SEO Tools
How Web Marketing Can Help
Aug 16th
A certified web marketing company, such as Web Marketing Experts, can formulate web marketing tactics to strengthen your presence in the Internet. Identify the strong points of your company and its objectives so that these elements can be combined with web marketing procedures to promote your company online.
It is necessary to acknowledge that there is a multitude of web promotion services that can assist in boosting your web presence. In line with this, your web marketing consultant must be able to suggest the most excellent mix of marketing solutions to for your website. Some of these web marketing campaigns may include:
5 Important Questions About Link Building Answered
Aug 11th
Much like building a house, when you are trying to build a link popularity profile for SEO purposes, speed isn’t the only determinant of success. A house that goes up fast, but falls down around the owner’s ears is obviously pretty useless! So today we’re shelving the ‘more and faster is better’ approach, and looking at the ‘other’ things you need to know about link building best practices.
Speed of link acquisition
One very important caveat to the advice you’ll read about gaining links is that faster is not better … in fact, gaining links too fast can get you kicked off the search engines, and destroy your search engine optimisation campaign thus far. Your links should be built:
- Slowly at first – perhaps 2-3 links per day in the first month
- Faster as the site ages
- Faster as your Pagerank increases
Mirroring external with internal growth
It is also important to mirror any link popularity growth you make externally with internal linking for the health of your SEO campaign. There are several options for creating a platform for constantly updated, fresh content:
- Having an on-site blog, where you can cross-link both to pages of the main site and to earlier blog posts
- Having a News or Press section of the website
- Create a Local Events section if appropriate to your niche
- Create a ‘What’s New’ page; especially useful for e-commerce sites.
This internal growth helps re-assure the search engines that your outside link popularity growth is natural, and also provides a greater variety of content that people may want to link to without any encouragement … doing your SEO work for you!
Choose your anchor text carefully
The anchor text for your links was at one stage a couple of years ago, the major factor in Google’s site ranking algorithm. It has since been downgraded – but it is still very important for your search engine optimisation to control your anchor text to reflect your most important keywords – those with the best mix of high popularity and low competition.
Balance between one-way and reciprocal links
When you link to a site, then they link to you, that link has less weighting in the Google algorithm than if the link was one-way. However, one of the major link building strategies in a long term campaign is to link out to other pages … so how do you reconcile this dilemma? The same way you do every other difficult decision … with compromise. Dammit! Link out – but be selective about it. Don’t bother linking to Wikipedia all the time, they won’t link back – select other sites and bloggers that are likely to notice and return the linking favour.
Link building can actually be a little tricky … but there are always SEO experts around to help you!
PPC VS SEO part 1
Jul 7th
There has been very intense disagreements between which of Paid Per Click(PPC) or Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is more effective for a company.
PPC offers many advantages such as near instantaneous flow of traffic, pay on performance, precise keyword targeting, budget control and time control just listing a few. Since results are instantaneous, most companies tend to keep using PPC. Since there are more people using PPC, costs have risen considerably as there are more competitors bidding for the same keyword.
SEO requires more planning and if conducted well, minimizes cost significantly. SEO can be a timely process and may cost a significant initial cost, usually in the form of link buying. SEO can also improve your websites value. A good example is imagining your website as a property such as your house. With an SEO targeted approach, you would purchase land or other houses around it out expand your existing business. On the other hand, PPC could mean renting the land around you.
By 2013, a CNN report suggests, internet advertising will grow from USD$9.1 billion in 2007 to USD$21 billion. Surprisingly, out for the billions spent on advertising, only 11% is from SEO and 87% from PPC.
In determining which approach suits best depends on your business or the product you’re trying to sell. For example, if it’s a seasonal item, and the popularity is only during this period of time, you would want instant results, thus PPC would be the better option.
The image bellow shows the distribution of clicks by internet users in the US. You can see that most people click on the organic search section compared to the Paid, ‘sponsored’ area.
You decide which is better? Or you can consult an Internet Marketing expert.
Good Tutorial about the basic concepts of SEO
Jul 6th
This is a very good youtube video outlining the main concepts of SEO. It really shows you the jist of what search engine optimization is all about.
5 Quick Tips for Website Hosting
May 20th
Hosting – one of those silent SEO factors that can have a major impact on your rankings if it goes wrong … but because it goes right so much of the time, we tend to undervalue the importance of having reliable hosting. Here are WME’s top five tips for getting your website hosting right, and not jeopardising your web marketing results!
These gals know about hosting!
- Don’t host your website at the same place you registered the domain name. Most businesses are specialised for one or the other.
- Cheaper is not better. If hosting is cheap, you’re most likely sharing low quality resources which will cause site lag.
- Consider a dedicated server if you have a large, complex, frequently updated site. Having only your own website info on a single server is a form of insurance.
- Host locally – this will help boost your SEO rankings for local searches … generally the sort that you want!
- Don’t forget your hosts when you change credit cards! If your hosts can’t renew your domain, they might be taken off the web without warning. Not good for SEO!
