Tim Daly’s article stirred a bit of discussion at INVESP. It is suggesting that the days of organic search methods are numbered. Since sites, such as Wikipedia, aren’t necessarily the authorities on a topic but are at the top of the lists because of user-generated linking farms. Does this mean that our days of organic SEO methods are truly limited?

Not necessarily; according to many authentic sources such as Google and other search engines, eventually their algorithms will stop sites such as Wikipedia to rise if the substance is unauthentic and irrelevant. It’s actually happened several times where sites are banned and move from page ranking 8 to 0 because of unauthentic link farming methods and so forth. Don’t give up on the organic methods, and trust me; the more you rely on other methods to move up in the search engine rankings, the greater risk you are running of becoming completely eliminated and penalized by big search engines.

So what can we do to help avoid being this? We’ve worked with clients and actually helped them move up the page rankings in Google from 0 to 6 in a span of 6 months. All of it through authentic, organic methods such as adding content, optimizing the site, frame-working, article submissions, and site community building. It isn’t impossible, but maybe this article is suggesting that we work a little harder on getting results through organic methods. 

What do you think?

Posted in SEO

It’s no doubt that building links to your site has multiple benefits including increasing site traffic and increasing your search engine ranking. Larry Chase came up with a list of 53 ways to build inbound links, and the following are my favorite 10:

1) Widget Linking - What this means is creating a “widget” which is a tool that performs some kind of task or function, and entrench your site’s link in it. An example of this can be found in Lee Odden’s online marketing blog where he created these two widgets: an RSS Button Maker and a Social Bookmark Creator. Users greatly benefit from these tools and his site has the traffic to prove it.

2) Content Keyword Tagging - Tagging is used to help organize information in an understandable way on the web by assigning keywords to content or to bookmarks. They can be assigned to blog posts, RSS feeds or any content on your website. Using tags combined with social book-marking can be a very effective way to organize resources on the web.

3) Social Media Linking - Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon get most of the attention these days and can drive a significant amount of traffic to your site provided you have the “right” news. However, it’s important to realize that these social outlets may not be visited by your target audience.

4) Mapping Link Hubs and Tag Neighborhoods - Find sites that are similar to yours and they will be highly likely to link to your site. You can find these sites with Similicio.us, which is a search engine that finds relevant sites based on tags off of del.icio.us. It follows the users that have visited a certain site and lists other sites that were visited by them.

 5) PDF Linking - Adding PDF files such as whitepapers that have content in it is very beneficial. Every time someone downloads your files they have direct links back to your website. Also, when you embed metatags in your PDF files, when a search engine spiders your site and looks at your content, it can read the “invisible” metatags and add your PDF to its database.

6) Blog Optimization - Blogging becomes pointless if its not done well and doesn’t accomplish the goals that it intends to. A couple of things to keep in mind is to: comment on other blogs and link back to your site; submit your blog to the list of blog-specific search engines, Google offers a blog specific search engine. You can find other many beneficial tips at Stephan Spencer’s Scatterings blog which is deservedly pointed out as a good resource on blog optimization.

7) Link Analytics - There are a variety of link research tools that can be used to research new link opportunities. This site offers a directory to 136 of the most popular ones. Useful tools to be aware of are those that enable you to:

• Analyze the inbound links and outbound links of your site and your competitors’ sites;
• Assess the quality of a site to determine if it is worth going after for a link;
• List your inbound links according to each search engine;
• Analyze the text of said inbound links to make sure it is keyword rich;
• Find the valuable .edu, .gov and .org inbound links to your site;
• Compare the link popularity of your site to that of any other site; etc.

Press Release Optimization - This method will generate links to your site when done well and picked up by news search engines and other sites. News wire services evaluate each press release and categorize it based on the relevant keywords found in them.

9) Content Repurposing - this is submitting your published articles and other content to article banks, where other sites can pick up your articles and linke to them or publish them on their sites. Some examples of companies that offer a directory of already published content are: Ezine Articles, Go Articles and iSnare.com.

10) Link Insider Tools - Google or Yahoo provide info on who is linking to you through Google Webmaster Central and Yahoo! Site Explorer. These tools provide a detailed list of inbound links and give you and idea of who is linking to your site.

What do you think? Do you have other ways that worked for you?

Posted in SEO

I read a very interesting article a couple of days ago about how user-generated content is threatening organic searches.  Tim Daly talks about how during a routine search for a gift for his significant other Wikipedia was always amongst the top search results.  Why would that be the case when looking to purchase a gift or any consumer good?? Well because of the user-generated “linking farm.”

