Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from September, 2012

Instant results in search

Well, as you can see the search engines are displaying more and more results that are related to the most recent items in their News search. How many times have you been researching something and you think you’ve found what you are looking for only to find out that the article you are reading is from 2 years ago.. Grrrrr and you thought that vacation spot was nice.  The review you were reading was from 2 months prior to the ‘flood’ they experienced and that review after that is lost somewhere in cyberspace. Herein is the issue. How do you index this kind of data in a way that cant be manipulated. If you tell people certain elements to inclue peopel will lie. If you dont, what will be the standard? when goog gets it? the most trusted sites keep pumping out the data that gets read first? How does this work if some nobody site actually reveals something very important but their site has very few links. These are the challenges. I think when it all boils down it wil...

Good Content is very Important for SEO

Good SEO content has three primary characteristics: Offers useful information presented in an engaging format to human readers Boosts search engine rankings Attracts plenty of links from other sites Note that human readers come first on the list. Your site must deliver value to its visitors and do it in an engaging way. Few sites specialize in a subject so narrow that they have an information niche all to themselves. You'll have competition. Set yourself apart from it with expert interviews, meaningful lists and well-researched resources. Write well or invest in someone who does; your investment will pay off in increased traffic. Although search engines aren't your primary audience, they still influence your page rankings. In the days of early SEO, using keyword-stuffed META tags brought in plenty of traffic. People didn't hang around on a site that promised low air fares and delivered advertisements, but that didn't affect the search engines. Each iter...

Site Health

What is the pagerank? What's the PageRank of the page that is linking to you? What are the PageRanks of some of its subpages that link to other sites? Install the   Google Toolbar   to find out. While some websites may have very high PageRanks for their homepage, the other pages on their site may have a much lower PageRank. Pay attention to the specific page that will be linking to you when considering how good a site's PageRank actually is. Cache status Does the site have an up-to-date entry inside of Google's cache? You can check by searching Google with the command "cache:example.com". A site that doesn't have an up-to-date cache is often a red flag that there is something wrong with a search engine's ability to crawl that site. Link popularity How many entries does the site have? What is its link popularity? Use Marketleap's   Link Popularity Checker   to get some quick and dirty facts about a site's web presence. Number of outbo...

Anchor Text

what is anchor text? Anchor text refers to the words that make up a link; they are the words that turn your mouse cursor into a finger-pointing hand. For example, in the sentence, "I really like to go to   this store ," "this store" is anchor text for the link. why is anchor text important? Search engines gather data by traveling around the web via links, jumping from page to page. Links are the lifeblood of a search engine and are used as key indicators for identifying the topics of the pages they're about to go to. If 100 sites link to a site with the link "Texas Architect" or similar words, the search engine can be fairly confident that the site is about an architect in Texas. Targeted keywords If you want a page to rank for a keyword that is particularly difficult, be sure to focus on getting the keyword in your anchor text. Many newbies will request links to the page they're trying to boost and forget about the anchor text. Whil...

Embrace Social Media Metrics & Objectives

Eighty-four percent of companies surveyed in a recent Facebook survey believe that social signals will be more important to SEO in 2012. The convergence of SEO and social media tactics has meant that social media metrics are becoming just as important as traditional SEO metrics. It is now vital to measure "beyond the Like" and understand the true value of social media interactions. As  BrightEdge  CEO,  Jim Yu , mentioned in his panel presentation, the increased importance of social signals (e.g., Google Search Plus Your World) means it is now essential to look at how, when, and why social signals (tweets, Likes, +1’s, and Pins) influence rankings and position. Creating a Google+ page, adding social plugins (maximize engagement), interlinking deep pages with social media properties, and SEO’ing your social pages are all vital steps in optimizing for the social web and graph. Lee Odden , Author & CEO of  TopRank , makes a great point on matching KPI’s to ...

The New SEO Rules

The New SEO Rules Manipulating organic rankings on Google has become much harder in the last 10 years. And, I’m glad it did. It used to be that all you had to do to rank #1 on Google was to put a bunch of keywords at the bottom of your pages and in your meta keywords tag. As people figure out ways to game the system, Google figures out ways to avoid falling in these traps. And again, I’m glad they do, because otherwise Google’s results wouldn’t be relevant. Now, let’s be realistic: black-hat techniques do work. But for a short period of time. I have a lot of websites myself that I use for experiments, but I’d never do anything risky for any of my clients or my main websites. You have to know when it makes sense to use black-hat techniques, when to use white-hat techniques and when to be somewhere in the middle. My advice for 99.9% of you is: provide exceptional value to your users and Google will reward you for that. You’ll get a lot of organic links, social shares a...