How to Beat a Behemoth SEO Competitor – The Big List continued
Mar 29th
One of the greatest pities in the SEO world is when a great company fails to optimise their site because they feel they can’t compete with another large company that has more online experience, more Google Juice, and a bigger website. It’s a pity not only for the company itself, but for the general public and potential consumers who may miss out on the option of having a stellar product! Today we continue our look at how you can actually beat a big SEO competitor. Even the mighty must sometimes fall…
1. Don’t compete on price
It’s the lowest common denominator on the web. It’s tempting to think that if you offer a cheaper product than your big competitor, you’ll eventually siphon off all their customers, link popularity, etc. Not true. In many cases, you just end up being seen as the cheap alternative to the ‘good’ product. Being at the top of Google is an automatic ticket to being seen as a ‘trusted’ brand, according to surveys. Being cheap, and lower down, just makes you seem ‘safe to ignore’.
2. Look first to thyself
Sayeth the God of web marketing to his true believers! Make sure your offering is great, that your web design is awesome, that your customer service is in order, before you engage in a full-scale assault on that top Google ranking.
3. Spy on your competitors … to create a point of difference
It may sound sneaky … but it all depends on how you use the information. Copying your competitors tactics will not usually help you beat them. As Ries and Trout (the 27 Immutable Laws of Marketing) suggest, it is better to be first than it is to be better. However, if you want to know how to market yourself as different to potential customers, you need to know what makes you different. Which means knowing what the customer experience at your competitor’s business is like.
4. Ask what your customers thought about transactions
People LOOOVE being asked what they think! And this tactic doesn’t only endear your customers to you … it provides valuable information about improving your business for the future. There may be a tiny piece of the puzzle that your competitor has mastered, but you’ve so far missed completely. Implement a ‘Feedback’ form on your website, or get in contact with people who have had orders delivered via email and find out what they thought about the transaction. It works on eBay!
Keep watching for more ideas from the big list for beating those SEO behemoths at their own game!
How to Beat a Behemoth SEO Competitor – The Big List of Underdog Tactics
Mar 26th
Sometimes an SEO campaign seems hopeless. Much like at Kokoda on the Owen Stanley track, your larger competitor outnumbers you in staff and resources. They seem healthier and more experienced … but if you have the guts and determination, and use a little ingenuity in your SEO and general web marketing strategy, it is certainly possible to beat them! Today we start our catalogue of tips for beating a seemingly unbeatable SEO competitor.
Not such a mammoth competitor after all!
1. Persistence
This is the first thing you need to remember as you launch into an assault on the top position. If you only half-finish an SEO campaign, you waste all of it … not just half. Be prepared to go the distance – know that it is possible!
2. Know your market
In some cases a ‘competitor’ may not truly be competing with your business. If you have a slightly different offering, aim to be at the top of Google for the search terms that best describe your business. Know your unique selling point, and exploit it to the max!
3. Use review sites to boost your business name
Ask your customers to leave reviews of your business on well-respected review sites. If you’re in the tourism industry, Tripadvisor is the big name – but every industry can use sites like www.productreview.com.au. Please avoid the temptation to use review sites to denigrate your competitor(s)’ reputations, though! Keep it clean, people.
4. Don’t forget Google Local
Make sure you use your Google Local profile to the fullest extent possible. Add all the information you can Add your prices in Google Local as well – so many people use the internet for price comparisons, and may simply pass over your business if getting a price is too much like hard work. Price isn’t always the determining factor in supplier choice for the majority of people, anyway.
5. Don’t forget Google Local Reviews!
These may be one of the first things that prospective customers see – Google Local results often show up very high on the results listing, and click-throughs are a lot more evenly spread for these ten results. Get your satisfied customers to leave reviews here to start boosting your traffic.
Stay tuned – we’ll be looking at more ways to beat a behemoth SEO competitor in the coming days.
Why Customer Service and SEO Go Hand in Hand
Mar 22nd
We’ve often talked on the blog about how SEO and web design, for example, go hand in hand. We’ve talked about how SEO and conversion optimisation are two very complementary practices. Obviously, there’s no use in having lots of traffic if none of them spend anything on site. Today we’re looking at why customer service is another of the complementary activities to SEO and web marketing- because there’s no point being at the top of the rankings if your bad reputation precedes you, and people refuse to click no matter how high you show up.
Some customers don't get mad ... they get the Dark Side
The angry consumer
We’ve said it in jest before (not that long ago, when we were discussing ‘Why the Internet Sucks’), but it is true. Getting behind a keyboard and a screen allows people’s anger to rise to amazing levels. Someone that has a bad experience at your shop will vent in a much more vicious way if left to stew, and then explode online, than if you’d tried to resolve the issue immediately in-store.
What can the angry consumer do?
Some extreme examples of venting by frustrated consumers include the website BanTarget.org, set up in response to the Salvation Army being banned from collecting donations outside Target Stores a while back. Or how about iPodsDirtySecret.com, a site set up including an actual recorded conversation with an Apple customer service rep over the fact that when an iPod battery died, the only alternative was to replace the entire machine.
