This Week’s Quick SEO Guide – Some Tips and Tricks

August 20th, 2010

The most important step when you start your SEO campaign is to separate truth from myth. Almost every other person can give you an idea about how to carry out your SEO plan. Most of them have no idea how to achieve desired results. Even the experienced professionals sometimes find themselves in a tricky situation since SEO tactics and trends keep on changing consistently.

Let’s discuss some time-honored tricks along with some new tips recommended for SEO campaigning.

1. Carry out Keyword Research Carefully: This is the first and most important step of your SEO campaign. All the keywords relevant to your blog should be researched thoroughly. Success at this step ensures good fundamental start to your campaign.

2. Avoid using Similar Meta tags for every page: Use unique Title and Meta Tags for each page. This makes sure that all the pages have their own identity and are worth visiting individually. Integrate relevant keywords and add an attracting title.

3. Never Lie to Search Engines: Over-using keywords, creating doorway pages or employing black hat/unethical tactics to search engine can land you in trouble. At the very least, your site can be banned. Be honest in your efforts and try to create a genuine, informational web page having unique content.

4. Say no to Low Quality Links: All links are not good. Avoid using link farms and other such paid links. Instead, research the website’s popularity and page rank, before linking to it. Alexa can serve as a benchmark to check website’s popularity.

Complete SEO Nirvana

Complete SEO Nirvana

5. Don’t Use links having Similar Anchor Text: Do not use same anchor text as links over and over again. Search engines hate it and these won’t do you any good.

6. Avoid Excess Reciprocal Linking: If done in optimum amount, reciprocal links can serve your SEO purpose well. In small doses, they are known to create wonders. However, make sure that these links are related to your niche. Also, try to have links emerging from diverse places such as forums, blogs, articles, social media etc.

7. Page Ranks are Mere Numbers: Page rank should not be your top priority while undertaking SEO campaign. Page ranking criteria is not known and is rather complicated. Sometimes, low ranking pages do pretty good and attract a lot of visitors. Don’t freak out if your page rank is low. Just ramp up your SEO efforts.

8. There’s World Beyond Single Keywords: Do not compete for single keywords. Instead, focus on short but relevant keyword phrases. It ensures that you will slowly create a niche following for a relevant search query. Once you achieve a cult status, you can compete for single keywords.

These basics of SEO are proven and tested by professionals. Most internet gurus would agree to their potency. You can begin your SEO efforts with them easily. Or if you are already into an SEO campaign, you can integrate these tips to experience better results.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in search engine optimisation | No Comments »

Worth of SEO Services – Are You Paying Too Much?

August 13th, 2010

Search engine optimization is a necessity for any business in these times of fierce online competition. You need to get exposure through search engines to reach your targeted market. As such, thousands of SEO services have sprung up on the internet providing search engine optimization packages as dirt cheap prices. However, there are some elite services who promise to improve your search engine rankings and charge huge money for the same.

If you are a webmaster, you are probably using some SEO service provider. But have you ever given consideration to how much these services are worth? If not, its time you do a research and find out how much you are getting for your money. Here are some tips to help you decide if you are going to pay an SEO service provider or not.

roi

  1. First, make up your mind whether you really need SEO assistance. For example, if you aim to target some “long tail” or unique key words, you should rather try it yourself first. Why blindly waste money on an SEO consultant? However, if you are unsure about how to conduct a keyword research, it is better you outsource it to a competent SEO firm.
  2. Let’s face it – search engine optimization is not rocket-science. Most of the times, it’s just monotonous drudgery. So, most of your monetary resources can be allocated towards other important tasks. Though, an experienced SEO personal can make considerable difference to your rankings. You need to decide whether you have enough resources to spend on these exorbitant services.
  3. The worth of a SEO endeavor boils down to effective sales conversion or clicks. Just like a PPC or Search Engine Marketing campaign, SEO should also be measured according to the cost-per-click basis. Its success should be according to the ROI. If you do not have any goal of how many clicks or conversion you want, it better not to bomb money on SEO services.
  4. SEO is a dynamic process. Your competitors are not going to sit idle when they see you on the first page. With fierce competition, you can lose your top spot anytime. Due to this fact, your search engine optimization process must be an ongoing process. You cannot depend entirely on SEO firms and only you can understand your business best.
  5. Search engine were and always will be secrets. Anybody claiming to have an insider source is lying. Search engine companies are not willing to trade their secrets at any cost. They constantly update their algorithms and change the key to the lock. So, even the most expert people can only guess. SEO firms do help but they don’t have a 100% guarantee of what works and what does not.

