Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Why So Many People Fail at SEO

Many people fail at SEO because they do not have the patience to use the systems effectively. Patience is one virtue that a good SEO professional should have because the search engines do not lend their authority lightly. They tightly control who and what they link to in their search results because there are a lot of people who are only interested in spamming the search engines to make quick money.

The main people that the search engines are trying to keep out are the people who produce spam sites that do nothing for the internet. This means that they have no value outside of the money that they generate for their owner. The end users (the people looking for information) cannot use these sites because they have no real content to be used. Therefore, these sites are making money off the ads they place on the website. These sites should be taken off the search engine results, however, these sites also make money therefore they have money to spend on SEO campaigns.

Many people get discouraged at this fact and give up their optimization campaigns because it can be difficult to knock these competitors off the search engine results. These people are notoriously gifted at staying on the first page of the search results even at the chagrin of the search engines. Therefore, a person needs patience because the combined might of the search engine (trying to purge their results) and the optimization efforts of the business owner will eventually over take the spammy site.

Most people who want SEO also do not succeed because they do not want to invest the money. There are plenty of these people that only want the service, but they will not pay for the service even when shown how much money they will make from the acquisition of SEO. This means that most people will never do anything to raise their search ranking and this should be good news to most people. This is because the less other people do to their search engine optimization the less competition the people who do something have when they do their SEO campaigns.

Finally, people are scared. There are people who know what to do but are scared of succeeding. In truth, there are some businesses that cannot handle the amount of success they would achieve with SEO. Their infrastructure is not set up for success and they cannot handle the number of orders that will come their way. Therefore, these people will not move because they are too scared to move.

In closing, people are scared, lack the knowledge, or too lazy to succeed in an SEO campaign. The world of SEO is not easy and most people fail at getting their websites to rank higher on the search engines. The search engines intentionally make this hard to do, and this is a good thing because that means there is far less competition. Therefore, a business owner should always seek to have a good SEO campaign because that campaign will help them profit now and into the future.

Why the Best SEO Practitioners Are the Ones Who Use It Themselves

The best practitioners of SEO are the ones who use SEO every day in their own businesses. There are a lot of people running around who "know" SEO but they do not use SEO. This means they only have a surface knowledge of SEO. They do not know it intimately. Therefore, they can only guess what will happen when a person does something in a system. They do not know without a shadow of a doubt what will happen, they only know what they were taught.

The real practitioners of SEO are the people who use the systems in their own businesses every day. This is because they live, breathe, and eat SEO. It is their lifeblood and it is what pushes their businesses. There is no other way to say this other than these are the true masters of SEO. They know how something will affect their businesses and how soon that effect will happen, because they have done it before and they have seen how it will affect their work.

The person with a surface knowledge of SEO only practices SEO at work. Therefore, they are not fully invested in the process. They sit in their chairs and look at data without putting their money on the line and trying to make it work. This means that they are never fully invested in a project; they take a faraway look at problems and do not dig too deeply into the problem. In fact, it is not too much to say that they only send traffic to a site. They do not know how to make it convert, they just send traffic. That is only half of the equation.

A good SEO practitioner sees both sides of the problem and focuses on both sides of the equation. SEO is nothing if the SEO does not drive a person into conversion. If a person cannot convert a visitor, then it does not matter how much traffic they have, they are losing money. Therefore, this is where a street smart SEO person dominates a person who does not have any street intelligence. They understand the interplay between SEO and conversion. Therefore, they can help a business achieve their income goals because they deal with those realities every day in their own businesses.

In conclusion, a person who wants good SEO needs to look beyond a degree. They need to look to someone who has put the time into developing their own sites and getting knocked around the internet. These people know how ruthless and terrible online advertising can be and how to get results on the internet. People who only "work" in SEO will never have enough information to help a person make money (which is why a person should have SEO in the first place). Therefore, the smartest idea that a business or business owner can have is to find someone who has and does apply SEO in their own businesses every day. The sooner that a business can find someone like this, the sooner that business can make money and compete with the other businesses that may be better funded.

Monday, December 3, 2012

Ranking in Google Places For Local Business

I am sure that by now you have either become familiar with either the term Google Places, Google+ Local, or Google Maps.

Perhaps it will stun some, but a majority of smaller businesses new to inbound marketing do not know that you can get yourself some free visibility on Google by using Google+ Local (formerly Google Places). And because Google is invariably looking to increase the worth of its local search results. This also pertains to its Google Maps app. Because of this the search engine icon has a painless way to impart them with that helpful information regarding your corporation, which it infuses it into its search engine rankings.