I tested this theory myself and every time I searched for anything from which diapers are the best to researching top graduate schools, Wikipedia was surely one of the top choices on Google’s list.  So what does this mean for organic searches?  Well according to Daly, it means that the search results are not accurately producing results based on relevant content.  And because of this, users are beginning to shift towards paid search results rather than organic ones.  That sounds good for anyone running a PPC or any paid-advertising campaign, but what about those who have worked hard to get to the top of the search engine results with quality site content?  Well there are a couple of options:

1) If you haven’t already, it’s time to consider paid search advertising.  The first and most obvious benefit is that searchers automatically gravitate towards what’s popping out right in front of them and tend to look at the sponsored results before the organic ones.  This has nothing to do with relevance, but more with convenience.  If what I’m searching for is right there in front of me at the top of the page (where most paid search advertising appears) then I’m not going to go to the next line, but rather click on the link and move on with my search.

2) Second, it is essential to recognize the power of linkbaiting and start to incorporate that on the website.  Including links in content such as your blog or articles on your site will surely increase your ranking on the organic search.  It might be initially difficult to compete with Wikipedia or Epinions, but we have to keep in mind that users are not stupid (not all of them ?).  When a searcher sees a Wikipedia result at the top of the search results, he/she should be able to recognize if that is a relevant result and move on.  If you’re utilizing linkbaiting as a search engine optimization tool, then hopefully your site will not be far behind (if not above) Wikipedia’s result.

3) Finally, add yourself to Wikipedia!  Wikipedia is encyclopedias created and validated by us and since it has such great success in appearing at the top of most search results, why not add your company’s name under the relevant service.  For example, if users are searching for SEO articles, and a Wikipedia result turns up, and the user proceeds to click on it to read more about it, wouldn’t it be helpful if your company’s name appears on Wikipedia as a business that offers that service?

In the end, we have to realize that getting the user to click on your result, whether paid or not, is just winning half the battle.  The key is conversion, and having a million people visit your site a day is great, but it really doesn’t amount to much if you’re not converting these visits into revenue.  Additionally, attracting users to your site is an ongoing process and we all need to try a variety of methods consistently to keep at the top of search engine results.

Posted in SEO

SEO is a critical ongoing struggle that most businesses face when starting their businesses.  We all have the common goal of getting the best ranking (especially on Google) and will do almost anything to get there.  However there are some techniques that can actually be detrimental to your site.  Sometimes the optimum way to know what the best optimization techniques are is to know what you absolutely must avoid.  The following are the 5 top techniques to AVOID when optimizing your site:

1. Invisible keywords embedded on page:  i.e. keyword spamming.  Basically it’s using text that is the same color as the background of a site to increase the instances of targeted search terms thus resulting in higher ranking.  Sounds like a good idea?? 

 Well not really! Actually keyword spamming tends to annoy users when they pull up your site and find that there are not actually relevant terms to what they were searching.  Also, search engines have recognized this as a problem and have begun to search for this and penalize sites that use this technique by dropping them from their database. 

So although this may seem like a great, low-cost way to “optimize” your site, it’s not and will inevitably have a negative effect on you.

2. Repeating keywords excessively:  Another one of those low cost tricks that deal with keywords.  This is pretty self-explanatory, using a keyword excessively on the site to increase relevance rating.  There are a couple of ways to do this: consistently repeat a phrase in the content or META tags, which could be used by including the keywords repetitively using invisible text. Also, some sites go to the extreme and actually hire copywriters to replace instances of pronouns in otherwise good site copy to get the maximum repetition of the key terms.   

I understand the desperation that sites go through to try to optimize their sites, however this again will come back and haunt you when caught and have an extremely negative effect on your site.  Directory editors can ban your site from a directory if an they notice. 

Additionally, packing the copy with excessive repetition will hurt the page and make your site difficult to read and understand.  Finally, Google specifically and other search engines now have filters that screen for overly repeated keywords which again will result in penalty.  Remember, well-written copy is much more attractive to a reader and will result in higher conversion rates.

3. Link Farms: These are pages that consist solely of links to other pages but do not provide any useful content.  This is a method used to boost linking popularity which again leads to increased ranking on search engine sites.  The negative effect of this is that site viewers find a page that is filled with links unrelated to your actual site content very unappealing.  Additionally the major search engine sites are again noticing these patterns with sites and penalizing the ranking as a result.    A page of links can be OK, but only when the links are relative to the content in your site.

4. Over-submitting your site to search engines:  Another self-explanatory one; this is continuing to submit your site to crawlers on a specific schedule (i.e. every day/week/2weeks) even though the crawler has already indexed your site.  It may seem like a logical idea, the more you submit the better.  However submitting multiple times results in a waste of your time and has no effect on your search rankings.  The majority of search engines will just delete multiple submissions and if annoyed will ignore your site completely.