So, there you go. This is the big picture of SEO services. They can help you a great deal if your website basics are clear and you now need a good conversion. However, those thinking that an SEO firm can quickly change their sales overnight are in for disappointment. When you hire a SEO consultant, keep in mind the ROI element because if you have a positive margin here, you are on the right path.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Online Marketing, internet marketing | No Comments »

Local SEM – Your Key to Better Sales

August 6th, 2010

Have you ever thought about local search queries while fine-tuning your search engine marketing strategy? If no, then you are not alone. Most internet marketers don’t give much importance to local traffic while optimizing their websites. However, this small niche can be highly lucrative provided you follow the right guidelines. Just consider the fact that one out of every five search queries in the U.S.A. is regarding local information or products. With 16 billion searches performed every month, the local search market is huge.

It is obvious that a local search is regarding the purchase of a product and consumer is more than likely to buy the product almost immediately. This can mean huge profits for local companies. If geo-specific searches are targeted at your business, then you can leverage the enormous potential of your local market. Apply these 5 tips to improve your local search engine marketing results.

search engine marketing
Local Listings

If you are running a business, you should claim your local listings through online business centers. You can take the help of local search engines like Yahoo, Google and Bing to achieve this. This ensures that information related to your business is visible to the public in the best way possible.

For e.g. a non-working phone number can lead to potential sales loss. Also, if you have offices at 2-3 locations, it is important that you list all the addresses and contact info clearly. Sites such as CitySearch and Yelp also provide local listing services.

Impressive Profile

Most businesses don’t go beyond managing a simple profile containing name, contact number, address, and products. However, if you take it a step further and optimize your profile better, you’ll experience much better exposure. You can do this using informative business descriptions and customized fields. The descriptions should be highly informative and keyword rich. You can also add maps showing your detailed location. Here too, the key is to keep the information up to date.

Content Distribution

You need to include content distribution in you online marketing strategy. Besides search engines, you need to have exposure on online directories and smaller search engines. Failure to distribute content on these services results in potential loss of customers. You can begin by having a list of article directories and then proceeding to submit articles on it.

Check Performance

After performing search engine optimization, you need to track your performance regularly. You need to create reports of existing click traffic, diverted traffic, backlinks, geo-specific traffic and average sales generated due to local search queries. Use Google analytics to check and customize performance tracking.

Let the Customer’s Speak

Encourage your customers to write a review of your business. Google and Yahoo consider online reviews as a positive aspect to your online ranking. If reviews related to your business and products are positive, more and more people will be interested in doing business with you. This is user-generated content and you don’t have to make much effort either.

Once these elements are implemented into your search engine marketing strategy, you’ll get an edge over your competition for local search queries. Better SEM strategies result in improved sales.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in e-commerce, internet marketing, search engine marketing | No Comments »

Google and the Sitelinks Saga?

July 26th, 2010

If sitelinks are displayed below your website by Google, it’s highly likely that more clicks and visitors will be attracted by your website. Most of the visitors are known to click the first 3 results. This is the very reason why you should get more links included in your top 3 results. This boosts the amount of clicks on your website and, subsequently, your profits. Unfortunately, Sitelinks displayed by Google are not always correct. So, let’s discuss how to optimize your website so that Google displays the correct Sitelinks on your site.

Check your Current Sitelinks Displayed by Google

Google tends to display a certain Sitelink only after determining that the searcher/visitor really is seeking a specific website. To check your website’s Sitelinks, you need to perform a search on Google regarding your exact domain name sans the .com. Also, do not include any other keyword that you use to optimize your website.

For example, search for “dictionarytips” if your website is named dictionary.com. This will enlighten you about the number of sitelinks your site fetches.

The Type of Sitelinks

When you search as mentioned above, you’ll get the following results:

  • At most, eight text links will be displayed by Google. These will be identical to the navigation links of your website. If this happens, Google parses your website’s navigation and divides it further into different categories. It is a positive development.
  • Sitelinks directed towards your website’s random pages: In this case, Google is unable to parse your website’s navigation. Google gives priority to the pages having the most backlinks and chooses them to display sitelinks. This isn’t a desirable situation.
  • No sitelinks are displayed by Google: This means that your website and its pages are not SEO friendly and Google cannot parse your website’s navigation.