Other ways consumers get even
However, there are plenty of ways that consumers can vent about businesses they feel disappointed by, where someone doesn’t have to be annoyed enough to spend $25 on domain name registration and hosting. These include:
- Ranting on their own Facebook pages, and setting up Pages or Groups on Facebook that are anti-your business.
- Publishing negative tweets about your company
- Leaving negative reviews on review sites … including on Google Local’s feature, where if you rank highly, this will be one of the first things prospective customers see.
- File a report about your business with the Consumer Complaint Commission. US businesses can find complaints listed about them with the highly respected Better Business Bureau.
- Leave complaints on complaint sites, set up especially for the purpose.
- Write articles about your company online, create a hub page, Squidoo lens, etc
If you don’t treat your customers well, all that web marketing energy will go down the tube. The age of the internet is the age of accountability for customer service … both fortunately, and unfortunately 
20 Teeny Weeny Site Features That Make You Look Like a Spammer!
Mar 15th
After you’ve been hanging out on the street corners of the internet for some time, you get to recognise the characters – the websites – you can trust and those you can’t. In many cases it involves purely judging books by their covers – none of these features taken in isolation would indicate a spam site, by any stretch of the imagination. But when you see a guy with dark glasses, dirty clothes, greasy hands, and a big hat on to hide his face … you don’t go giving him your credit card details, do you?! Have a look over these features that can make you look like a spammer – and think about whether they might be negating your good internet marketing work.
There's all sorts of Spam sites - don't let your site resemble one!
- Domain names like .info, .cc, etc.
- High ratio of ads to content … most quality sites prefer to sell their service or their info, not everybody else’s
- Spam keywords! Pharmaceuticals, gambling or adult related terms
- Few direct visits, as opposed to search engine visits
- Not registered with Google Webmaster Tools or similar services
- Does not have an SSL security certificate … especially on the credit card payment pages.
- Not listed in the Yahoo Directory – that link costs a couple of hundred dollars but is standard for most sites that are serious about being found on the net.
- Contains multiple hyphens in the domain name
- Do not contain a privacy policy or copyright pages
- No physical address or phone number listed on the site. If you are taking payments from your customers this is a must – many people will check to see that you’re a ‘real’ company before they even consider handing over their sixteen digits and expiry date.
- Not registered on Google Local
- No social media initiatives, like Facebook Pages, Myspace profiles or Youtube channels
- No links from domains with .mil, edu or .gov extensions. Obviously these are hard to get – but it is just another piece in the distrust puzzle.
- Domain is registered by a party that owns a large number of domains – people that have a ‘harem’ of domains.
- Contains malware, viruses, spyware and automated downloads. Of course sometimes legitimate sites get hacked and have viruses inserted too … but you don’t want to be around those either!
- Misspellings! Everyone slips up now and then – but if you don’t have your site professionally proofed and edited, you definitely run the risk of losing trust from your visitors
- Don’t usually pay for PPC traffic, or end up close to the bottom of the sponsored results.
- The content on the site does not require a high reading level, as measured by the Fleisch-Kincaid scale that ‘grades’ text according to who could understand it
- Contain a large number of snippets of duplicate content
- Not likely to offer content in the forms of PDFs, PPTs, Word DOCs, etc.
If your site matches many of these characteristics, and especially if you haven’t upgraded your design in quite a few years, you’re likely to be seen as a spammer by visitors, although you might have the best of intentions. Get a web marketing expert to help you clean up the site … and stop letting visitors go to waste!
4 Tools to Find Out What Keywords Your Competitors Are Using
Mar 1st
Knowledge is power, and power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely … but unfortunately there is no such thing as absolute knowledge. D’oh! However, one piece of knowledge in terms of internet marketing that equals quite a lot of power is knowing the keywords that your competitors are targeting. This gives you the opportunity to either try and target the same ones and steal their thunder (especially if you know that they don’t have an extensive or professional SEO program in place), or to target different alternatives in order to get a complementary market share. And on the net, everything is possible … so today we are looking at three tools you can use to get your competitors’ keywords.
The Keyword Spy Who Loved Me
1. The manual method
You can ‘View Page Source’ by right clicking anywhere (except on a link) on your competitors web pages, and then clicking Ctrl+F, and typing ‘keyword’. After this you’ll see the keywords listed for that page. Of course, these words might be very different to the ones that are actually drawing people to their site, or those that they rank well for in PPC, for example.
2. Visually
Check out their on-page content, and look for words or phrases that are repeated throughout the text, especially at the beginning. It is likely they are targeting these keywords.
3. Spyfu
This tool not only gives you your competitors keywords, but reveals trails of action that paid off for them, the ad copy that drives the most leads, etc. Of course, it costs money … and is not personalized to your business as ‘real’ SEO is!
4. Ranks.nl
If you are having a hard time visually picking out keywords from on-page copy, you can pop the URL in to ranks.nl and see what it thinks the most important terms on the page are.
Of course, you need to remember that knowing a competitor’s keywords doesn’t necessarily dictate the ones that you will use. Your two businesses might be more different (in consumer’s’ eyes) than you imagine. A good web marketing company can help give you a pro perspective on this.