority. This helps the crawlers know exactly where to look for relevant information. And tags can also be included on each page to let the crawlers know when the page was changed last and when it is supposed to be updated in the future.
An XML Sitemap can help search engine crawlers be able to explore the entire site. They are beneficial to those who do online marketing. It helps to get the site out where customers can view the information it contains.
There are a number of free XML sitemap creators on the web, one that we like to use is, http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/. These free sitemaps have most of the features that you need to have on your sitemap, although the one listed above will limit the sitemap to 500 pages.
Don’t Track in Dirt with your Digital Footprint
71 year ago
This is a guest post by: Ryan Moreau
Internet Safety expert, Ryan Moreau from Kiwi Commons.com, shares what everyone should know about his or her digital footprint.
With over 1.5 billion Web surfers worldwide, photos and videos have the ability to reach millions within seconds. Our digital footprint – the content available about us online (including text, photographs, audio and video) is traceable and permanent. With people pushing out viral content around-the-clock and potentially damaging reputations, future jobs or even luring online predators, it’s more important than ever to educate younger generations about what they could be leaving behind.
Here are a few key things the tech-savvy members of Generation Y need to remember when it comes to keeping their digital footprint clean:
The Internet is public.
If your friends, significant other or family can see it, so can everyone else. This includes employers, colleagues, coaches and teachers. Even if you’re currently too young to start thinking about a career, more and more employers are searching the Web for information on potential candidates including Google, Facebook, Twitter and blogs; information that will still be available years later when you enter the job market.
A recent CareerBuilder study found that 26% of all hiring managers use search engines to research potential applicants, and a staggering 50% of recruiters for college graduate jobs exhibited the same behavior. Additionally, a recent study by the University of Massachusetts’ Center for Market Research found that 26% of college admission offices use search engines to research applicants. Without even knowing it, you can cost yourself an education, athletic scholarship or your dream job.
The Internet is viral and not in your control.
It only takes seconds for a text message, email or Tweet to go viral and spread like wildfire. With the ever-growing “sexting” epidemic among teens, it’s important to know the consequences. A revengeful Florida boy e-mailed and texted previously received nude photos of his former 16-year-old girlfriend to more than 70 people, including her parents, grandparents and teachers. He was then charged with transmitting child pornography, and is now a registered sex offender — a label he must carry until he is 43.
Before you click send, ask some questions:
• Is there anything in this picture or video that will tell the world too much personal information about me?
• Do I want to be asked about that comment, video or picture at a job interview in 10 years?
• What message am I sending about myself with this post?
Once it’s there, it’s there forever.
In this era of e-mail, texting, blogging and social networking, trying to hide your digital footprint is practically impossible. In fact, the Library of Congress has acquired the entire Twitter archive, which includes all Tweets since March 2006. By posting personal information – even information you don’t think you are sending to the general public – you are susceptible to cyber bullying, online predators and physical harm. According to a 2008 study by National Crime Prevention, up to as many as 8.7 million American teens are bullied online every year. Information you think may be private can still lure physical predators, finding out where you go to school, where you live, when you’re home babysitting or who you hang out with on a Friday night.
Not all publicity is good publicity.
More and more people have begun to actively search out the digital footprint of peers and are influenced by what they find by forming opinions and judgments from what they’ve seen in the social media world. For example, Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps lost a Kellogg’s sponsorship and tainted his reputation after a photo surfaced of the athlete smoking marijuana. What you say, post or upload sends a message about who you are. Parts of your digital footprint such as uploaded photographs, blog posts, YouTube videos or Facebook Wall posts might not depict how you would like to be portrayed now, or in the future.
In an era where Facebook has over 6 million page views per minute and Twitter pumps out 50 million traceable Tweets a day , it’s imperative that everyone gets a firm understanding of their own digital footprint. For parents, conversations on this topic and general Internet safety are essential for their children. To help young people understand the depth of their digital footprint, families should open up a dialogue on the importance of their digital footprint and how to keep it positive.