5. Using untrained SEO consultants:  This is by far the worst possible thing that can be done. Although you save a few dollars in the beginning by choosing those SEO firms that are “competitively” priced, you will be spending a lot more in the long run.  Especially when you realize that you have not seen results, and you do indeed have to hire those well-trained and knowledgeable experts that will really have your site’s long term interests as their priority. 

It’s best to think of hiring professional, authentic SEO firms as an investment.  Hiring those cheaper firms may not cost you much in the beginning but what will your return on investment (ROI) be?  If they are an unethical or untrained firm they may use the above mentioned tactics where you will help you see an immediate result in your ranking.  But after a couple of weeks, or months even, when the search engine sites finally catch up with you, how detrimental would it be when after you paid for this to be done you get penalized? 

On the other hand when investing in a solid SEO firm, that will most probably be a little more highly priced, your ROI will be of your satisfaction because their techniques will help your site ranking on a long-term basis in a legitimate way.

In the end, as with most great things in life, there are no short-cuts to gaining what you most desire.  The best thing to do when trying to increase your site ranking is to follow the rules and make wise decisions rather than jumping to the one that seems most attractive at the time, especially if it’s cheap and easy! 

Posted in SEO

Everyone is claiming to be the ultimate SEO expert, but who can you trust?  I know it can be quite tricky these days since more and more writers are claiming great SEO expertise and knowledge.  So what do you look for when hiring a SEO writer?  Well, there are a few things to consider:

1. Experience:  How much experience exactly does the writer have?  What work has he/she completed thus far?  Is the work measurable and notable?  All of these questions are extremely important when you’re going to make that consideration.  You need to be aware of the extent of experience and knowledge this person truly has (does it match their claims??).
2. Practice what they preach:  A great way to measure their success is to see how well this writer’s own site ranks amongst the competition.  Now, it is important to keep in mind that ranking changes very often and may not be so accurate.  But if they truly are the SEO experts they claim to be; they will be able to show for it through their overall status and online presence.
3. Clients:  It might be a good idea to actually take a look at their client list.  If they don’t have much of a list; it is crucial to view their previous work to give you an idea of they are capable of in terms of SEO writing.

I remember reading a funny PPC ad that claimed ultimate success and SEO expertise.  They even claimed that they would never subject your company to a PPC campaign, although they had several ads listed through Google Adwords themselves.  I don’t know if I would trust them!

There are a lot of things to consider when hiring an SEO writer.  Ultimately, the decision may come down to the nature of the work you would like the writer to complete:  copy, articles, etc.  Make sure you do your homework, and never fall for scams!

Posted in SEO

Writing articles for you site is an effective and proven way to increase business by building your credibility, driving traffic to your site, and increasing your search engine ranking. Sounds pretty good already, huh? Well you can start now by opening your word processor and begin writing!

• Choose topics that are relevant to your business’s product/service: Everything posted on your site should be relevant to your business. It is your supporting material. It should work for you in a way that it builds your customers confidence in your expertise.
• Increase your site’s “searchability”: determine the keywords your potential customers might use when searching for a business such as yours. Try using Yahoo! Search Marketing’s Keyword Selector Tool  to determine the keywords that best describe your business.  Once you’ve generated a list of searched terms you can now use Wordtracker to determine how competitive those keywords are. The goal is to choose terms that are popular but non-competitive.
• Create a keyword rich article: Once you’ve written that amazing article, try sending it out to different sites for free. You want to offer your customers an answer to a solution. Because you’re answering a question your reader has been search for, you’ve immediately established authority, expertise, and trust with your readers. Make sure that your articles are no longer than 400 words, contain important keywords in the first 90 characters, and include a short bio and link to your site at the end.
• Seeding and planting your articles all over the web: Once you’ve written your articles go to one of the following websites and upload your content rich articles there. These sites are basically content distribution sites. They allow other sites to use that content for free. They are not allowed to change the text and must publish the content with the author’s name present.  Remember, you’ve placed a bio and link to your site on those articles. As a result, another site has linked to yours and BAM! Your site is getting more traffic.
  • www.contentdesk.com
  • www.ezinearticles.com
  • www.freesticky.com
  • www.goarticles.com
  • www.ideamarketers.com
  • www.findsticky.com

Posted in SEO

We all know how important is to have a high ranking site.  High ranking = more traffic to your website = more sales.  One way to achieve that is to have good site content, or in other words, SEO articles.  The more content you have the better.   