The Way towards Better Sitelinks

Sitelinks are generated by Google keeping in mind the links of your website and its navigation. Here are some tips to help you:

  • You need to work on improving your website’s linking and navigation.
  • Don’t go in for fancy Flash navigation and JavaScript. Instead, stick to conventional <a href> links.
  • In case your website uses images , ensure that alternative texts are embedded in them so that Google can easily categorize your links.

Having a clear navigation will ensure that Google is able to easily parse it for better sitelinks. Avoid selecting a complex navigational pattern as it reduces the credibility of your website in front of search engines. Sitelinks can increase the appeal of your website in front of search engines. So, follow these tips and boost your profits.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Online Marketing, google adsense, internet marketing, search engine marketing | 4 Comments »

Google Releases Second Quarter earnings – Are they good enough?

July 18th, 2010

Google has just released it’s second-quarter earnings and the figures seem good. But that’s what the company has to say. As far as investor’s opinion’s go, they aren’t as good as expected. The earnings figure stands at $6.82 billion, a 24% rise over last year. The results have evoked mixed reactions from the market.

google-logojpg

Core Figures

Last year, in the same quarter, Google earned $5.52 billion. So, current results signify some growth story. Google-owned sites contributed close to $4.50 billion, which alone accounts for a 66% of the entire revenue. Further, AdSense contributed $2.06 billion through its partner sites. Accustomed net operating revenues are pegged at $2.67 billion, which accounts for 39% of the total revenue.

Still Under-Performed?

The earnings figures are good, then why does the market have to say these are not good. That’s because Google’s second quarter performance meant that price per share should have rose to $6.45. As such, Google’s shares might have tumbled by now, as the analysts expected.

Search Marketing

Year on year, the aggregate paid clicks have risen to a current figure of 15%. These aggregate paid clicks comprise of clicks related to advertisements shown on Google sites plus the AdSense partner sites. As such, average CPC has risen 4% since last year. Also, Traffic Acquisition Costs have also risen to $1.73 billion in 2010 from last year’s $1.45 billion. These TAC figures account for 26% of the total advertising revenues and are primarily associated with money paid to AdSense coalition partners adding up to $1.46 billion for the given period.

So, what’s next?

CEO, Eric Schmidt, commented on the second quarter results, “We saw strength in every major product area, as more and more traditional brand advertisers embraced search advertising and as large advertisers increasingly ran integrated campaigns across search, display, and mobile. We feel confident about our future, and plan to continue to invest aggressively in our core areas of strategic focus.”

As of now, Google’s second quarter earnings have shown a substantial increase in earnings. Defying speculations the company has raised its profits and that will reflect in its future plans. The company plans to invest $100 – $200 million in Zynga. So, be prepared to see another major launch from Google in the upcoming few months. As of now, Google’s shares are soaring and investors are having a pretty good time.

Tags: ,
Posted in Internet News, google adsense | 3 Comments »

Official Google Tips: The Best SEO Path to Tread

July 10th, 2010

SEO is an ever changing game. As such, there is no safe path except the official Google tips. These come right from the company and are sure to make a difference. So cutting the chat, let me discuss some official tips from Google to boost SEO rankings.

seo

Tip #1

“Ensure the presence of indexable text-based content on your SEO optimized website or page which Google search bot can easily see.”

Most SEO guys make this mistake. Remember the basics of SEO, and ensuring whether your text is indexed or not is one such basic. Your text shold be well indexed with relative content. One of the best way to index your text is through a text browser. The most popular choice here is Lynx, which can also help you diagnose crawling-related problems.

Tip#2

“Add substantial text to your content. For websites in which it seems difficult to add text to your content, implement ‘user reviews and comments’ to add more text to your site. Make sure your website has enabled the ability to add user comments. ”

This is a vital on-site SEO method recommended by Google. In layman terms, it means lacking website content. There should be considerable text accompanying your content. This can be problem if you have a low-text website such as a website consisting of flash videos, images and MP3 streamers, etc. In such cases, webmasters can use reviews or comments to increase text on the pages.

You can increase comments on your content by increasing traffic to your website. To boost traffic, you can tap into sources like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, article marketing etc.

Tip #3

“Keyword Research – Think about what users will type when searching for your services and make sure that your content contains those keywords.”