For more information on managing your online reputation please see other posts on this blog.
More information on digital footprinting can be found at KiwiCommons.com, a free Internet safety resource for parents and educators.
SEO for your grandmother
51 year ago
When most people hear the term “SEO” or “Search Engine Optimization” they instinctively assume that this is something that is very complicated and that they will never understand the basics, for this reason many websites still lack basic optimization, and will likely be doomed to obscurity. This “eyes glazing over” effect is particularly true when SEO experts start using terms like “web 2.0” or “Meta…” or “H1 tags”… but I am here to tell you that SEO is not that complex (at least not the basics), sure, there are “advanced” SEO techniques for optimizing your site, but unless you are in a very competitive industry, basic SEO should help you a great deal (Oh and for those of you who are in a competitive industry, or who do not want to go the DIY route I invite you to contact NetLZ, and let us be your top SEO experts!).
So… let us return to the title of this blog post, how exactly does SEO apply to your grandmother? What I meant by this is that even your grandmother should be able to understand SEO basics. A good way to look at SEO is to think of a website without SEO, or as it was explained to me once, “a website without SEO is like winking to a girl from across the room with the lights off, sure, she might see you but your chances are not good…”
Basically speaking SEO is the art of promoting your website, and much like any type of promotion, the trick is in being seen by someone who is looking for exactly what you are selling at the right moment. In SEO this is accomplished through getting your site, or different pages of your website to rank for targeted keywords (this is done by following certain rules, adding proper tags to pages, titles…). Additionally link building is a dominant component of SEO today, the best way to think of link building is by seeing it as forming partnerships with similar minded business or businesses that are in the same niche (for example, a good link partnership may be between a Family care doctor in New Jersey, and a Anti Wrinkles Treatment). A proper link exchange offers a few benefits, first you are providing a benefit to the visitors of the site with whom you are trading links, and secondly each link helps to increase your popularity in the eyes of Google, and improves your keyword rankings. SEO also consist of the optimization of Pay Per Click campaigns (PPC) directory submission, paid links and many other things that I’ve tried to cover in past blog posts as well as a variety of topics that I will be discussing in future posts.
Have you tried to explain SEO to your grandmother? Any luck? Please share your experience with us.
The biggest secret of SEO: time
11There are many SEO tricks of the trade that SEO experts use, but the simple fact is that the most important aspect of any SEO (organic) campaign is time. You can do everything write from an SEO perspective, set up quality on page SEO, start building links… but it takes time for real SEO to show results. As a rule SEO companies typically require new customers to sign a 6 month contract, this is typically enough time to start seeing good results, but I would urge you that if you want to see amazing SEO results and if you want to make your website a leader in your chosen industry, you should think about SEO in years, rather than in months.
A big reason why time plays such an important factor in SEO is b/c Google looks at a websites age, how long the domain has been registered/how long the site has been up… as an indication on whether the site is an authority in its field (keywords), and more weight is given to your keywords the older you are.
Another reason that the age of your site plays such a big role is b/c page rank still plays a role in the ranking of your keywords and page rank tends to go up with the age of your site. (it is very difficult to get a high page rank when your site is young b/c it takes time for Google to assign your initial page rank, which is very low and then it takes time for you to get quality sites to link to you so that your page rank will increase).
Long tail keywords vs. short tail keywords
62 years ago
Long tail keywords and short tail keywords
The terms “short tail key words” and “long tail keywords” are aspects of more advanced SEO and are typically associated with Pay Per Click advertising (as methods of getting cheaper PPC ads) although they can also be affiliated with organic search, and that is what I will discuss here.