However there are rules when it comes to writing SEO articles, and they are:

• The content must be original and unique. Don’t plagiarize from someone else. People need to be able to trust you. So, yes, you should have a lot of content on your site, but it must be quality content. You want to give people something they can read and benefit from. That will keep them coming back to your website for more. 

• When you create an SEO article, it should be keyword optimized. The whole point of the articles is to bring in more traffic to your site. In other words, the keyword should be in your heading and then dispersed naturally throughout the rest of your article. Don’t make it look too technical or obvious, just let it flow easily. 

• Make sure the SEO articles are relevant to your niche. So you should be writing articles about topics that you are an authority on. Articles that have to do with your company or your product.

• Having SEO articles on your site creates a lot of content for your site. This will give you better rankings on Google and other search engines. 

If you don’t have the capacity or the ability to write SEO articles for your website, we will be happy to assist you in any way.

Posted in SEO

Our plans for a PPC Campaign are currently under way.  There is a lot of planning that goes into such a campaign.  You might be thinking, what is a PPC Campaign?  And is it right for MY company?

• A PPC campaign is when you bid on certain keywords; then, when people type in those keywords, your ad comes up. 
• The only time you pay for the ad is when people click on it.  Hence the term PPC, or Pay Per Click.
• The more competitive the keyword, the higher your bid will have to be. 

But you can’t go into a PPC Campaign blindly.  You need to have strategic planning.  Some people think that you can just go and sign up for Google AdWords and hope that it will work.  However, one of the most important things is to find the right keywords for your website.
 
And that’s where I come in.

My task has been searching for the keywords that people who would be interested in our services would type in.  Some words are more competitive than others, and are therefore more expensive to bid on.  One tool I have used that has been very helpful to me is:  WordTracker.  It is an extremely useful tool.  You just type in one keyword or phrase, and it immediately looks up any words that are related to that word.  Then it searches those keywords on all the major search engines to see how often that keyword is looked up.  They offer a free trial you can use to determine what keywords are right for you.

Posted in SEO

When INVESP Business Services was born a few months ago, we did not realize the magnitude of importance and difficulty search engine optimization would impact us.  However, we knew that most of our business would have to come from our online clients.

Because of my technical background I assumed that I can easily handle all issues related to search engine optimization for INVESP. I remember thinking to myself that surely it couldn’t be that complicated. Six months later, it finally dawned on me that SEO is going to be one of our greatest obstacles, especially since we rely heavily on traffic to our website.  This has meant that for me, as with any small business owner, although I have about another million things to do, SEO is eating all of my time.

Finally, after long nights and failed attempts, we decided that we should outsource our optimization efforts to a company who specializes in that area. My next task was to find a good firm with a proven track record but keeping our prices low; we are working with a limited budget. Have you ever attempted to Google SEO? Well I did, and discovered tons of sites each claiming to be “the best at,” and “leaders of” SEO. I was at a crossroads, although I needed this service, I knew that hiring the wrong company can damage our business. The risks include being banned from Google because the hired SEO firm violated Google’s rules in their attempt to optimize our site.

After all my research and sleepless nights over this issue, I came to the following conclusions:

1. Be weary.  There are many of companies that claim to be “leaders” in the SEO arena. However, unfortunately many of them do not know what they are doing.
2. You get what you pay for.  Companies with a good reputation charge a lot of money for their services. A small business can not afford to spend 5k or 10k on SEO.

I realize that you get what you pay for, but at the same time, I wonder if there are good, quality SEO firms with proven track record that can help small businesses with a small budget, such as mine?

My quest for finding a solution has not ended yet.

Posted in SEO

I’ve read so many different SEO opinions on how to rank well, and I get a variety of responses.  An overwhelming number of SEO experts claim keywords are the way to increase your ranking. 

They advertise this elaborate scheme time and time again.  But then I look at leaders in SEO, such as Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz who says that keyword density will get you nowhere!  Although keyword frequency, within the title and throughout the document, are still useful; however, they aren’t as weighty as other methods for high ranking.

Obviously, I look around at SEO opinions to consider the many perspectives.  And I think when a name is so well recognized, you have to figure they know what they are doing.  The method these more “expert” SEO companies suggest is linking from other sites.  Of course, this must be done “naturally,” and through high-ranking, respectable sites, otherwise, again, it’s useless.

I believe that’s the best way to ensure high ranking as well, just through my personal experience etc.  And having strong content, rich with articles and so forth is a great way to encourage people to link to your site.  So it may not be keywords, but effective content that relates to your business and your consumers as well.

Posted in SEO