Webmasters tend to research keywords only from SEO point of view. Avoid this and think like you are actually a client searching for your industry’s products. These are the words and phrases people actually type in search engines and conduct searches. While researching keywords, think like a client not a webmaster.

Tip#4

“The prime aim is not to achieve the number one ranking relative to a particular hard phrase and take advantage of only the user’s search volume. Find traffic from other great sources such as Twitter, Facebook, Orkut, Google map listings, etc.”

Nowadays, there are many traffic sources besides Google. The social networking websites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Orkut, Google Map listings etc are fast catching up. They can also act as a source of traffic. Attracting traffic from these sources is much more fun and easier to do. Also, you save a lot of resources which aould otherwise be spent on getting difficult keywords.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Online Marketing, internet marketing, search engine marketing | 1 Comment »

Google News Updated with New Features

July 3rd, 2010

Google has made several changes, or shall we say updates, to the News section. The new look of the news section makes it easier to steer through various news topics, highlight interesting news stories. These features make sure that interesting news is not missed due to a gamut of irrelevant stories. Besides this, you can also share the news among your group through a news sharing feature. It is important to note here that Google News is an important source of instant news for the world feeding countless websites with live stories. As such, even small changes make a world of difference to the regular users.

Screen-shot-2010-07-01-at-6.16.44-AM

The most significant of updates in the revised Google News homepage is addition of a new section known as “News for you.” This section can be accessed through the Google News Homepage. This section beams important news headlines which are of high interest to the user. This stream of headlines can be customized according to the user’s taste so that user does not have to sort out news articles from a cloud of stories. Through the option called ‘Edit personalization’, you can further personalize this section and specify a certain Google News sub-stream to be included in your news results. Also, you can select list or section view of the news stream through this option. The ‘Reset Personalization’ button removes all your previously selected preferences and default settings are applied.

The new Google News allows users to control the type of news they want displayed on their Google News homepage. The news sources can also be specified according to your choice. In addition to all these features, the major stories of the day can also be displayed. The stories are matched to your preferences and with those present on the news sources to display the relevant links.

Another obvious change is made to the news sharing feature. The new features allow users to share the whole cluster of news stories with their friends through Google news, Facebook, Google Reader, Twitter or Google Buzz. These sharing options are displayed at the top right corner of each selected story cluster on your browser’s Google News Homepage.

Tags: ,
Posted in Internet News | 2 Comments »

Is Facebook’s ‘Like’ targeted at Google’s ‘Links’?

June 25th, 2010

Back in April, Facebook launched some new features known as ‘recommend’ and ‘like’. The two flush buttons were actually a blanket hiding an Open Graph protocol that, according to the company, uses the user’s behavioral data to drive a powerful search engine. The results are ‘like’ oriented instead of being ‘link’ oriented. At the F8 conference, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook explained how the websites that utilize Facebook’s open graph plug-ins are shown as part of Facebook pages in the search results of the social networking site.

Can Facebook's Search Engine Beat the Giant Google?

Can Facebook's Search Engine Beat the Google Giant?

So far, Facebook has not mentioned how many sites have applied company’s plug-ins and Open Graph API platform since the launch. Earlier in April, just a week after the service was launched, it claimed around 50,000 websites have integrated with this service. According to the company, the new protocol aims to extend the already coveted Facebook Connect service that allows publishers to incorporate Facebook features into their pages. It is estimated that around a million websites – including highly popular sites like The Huffington Post — have incorporated the said features. Also, approximately 150 million Facebook users’ (out of a total of 400 million users) ‘connect with Facebook’ through the associated external websites.

So, does Facebook finally have a Google killer in its hands? Only time can tell that. But the concept of using ‘like’ instead of ‘links’ is definitely a different approach. The Open Graph protocol search results will obviously return much better results. For queries such as local hotels, the recommendations of your Facebook friends/groups will be of great help. The behavioral suggestions of around 400 million users will greatly aid decision making. However, when it comes to general scenario, the behavioral results will rarely be of any use.

On the other hand, Google hasn’t shown much progress in successfully integrated social networking elements into its search results, apart from incorporating Twitter results. Although, the search giant does have a potential to use Facebook’s Open Graph API and can pull in some of the social search results. This can easily be achieved by Microsoft since it has signed a deal with FAcebook in 2008 which allows it to run Facebook’s search engine.