The main benefit? Basically, a way to promote your business on Google absolutely free. And frankly, who wouldn't really enjoy some cost-free promotion? This not just can help your enterprise to get recognized through searches, it can also help you get increased traffic, sales opportunities, and prospects.

Are you ready to discover some free promotion on Google? We should get moving.

What You Need to Get Your Totally free Google Places Promotion

So that you can established your Google Places listing, you will need the following details in front of you:

An explanation of your business enterprise

Your contact number, business address, and any other contact information you want to market.

A business logo or image that is representative of your enterprise (to illustrate, a number of people use a photograph of their workplace, store, or restaurant).

A promotion or special you wish to showcase (Google moreover allows you to include a coupon free of charge if you'd like).

Inside your page, you can contribute any info you feel is relevant to your company and will attract individuals to your company. To create a Google+ Local placing, follow these easy steps:

Step 1: Set Up Your Account

Go to Google and just type on "Google Places". To put together your business on Google+ Local, click the 'Get Started Now' icon beneath the written text, "Get your business discovered on Google."

Your Google+ Local webpage will probably be connected to your Google profile. At this point, you can easily enter in the country and number. Do not forget that you will have to associate this to a genuine contact number, because it is imperative that you have your business' number on your Google+ Local listing. When individuals search for you, you'll want them to easily be able to phone you, particularly on smart phones.

After you input your telephone number and country, Google will hunt to ascertain if your listing currently is out there. Bear in mind you're able to change an active listing anytime to present fresh information about your business. If you don't yet maintain a placing, you can also create one on your own.

Step 2: Complete Your Data

If Google+ Local does not discover any company information online for you, you can actually manually add them. After typing in your telephone number, Google will inform you to input more info. As you complete your information, Google will routinely produce exactly what the Google+ Local advertisement will look like on the right of the page, along with the map image. Be certain you are happy with the look of your placing. Keep your description short and to the idea, collecting the key concept of your enterprise and service or product. You can offer whatever you desire, such as a coupon link for your company to attract more people to your web site.

Making sure you feature a contact number and e-mail address will allow people who are interested in learning a little more about you to contact you. The amount of individuals who will see this listing is usually massive, so be sure your contact details is both up-to-date and checked routinely for anyone inquiring with regards to your business enterprise.

Step 3: Identify Where Your Solutions Are Supplied

You may also set up whether your company delivers services in a particular place. This may let your business to appear on map listings. Whenever people search for a business akin to your placing, your company will show up on a map within the given range.

Then you can pick which location(s) your services handle(s). The map will disclose what region will be included in picking this choice:

Should you choose choice #1 ("Distance from one location"), the map will demonstrate an over-all area which will be covered by the services you provide. You can then decide upon what area will be the principal position:

If you like to provide only specific cities or areas inside a city, you'll be able to opt for the second option and choose the places you serve. This approach can be helpful for companies that are only in the position to assist a specific neighborhood, such as a pizza delivery business, or in an extremely niche market, like a swim wear enterprise on a seashore.

Step 4: Display Your Hours of Operation

Yet another element of a successful Google+ Local post include the hours your organization operates. Usually, when people are seeking your enterprise, they are wanting to see if you are open. Google lets you include this specifically inside of your listing.

Step 5: State Payment Possibilities

In case you sell services or products instantly to your potential customers, either on the internet or in-store, you possess the choice to allow clients realize upfront what types of payment you approve. Indicate which payment selections apply in this step.

Step 6: Incorporate Appealing Visual Content

Do you have a video clip showing what your company is all about? Perhaps something consumers often correlate with your trademark? Blend it with your Google+ Local placing to make your offer much more eye-catching. Customers are quicker to respond to image content instead of text.

Step 7: Put in More Information

You can contribute additional information that could be vitally important to prospective buyers at your place of business or at your web-based retail site at the conclusion of the listing set-up procedure. This information ranges from information regarding your location if it's difficult to find, to information regarding the products and services your company presents. Use this as an opportunity to tell potential prospects why your business is truly worth another look. For example, if you're a cellular telephone merchant, and you've got an excess of the most current version of the Apple iPhone when every one of the local businesses are out of stock, let people know. You could just acquire more business than you think.

Step 8: Validate Your Geographic Location

At long last, the very first time you set up a Google+ Local ranking, you must verify your physical location. This will assist Google refrain from artificial entries and pages. Google will send you a postcard with verification information, as well as what you need to do next on the cover. Although it seems to be an annoyance to have to wait two or three weeks before your placing will get verified and becomes publicized, it helps save all of us in the long-term from a lot of spam-filled listings once we employ Google to discover places in the future.

