Posts tagged power of search engines
4 Mega SEO Mistakes!
Jan 28th
SEO is one of the most popular subjects on the internet … alongside that other ubiquitous three-letter word that starts with ‘se…’! This prevalence of information often leads people to believe that SEO is quite a simple task – one that they can do effectively themselves if they read a few blogs. While you are often in a good position to do much of the legwork (writing press releases and website copy, helping with keyword research, etc), there are some common DIY SEO mistakes that really do NOT help your web marketing campaign! We look at the top 4 today.
Using Black Hat Techniques
You don’t have to be an evil Google manipulating monster to fall for what seems like an easier way to get search engine rankings … and which might anger the giant of web search! A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing when DIY-ers use what looks like an easy way out. These quick-fixes are almost always considered black hat, and will get your site banned or penalized in Google when caught.
Meaningless Meta Tags
Many, many people that write their own meta tags don’t realize that this is the only piece of text that search engines display alongside your main website title. It should contain your keywords – if only to tell searchers that the page is relevant to what they were looking for.
Correlating Content
Aside from on-page SEO, including your keyphrases in your site copy helps reassure visitors they have come to the right place, and helps tone down bounce rates (percentage of visitors that leave within a few seconds).
Ignoring the Power of the Address
Your URL is one of the most powerful weapons in your SEO arsenal – use it! You should spend at least as much time brainstorming and refining your URL ideas as you do on your entire site content.
Applying The Immutable Laws of Marketing in SEO, part 3
Jan 23rd
Phew! 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing is actually quite a few 
. Ries and Trout have done quite a good job explaining what happens in a marketing context overall, but only a segment of the laws apply closely to internet marketing, and to SEO in particular. Today we continue our look at how Ries and Trout’s observations relate to the world of marketing on the web.
Marketing styles - different for every business, but all follow the same rules!
Time, time, time – see what’s become of me
One of the most relevant laws in an SEO context is number 11 – “Marketing effects take place over an extended period of time”. This is absolutely true in SEO – there is no business, anywhere in the world, that can launch a website one day, and be first on Google the next. Not only is the phenomenon not overnight, it often takes much longer than you expect. However, it is an ongoing practice with ongoing, very real rewards.
Negative thinking
This highly counter-intuitive rule is practiced almost nowhere on the web, and almost nowhere in traditional marketing – the rule states that ” When you admit a negative, the prospect will give you a positive”. The examples given are Avis, which ran a successful marketing campaign after admitting they were the number 2 car rental brand; Volkswagen, which admitted the Beetle was ugly; and Listerine, who admitted the mouthwash tastes like petrol. The fact is, it takes courage, honesty and confidence in your product to admit something negative about your brand … and those are aspects everybody wants to have in companies they partner with. Make use of it in your website copywriting, your PPC ads, your social media marketing, and any communication your have with your customers.
Success, arrogance, and failure
The 18th law of marketing is that ” Success often leads to arrogance, and arrogance to failure”. In an SEO context, we see this most often when companies believe that a number one Google position is absolute. They get to #1 … and then believe they can stop spending on SEO. If you want to remain successful, you have to keep trying to be successful!
Snakey Keywords: Using Long Tail Search Terms for SEO Benefit
Jan 11th
Actually, calling long-tail keywords ‘snakey’ may be a bit of a misnomer. The ‘long tail’ in the term ‘long tail keyphrases’ is most often visualized as a lizard’s tail. The exact animal doesn’t make a lick of difference to your SEO success, though … your application of the long tail keyphrase principle does!
The Long tail of SEO
What is a long tail keyphrase?
In broad, overall Google terms, a long tail keyphrase is understood as any that falls outside the top 100,000 most popular searches that are made in a day, a week, or a month. Usually to people trying to determine their keyphrases, or internet marketing specialists doing so for clients, it means that the little tail of letters heading across the screen is longer.
Long tail keyphrases are much more useful in web marketing than shorter ones. Shorter search terms get a high volume of searches, but there is heavy competition, especially for large sites. You are much more likely to get good web marketing results, and therefore traffic, if you target more specialized terms.
How to help define your long tail keyphrases for best SEO results
Generally, long tail keywords consist of three or more words. You are probably used to thinking about your business in broad terms, trying to explain it to people who understand little about what you do. To define your long tail keyphrases, either you or your SEO specialist will have to get much more personal with your business!
Here are some quick ways to start defining your long tail keyphrases for SEO:
- Add your location to one of your terms, especially if you are the only business in your niche in that area. For example, you might use ‘internet marketing Melbourne‘, rather than ‘internet marketing’.
- Dust off your Unique Selling Point and pair it up with a plain description of your services. For example, ‘offset printing services’
- Use the names of your popular products or services, even if they are much more specific than your overall business. For example, ‘full colour brochure printing’ is a good choice, though your business might do all sorts of printing.
The Way Search Engines Work
Nov 25th
How search engines work may
seem an ambiguous matter for most people but before delving into how this
method works, you might want to know if you really need the power of search
engines, foremost, in your online business.
Do you really need to be
recognized by search engines? In this new era of doing business and carrying
out various transactions, the answer is a definite “yes”. Search engines
simplify the work of a person wanting to find particular subjects or products
from over a billion web pages in the Internet, which is considered a vast
library of information and a source of endless opportunities. If you are
looking for specific information, then the only thing to get reliable help from
is by the search engines. You need a search engine when you are clueless about
something and the most relevant thing to do is let the search engine find
anything about a certain topic for you.
A search engine refers to an
automated program, called crawlers, spiders or bots, allowed to run free in the
Web. These “bots” are unleashed so that they can perform meticulous surveys on
every webpage they come across, and archive these sites into their databases.
Upon collection, the information given in each website is analyzed and indexed
so that whenever someone types in a word or phrases into the search engines,
all information is scanned from the database and results are given in an
instant. The search engine results page
(SERP) will start with the best site and from there the ranking is determined.
A website that contains
original contents will be given a higher rank in the search results. The bots can
blacklist your site and get penalized if they are copied from other sites.
Search engine rankings provide websites the visibility they need. Furthermore,
it will be easier for readers to remember your web product which gives the
possibility for you to heap sales and get a quick return of investment.
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