Looking at the definition of these terms simply, “short tail keyword” refers to a keyword that is more competitive and one that has 1000’s of search in Google per month, where as “Long tail keyword” refers to a less competitive keyword that may only have 10’s or a few hundred monthly Google searches, for example, a short tail keyword might be “textbooks” while a long tail keyword may be “buy cheap textbooks online”, or, a short tail keyword might be “corporate team building” while a long tail keyword is “quality corporate team building events in New Jersey”…
As you might imagine, short tail keywords are difficult to rank for, and long tail keywords are easier to rank for. So why not focus only on long tail keywords, right? The downside of focusing only on long tail keywords is that even if you manage to rank #1 on 10 long tail keywords, the combined monthly search volume of these keywords will likely be under 1000 monthly searches, so you are unlikely to get much traffic to your site, but if you can rank #8 on a good short term keyword, with a monthly search volume of 50,000 searches, it is very likely that you will get 10,000 hits just from that single keyword! Additionally, Google prescribes to the “rising tide lifts all boats” philosophy, so if you can get a single keyword to rank well, it will help your other keywords for that page rank well also.
In examining this issue my advice is this, focus on both, experiment to see which method works better for you, you can even study your competition to see how they approach this question, and do not pick keywords that are so competitive that you will never rank for them (it is very discouraging when you put in much work and see no results).
Facts about trading links
12 years ago
Today link building remains one of the most important aspects of off site SEO, and is perhaps the primary method by which to get a site to rank in search engines for chosen keywords. There are multiple aspects to a proper link building strategy (social bookmarking, organic links, blogging, web 2.0…) but what I want to discuss here is trading links.
I know that I have spoken on this topic on a few previous occasions, but the question of link trading (otherwise known as exchanging links) is one that arises often in my day to day work for my clients. I recently had an impromptu debate on this topic with a marketing expert who I met through one of the forums in which I am active. I expressed a desire to this person to trade links between my clients and hers, and she responded to me that she never traded links b/c she did not see any purpose in doing this. This post is therefore written in response to that debate (and if the person with whom I had this discussion is reading this post I urge you to leave your response as a comment)
Trading links is perhaps the oldest type of link building and dates back to the early days of the internet, and is also the most straight forward method of getting links (although not the easiest by far). In trading links you essentially make a deal with another webmaster in which they link to you and you, in turn link to them, under such a deal both sites benefit. Although this type of link building has lost much weight in recent years, as Google and other search engines have refined their algorithms – to the point where Google can now detect when a simple link exchange has taken place (I link to your homepage on my homepage, and you return link to my homepage on your homepage) link trading still counts in the eyes of Google. Additionally trading links has a secondary benefit b/c not only does it help you with improving your keyword rankings, but it also helps improve your referral traffic b/c (for example) if you are an author of a kids adventure book about summer camp and you get a summer camp in New Jersey to link to your book, it is very likely that many of the visitors to the website of the summer camp will visit your site to see what your book is about, and it is also likely that your sites’ visitors may be interested in a summer camp in New Jersey.
In addition to a two way link exchange (which isn’t as powerful for search engines as it once was) you can also do a 3-way link exchange, or a 4-way link exchange… Under this method, instead of linking 2 sites directly to each other, you link 3 sites to each other, where site “A” gets a link on site “B”, site “B” gets a link on site “C” and site “C” gets a link on site “A”, or, using the above example, you simply add a third site into the loop, so the New Jersey Summer camp would add a link to the summer camp adventure book, the site of the summer camp adventure book would add a link to a Summer camp stories blog, and the blog would in turn add a link to the NJ summer camp. (This is more complicated, but it also more beneficial and it is worth it)
Another important thing to consider when trading links (and another thing that was discussed in my debate with the marketing expert) is the page rank of the site with which you are exchanging the links. The answer to this is relatively simple, the higher the page rank of the page where your link appears, the better the quality of the link (as seen by Google), although if you are trying to increase your referral traffic the page rank question should not be of concern.
There is one more potential factor to look at when trading links; this is relevance of the links. It is always beneficial to trade links with websites that are similar to yours, regardless of the page rank – this will help to make you an expert in your field (at least in the eyes of Google).
To sum up, and to put an end (however temporary to the link trading question), yes, it is always a good idea to trade links. If you have any thoughts on this topic please leave a comment, I approve all legitimate comments.
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