You Need Further Instruction From SEO Outsourcing Services   How to Use Social Media in SEO   How Do You Promote Your Website On the Internet?   Benefits of SEO Training Courses   

Elements of a Holistic Keyword Research

As Google continually launches search algorithm updates, proper keyword optimization on our web pages becomes more important now than ever. Proper keyword optimization does not entail overstuffing your targeted keywords on your pages. Rather, it necessitates a holistic approach to keyword research along with the semantic nature of indexing by search engines.

The term "semantic nature" pertains to search engines' semantic indexing capabilities. That is, how search engines understand what you're looking for through the keywords or keyphrases you used in searching the web. For instance, you typed "queen anniversary" in the search bar of Google, Yahoo, or Bing, the search engine would show results containing this keyphrase. Topics that search engines believe to be the most related to the keyphrase are at the top of SERPs. These will likely include the most recent diamond jubilee of the queen of U.K or her wedding anniversary. In order to take advantage of this indexing behavior of search engines, we must carry out a holistic approach in keyword research. Here are some tips in doing this.

1. Create a List of Related Keywords or Keyphrases

Make a list of closely related keywords that comprises the variations of keywords you wish to rank for. Of course, the variations should not stray too far from the original meaning of your targeted keywords.

You may consider the keyphrases appearing at the bottom of Google's search result pages under "related searches." Since the phrases are considered by Google as "related," most likely based on a semantic indexing view, it's better to start your keyword research at them.

2. Built a List of Supporting Keywords

After listing semantic keywords, expand your list by including supporting keywords. These keywords should support the concept of your listed semantic keywords. Your supporting keywords will increase the chance of your site to be included on SERPs generated by your targeted keywords and keywords thematically related to these targeted keywords.

The keyphrase, "SEO pagerank," for instance, can be used by people who look for a free online tool to check the PageRank of their sites; those who want to learn how PageRank works, or searchers who want to optimize their content to get higher PageRank. So, all these possible search topics support the concept of "SEO pagerank," thus can be used as sources of keywords thematically related to your target keywords.

3. Create Stem Keywords that Address Possible Search Queries

If the original goal of searchers is to check the PageRank of their sites, we can also think of what would come next in their mind after knowing that the PageRank value of their sites is low. They may wish to learn new SEO strategies, keyword research, or proper keyword optimization. Based on possible queries that may arise, you can generate stem keywords that should be addressed in writing your content. This would not only improve your sites' chance of having better rankings on SERPs, but enhance searchers' experience as well.

4. Create Content Based on Your Lists

After your semantic keyword research, outline your content based on your lists of keywords/keyphrases. Of course, you need to prioritize your targeted keywords, then your supporting keywords, and lastly, your stem keywords. Always bear in mind that Google favors content that enhances user experience. Hence, in creating content, always write for the benefits of your potential visitors before thinking of optimizing content for better search engine rankings.

You Need Further Instruction From SEO Outsourcing Services   How to Use Social Media in SEO   How Google Analytics Can Boost Your AdWords Performance   Buying High Quality Links After the Penguin Update - How to Do It   Contextual Link Building and Squidoo Lens Creation to Optimize Your Website   

Creating Small Business SEO Content For A Website or Blog

No matter who is producing your small business SEO content, it should meet Google's 'high quality' criteria. Thankfully it's no longer a secret what Google expects. Anything that is "very satisfying, useful, or helpful for its purpose." That's all.

If you think Google has set the bar high, you'd be correct. Content has to be "near professional quality" reflecting superior editorial standards.

The criteria for high quality pages apply to any writer, whether they have a day job or not. To keep your content on the right track, bear the following in mind.

Write Around Focused Topics

Keywords are the words or terms people use for searching. They can be short or long phrases, with longer phrases getting less traffic but tending to convert better. This means your content should focus on long tail keywords, rather than just short competitive terms which get lots of traffic.

Long tail keywords are simply longer phrases formulated around the answer to a question, and are posed by searchers looking for information based content. The challenge is to make sure pages are structured in a coherent way, amplifying the main topic. In Google's eyes repetitive content that doesn't add any meaning will detract from the quality of your pages or posts.