Meanwhile, Facebook search queries grew by 48 % in the month of March 2010 as compared to February. That translates to a trivial 2.7% share of the online business searches in the US. Although, it may not be enough to pose a threat to Google, the response is definitely overwhelming.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Facebook News | 2 Comments »

Commerce Search 2.0 Launched by Google

June 18th, 2010

The summer is here and most people are busy shopping for summer apparels. Realizing the retail opportunity, Google has launched Commerce Search to 2.0. Initially offered to UK and U.S. retailers, the upgraded version aims to provide a superior online shopping experience while at the same time offering improved ROI and greater control to online retailers.

Six months ago, the enterprise search team launched the custom search 1.0 with one aim in mind – to simplify online shopping experience. However, the initial version served a beta purpose and the developer team soon realized the popular changes. Reviews of version 1.0 demanded greater security and better ROI features. As such, the new and improved version addresses both these concerns besides offering much advanced features.

On its official blog, Google described Commerce Search 2.0 in the following words:

  • More Merchant Customization: Today we’re introducing a full merchandising dashboard, which gives merchants more control over promotions, ranking rules and filtering. Marketers and product merchandisers can now do all of this themselves—no custom code necessary. New intuitive retailer controls like time-based promotions, navigation bar with filters, and simple product ranking rules mean seasonal optimizations can be done on the fly.
  • Better Shopper Experience: With query auto-completion, retailers can offer common queries to shoppers in real time, as they type, without any custom coding. GCS is also faster and more relevant than before thanks to search quality improvements. Because it’s hosted in the Google cloud, search results are returned to shoppers in less than a second. We’ve also added spelling and stemming dictionaries and new custom synonym options to make shopping on a retail site as easy and accurate as searching on Google.com.
  • Improved Browsing and Navigation: Many shoppers depend on the search bar on retail sites when they’re looking to make a purchase, but some people will always prefer to navigate through different categories and discover new products. Now, Google Commerce Search allows visitors to shop by browsing around your site as well as searching directly for products.

commerce search 2.0

In a recently concluded research, Digital marketing firm OneUpWeb found that ‘Task-Failure rate’ in case of e-commerce websites is as high as 45%. As such, Google wants to enter this degraded niche and offer improved usability to consumers.

Just like any other high quality professional service, Google’s Commerce Search 2.0 is also a paid service. An online retailer has to shell out $25,000 per year to implement this service on his website. Though, this is significantly less from the previous $50,000 per year figure. The service will likely witness more adoption due to the improved features and reduced costs.

Tags: ,
Posted in Online Marketing, internet marketing | 3 Comments »

Are Personalized Websites the Future?

June 11th, 2010

Mark zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, has made a striking forecast. According to him, personalized websites will rule the roost in the future because online population wants to share more personal information.

Mark Zuckerberg made these comments while attending the ‘all things D’ conference. The chief executive was seen nervously answering questions related to the privacy controls offered by Facebook. On asked about the security of a user’s personal information, he explained that Facebook’s model aims to let people discover one another. As such, some information has to be shared in public. He further added, “There’s some serendipity that can only happen if you are sharing. The privacy concerns people have – over time they will get more comfortable.”

facebook 2

The Facebook is facing a lot of heat from its 500 million users regarding lack of privacy controls. As such, the website has recently overhauled its privacy settings webpage which has considerably reduced the public viewing of a user’s private information. Just last month, Facebook launched its ‘instant personalization’ feature that customizes other websites according to user’s Facebook profiles.

After facing a volley of questions, Mr Zuckerberg made a forecast that in the near future hundreds of services and websites would be associated with consumer’s preferences and profiles, a trend started by Facebook. People would want to share more personal information and advertisements will be exactly focused on the targeted group. He said, “Things are going to be designed around people. The world is moving this direction where things are going to be designed more around people and that’s going to be a really powerful direction.”

Being seated under the hot stage lights, Mr. Zuckerberg was required to remove his sweat-shirt. The company motto, ‘Making the world more open and connected’, was printed inside the black hoody.

Despite Facebook being valued at above $15 billion by industry analysts, the founder is apprehensive of calling it a successful company. Only 1000 employees work under the Facebook brand. To this, he replied, “Maybe I’m in denial. I really think we’re just a lot closer to the beginning than the end.” He also expected that the company faces less criticism in the future and slow down in order to ‘do less crazy stuff’. He added, “I hope we don’t.”

Tags: ,
Posted in Facebook News | 1 Comment »

« Older Entries