Importance of Meta Tags Optimization

Importance of Meta Tags Optimization In this article, we simply talk about what Meta Tags are, their importance, the important Meta Tags and useful tips on how to optimize your Meta Tags for a better ranking with the search engines. "Meta Tag Optimization is an important aspect of your site optimization process. Careful handling can get you great Ranking Results " What are Meta Tags? Meta Tags are the information inserted in the <head> area of the HTML code of your web pages, where apart from the Title Tag, other information inserted is not visible to the person surfing your web page but is intended for the search engine crawlers. Meta Tags are included so that the search engines are able to list your site in their indexes more accurately.  Using Meta Tags in HTML is not necessary while making your web pages. There are many websites that don’t feel the requirement to use Meta Tags at all. In short Meta information is used to communicate information to...

The Importance of Backlinks

If you've read anything about or studied Search Engine Optimization, you've come across the term "backlink" at least once. For those of you new to SEO, you may be wondering what a backlink is, and why they are important. Backlinks have become so important to the scope of Search Engine Optimization, that they have become some of the main building blocks to good SEO. In this article, we will explain to you what a backlink is, why they are important, and what you can do to help gain them while avoiding getting into trouble with the Search Engines. What are "backlinks"? Backlinks are links that are directed towards your website. Also knows as Inbound links (IBL's). The number of backlinks is an indication of the popularity or importance of that website. Backlinks are important for SEO because some search engines, especially Google, will give more credit to websites that have a good number of quality backlinks, and consider those websites more relevant t...

7 Wonders Of The World

SEO Tips & Tricks

Tip 1:  Avoid Bad Coding. Ensure web pages are W3C Compliant. Search Engines bots crawl through web sites by analyzing the sites code. The idea is to make html clean and error free so that these bots are able to index every page of a website. Having errors could mean that your entire site does not get indexed by the bots, and ultimately can lead to a lower page ranking. Tip 2:  Use Relevant Keywords. If a website is about belgian chocolate, then go after specific keywords. For example "gourmet belgian chocolate" and "belgian chocolate truffles" would be good choices because they are very specific. The more specific a keyword is, the less competition it will receive in search engine rankings. This allows sites to have an easier time ranking, and a better position in the search engines. Tip 3:  Smart Keyword Placement. After the keywords have been decided on, they should show up somewhere in the site title and header tags. The keywords should also be in t...

Top 10 Tips to improving your SEO

1. Keyword Research It is essential when optimising your site, that the content is keyword rich. However, there is little point in writing keyword dense copy if the keywords are not commonly used in search terms. It is advisable to keep keywords ambiguous when using any SEO tool, e.g. KeywordDiscovery or Google Adwords Keyword Tool. This will allow the SEO tool to return more suggestions, some of which may be surprising, and ones you had not thought of. SEO tools will also allow you to see the levels of competition for the most popular keywords. This will allow you to optimise your campaign for the most effective keyword use. 2. Link Building A high Google PageRank is something most sites aim for, and while the algorithm for determining page rank is constantly changing the number and quality of links into your site always features. We suggest using reputable sites and niche directories to link back to your site. With genuine, relevant content, links back to your site can r...

Top 5 Tips for SEO Improvement

Since the rise of Google back in 2000 SEO has become a crucial element to any brand’s marketing plan.  More users are spending time on the internet in searching for various products, services, research or comparison shopping.  This presents a tremendous opportunity for any brand that’s seeking online visibility.  With over 75% search market share alone Google leads as the top dog in offering business owners the opportunity to get found by their target audience.  Reaching your target market though isn’t as easy as it may sound and will definitely require some serious elbow grease to get the results you’re looking for.  In 2011 alone we saw some dramatic changes to Google’s search algorithm which have made a drastic impact on  SEO . “How do I get to page 1 of Google?”   Perhaps a common question that every domain owner across the web would like to get answered.  If SEO is an area that you’ve been involved in for quite s...

Disadvantages of PPC Advertising

1. PPC Advertising Is Rather Complicated Search engine optimization (or SEO) is not difficult to learn and implement. However, I’ve had many clients come through our doors asking for help with their PPC advertising campaigns because they just couldn’t figure it out. PPC is a very complicated compared to the old way of doing things (meaning good old SEO). Getting your page rank up is pretty straight forward if you can put in the time and effort. However, trying to  raise your Google AdWords Quality score  on your landing page is a whole different story and most have to call in an expert to get the job done. 2. PPC Advertsing Is Really Expensive That leads naturally into the next disadvantage of PPC advertising – it can get downright expensive really fast! I’ve seen misguided clients burn through a few thousand dollars of their AdWords budget in a single day because they were advertising for  keywords  that were not  profitable  and forgot that they ...