Create Meaningful Content

Old school SEO writers are still wedded to a formula that places keywords at the heart of content. Today, writing for your audience should be your number 1 objective. Of course Google still has to know what a page is about but Google is edging closer to being able return results based not just on matching keywords, but on the meaning of the text. The view of many is that Google will become an answer rather than search engine. Rather than creating generic copy based on general keywords, you should focus on being as specific as possible.

Focus on Pre-Selling

Today, your content (or much of it) should be focused around pre-selling: answering those meaningful long tail questions. The benefit of talking this approach is that it also makes content easier to share on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Generating helpful or useful content encourages your audience build trust in you, before they buy. And for existing customers it reinforces their buying decision. It's also what Google wants you to do.

Writing content for your audience (rather than the search engines) will automatically boost your rankings because Google is paying more attention to how website and blog visitors react to content. In other words, do they stay on the page or read a few more pages or do they immediately press the back button?

The Importance of Researching Topics

Keyword research - developing the list of topics to base your content on still provides the framework. But the relevant terms are just as likely to come from asking your customers or from your own knowledge. It usually makes sense to compare your in-house generated list with a list devised from a tool, but the chances are your own list will be more comprehensive. The tools professionals use to generate lists of keywords never cover all the possibilities. There's just too much variation.

So if a promising term doesn't appear in the tools (and many long tail keywords don't) trust your instincts. Use keywords sparingly in the body of your page or post. Repetition is no longer desirable except on very long pages (think in terms of 1000 words or more).

DIY or Hiring an SEO Content Writer?

This is tricky. If you're passionate about your business you could be a very good content writer/designer. But other people don't always have the inclination, time or ability.

If you don't see yourself being able to create and update content ask the company who designed your website or blog for help finding a writer or SEO researcher. Just make sure they are not wedded to the old way of doing things. You must have input if the output is going to super-please your audience.

You Need Further Instruction From SEO Outsourcing Services   How to Use Social Media in SEO   SEO Copywriting for Popularity and a Higher Search Engine Ranking   Discover Search Engine Optimization Secrets   How Do You Promote Your Website On the Internet?   Benefits of SEO Training Courses   

Why SEO and Conversion Go Hand in Hand

SEO and conversion go hand in hand. The truth about this situation is that no SEO campaign can succeed without analytics. The analytics help a professional search engine optimizer to figure out if what they are doing is effective. There is no possibility of succeeding in search engine optimization without knowing if the efforts are working.

There is a lot of information that can be gleaned from the analytics that a person puts on their website like what words are actually getting traffic (they may not be the words that the business is optimizing for in the first place). Therefore, a SEO campaign must be mixed with some sort of analytics to be effective.

The truth is that a person is usually wrong about the first keyword they select for a business. This keyword may not send very much traffic or it may not send the best traffic at all. This means that a business can waste a lot of time and money on a keyword that will never bring them a significant amount of traffic or conversions. This is a major problem and it can only be fixed when SEO is combined with analytics

Analytics is the great equalizer on the internet because analytics is all about the real world and not the world how it should be for the business owner. This means that the person who uses analytics has a realistic view of the internet and its ability to drive traffic to a website. The analytics systems cannot lie and a person who pays close attention to them will have a better chance of optimizing their campaigns for conversion (to make sales).

The truth is that a campaign can be optimized to get traffic or a campaign can be optimized for generating money. Usually it is smart to optimize the site for traffic. This is because traffic is the lifeblood of the business. If a business can generate traffic then they have a something to optimize. It is very difficult to optimize a campaign if the campaign has no traffic at all.

Once a business has traffic, then they have a real asset that can be optimized for making money. Traffic is nice, but eventually traffic will eat the house, shoes, and food of the owner of that traffic. Therefore, a business must find a way to monetize their traffic or they will close their doors eventually. There is no other reason to open a website (other than the enjoyment of it) then to make money. Therefore, if a business does not make money with their website, then they need to look at their traffic problem or their conversion problem (it is one of the two and sometimes both).

A person cannot figure out what problem that is without analytics. Analytics gives the user the information they need to make the right decisions. A business cannot see what is happening in their site without analytics, therefore, they cannot make informed decisions that will influence the future. A business needs to look at what keywords are driving traffic and what keywords are driving conversions. A business that can do that is a business that will make a lot of money in the future.

You Need Further Instruction From SEO Outsourcing Services   How to Use Social Media in SEO   The Importance of SEO in Business Promotion   Contextual Link Building and Squidoo Lens Creation to Optimize Your Website   

Twitter Facebook Flickr RSS



Français Deutsch Italiano Português
Español 日本語 한국의 中国简体。