If you are a smart business person, chances are you have a variety of social sites you belong to. You…
Directory submissions used to be a valid, white hat SEO strategy. The goal of a directory was to offer a site on which content could be placed and then linked back to another website. Essentially, it was at that time a good way to get lots of inbound links which made it perfect for SEO purposes. However, with the recent updates to the Google algorithm, specifically the Penguin update, a once popular and legitimate practice has become black hat.
It seems like Google updates more frequently than what we can keep up with them. Their latest update, the Hummingbird Update was announced recently even though they had been using it for about a month prior to the announcement. Some could take it personal when they are not “in the know” about which update is being initiated. The latest update to the algorithm is the Hummingbird update and it is one in which the entire algorithm has undergone a complete overhaul. Unlike some of the earlier updates like Penguin or Panda, Hummingbird is a total change to the algorithm. Penguin and Panda each dealt with one aspect of the algorithm, not the entire method. The latest update has refined how search results are gathered and displayed for users and it has sent ripples of discontent across SEO professionals. Knowing how the Hummingbird Update changes the world of search is important to web marketers and SEO specialists everywhere.
Who hasn’t said, “It’s okay, I’ll Google it.”? This has become the standard response of the day when we do not know the answer to a question. But with literally millions of sites, how do we know Google will come up with the right answer to our question? How does Google find a restaurant or business in our general vicinity when we need one? The web is growing exponentially every day, but how does it come up with the answers to our queries?
There is a lot of talk about SEO being dead, especially with the most recent changes to search algorithms. Yes the changes are big; but let’s think about what has not changed. Online marketing is still thriving and marketers are still thinking about how to reach their targeted audience. Marketers want to reach the audience that has an interest in their product, use the search engines to drive relevant traffic to their site and get the greatest sales possible from the traffic. SEO is still beneficial for driving traffic; it’s just that it is more important now to achieve the optimal traffic from the search engines and the way it is done is slowly changing once again.
Google is constantly being changed to update the way that it sees WebPages. While Google openly talks about their goals of weeding out low quality sites that do not satisfy surfers with good quality content, the algorithms remain shrouded in secrecy. Here is a few of the ways that Google sees your website and how it comes up with the order of the results for related searches.
Educate Yourself
If you do not know how Google sees your website it is hard to improve your organic search ranking. You must educate yourself about search engine spiders and make sure that they can easily navigate your website. They are unable to pick up on more advanced features like JavaScript. WebPages written in HTML that validates, there shouldSEO be no issue in the bots working their way through your website.
If you own a website, and you have not hired a SEO company to help with your digital marketing strategy, then you should look into doing some of your own SEO strategy, or Search Engine Optimization. SEO can help create traffic to your website of customers that are interested in your product. It is quite possible to create SEO for your website without the use of an digital marketing company in New Jersey, but it is also possible to be your own dentist and pull your own teeth as well. In both cases, users will likely experience less pain and better results by hiring a professional to take care of what they do best.
What is SEO?
If you do not already know, Search Engine Optimization is the process in which you assure your website is placed higher in the search engine results than that of your closest competitors. Most searches that are done use Google, MSN, or Yahoo, while Google has such a strong hold on the search engine market that many tips for SEO strategy are geared toward it. To understand how it works, you must understand how a search engine chooses its results.
Google+ can be a beneficial part of an SEO campaign. For those who are not yet using Google Plus, it is likely because they do not know how to take advantage of the platform or misunderstand the nature of Google+ and how it can improve SEO results. There are several different ways to strategically use Google+ for SEO purposes.
Google+ Content
Content on Google+ is treated by the search engine just like content that is on any other web page. Any content that is placed on Google+ will be indexed and can gain page rank as well as be listed in search results by Google. This can be very beneficial since about 2/3 of all searches in the United States take place on Google. It is essential to have your content searched and indexed. The posts made on Google+ will appear as search page results which manes that some of your audience may be able to find your Google+ content through a regular search on Google. The content will be online, gain in page rank, and appear in SERPs for a long period of time. It’s even possible for some of the posts to continue ranking indefinitely – even as long as a year. Most tweets only have about a 14 minute lifespan on SERPs so one year is really good real estate.
Keeping up with a blog or a website can keep a person very busy. Developing high quality content and following all the SEO best practices are just part of the worry that an individual has to bear, not to mention how to get it ranked high in the search engine result pages (SERP). It’s important to maintain a blog or site for an established audience; but it is equally important to get it listed in the top slots of the SERPs so that more people can find it. That’s just good business. There trouble is that just about the time it is all up and running Google releases a new update like Penguin and it’s back to the drawing board.
What is Google Penguin?
Having an online presence is essential for the successful business of today. Google Penguin is really a process used to penalize black hatters who abuse the system in order to gain the advantage and manipulate the search engines into ranking their sites higher in the SERPs. Penguin is really an attempt by Google to clean up the search algorithm and reduce spam as well as site rankings that are from “questionable” sites or irrelevant because they manipulated the system to get located in the coveted 3 slots. It really aims at penalizing those who use “black hat” SEO methods like keyword stuffing, link building schemes, spamdexing, or duplicate content as well as the multitude of techniques used by some SEO companies in order to help clients gain exposure on line.
There are online businesses and offline businesses. Operating an offline business, or a brick and mortar business does not indicate that a web presence is not needful. Actually, in today’s competitive market, it is necessary to have a website as well as a web marketing campaign in order to succeed. The average customer will go to the internet first when looking for a business in their area whether it is a restaurant, contractor, professional or a supply store. If we think about it, for the brick and mortar customers are going to be coming from their own backyard. For this reason, it is imperative that businesses have a local marketing campaign. There are several ways to market a local business using online resources. Here are a few tips for building a successful local marketing campaign.
Local Search Platforms
Make sure that you claim your business in the local directories provided by the search engines. Google+ is the biggest local search platform, but it is well worth it to register with Bing Local as well as Yahoo! Local Listings. This is a strategy that can drive business your way. Everything that is listed with Google+ and Google My Business is indexed by the crawlers through Google search engines. Make sure that these pages contain correct information. It is important to claim local pages in the search engines and then build a good listing. The search engines will help to guide you through the verification processes.