Posts tagged seo professionals
5 SEO Myths Conspiring to Kill Your Rankings
Mar 10th
Well-structured, expert SEO help is essential to the success of just about every site on our big, blue internet nowadays! Yet, there are still so many myths and misunderstanding that we encounter regarding SEO … sometimes these misunderstandings cost rankings, sometimes they cost money, sometimes they cost entire businesses. At least make sure that you understand these five things about SEO … More >
Applying The Immutable Laws of Marketing in SEO, part 1
Jan 21st
People have written classic books as recently as 1993 – amazing, eh? I thought the only worthwhile thing created that year was hypercolour t-shirts 
. The classic I’m referring to is a book called The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, written by Al Ries and Jack Trout. It is aimed at marketers in general, but all of the concepts contained within are applicable to internet marketing. Today we are taking a selected look at the laws in a web marketing context.
The ‘First’ Laws
Ironically, the first laws in the book are all about ‘firstness’. Laws 1 through 3 are:
1. It is better to be first than it is to be better.
2. If you can’t be first in a category, set up a new category you can be first in.
3. It is better to be first in the mind than to be first in the marketplace.
In an SEO and web marketing context, one of the most important of this set is number 3 – it is better to be first in the mind than first in the marketplace. As concrete business advice, you can take this to mean “If your competitors are lagging behind in their SEO efforts, you’d better hop on your horse quick to take advantage of that!”. You can have competitors, not be the first in your niche and still succeed – if you see that little opening.
And if you take it a little more literally, you could say that it is better to be first (in the Google rankings) than it is to be better … and you’d have a highly profitable view of business on the web!
Battle of Perceptions
The law we are talking about here, number 4, is : Marketing is not a battle of products, it’s a battle of perceptions.
In the real world, it refers to the importance of brand-building. You should have a brand that is both recognizable and respected. In web marketing this is less important, because consumers are more apt to research and choose, than blindly brand-follow.
Yet, you should always focus on maintaining good perceptions of your business, as well as maintaining good products. If your website looks a little shonky, or you link out to bad neighborhoods, or your website is listed in dodgy directories, you lose in the battle of perceptions. SEO specialists can help determine exactly how those perceptions are best ‘massaged’.
By the way, we’ll be looking at more or less all of the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing in an SEO context over the coming weeks … so stay tuned!
WordPress All-in-One SEO Pack Plugin – Not Replacing Web Marketing Anytime Soon!
Jan 19th
It’s fairly easy to come across DIY stuff on the web. Things like the WordPress All-in-one SEO plugin, sites where you can develop your own personalized website for free, other places where you can upload and share files. Advertising makes it possible for just about everything to be free on the web … but is it as good as the version you pay for? Today we’re looking at the all-in-one SEO plugin from WordPress … comparing its capabilities to an actual SEO or web marketing firm.
WordPress SEO Pack screenshot
In the red corner, weighing in at 14 pounds … WordPress plugin!
The name might be accurate in a WordPress setting (for example, this plugin may have consolidated several other WordPress plugins into a single one), but calling it an all-in-one SEO pack, even in light of all the other DIY tools there are available out there, is a big leap! The plugin simply gives you a platform to enter your title, meta description and meta keywords. It’s useful for bloggers without HTML knowledge or editors, but is a tiny tool in reality.
Here’s what you can get other automated tools for in the web marketing field that the WordPress plugin doesn’t do:
- Page index checker
- Search engine rankings report
- Link popularity checkers
- Tools for suggesting keywords (although the quality is invariably dubious!)
In the blue corner, weighing in at several hundred pounds combined … your SEO team!
It’s easy to see which is going to win in this match up. In fact, I’m no longer sure if it was fair to compare them in the first place … sorry about that . When it comes to the benefit of humans over automated tools, there’s just no fight. Instant knockout … go to the pub for the rest of the night! Humans can:
- Determine keywords that are truly relevant to your business
- Build links that are relevant as well as ones that check the boxes (Pagerank, followed, etc)
- Actually write content! This is a big part of SEO, unfortunately the WordPress plugin can’t do this for you.
- Test and assess what’s working in a campaign
- Too many other things to list … get in touch with an SEO specialist!
SEO and the Changing Google Algorithm
Jan 13th
Much like raising children, SEO is a discipline where the playing field, and the rules, keep changing. It is one of the reasons that there is so much misinformation about it on the web, and one of the major reasons that people turn to SEO professionals to sort it all out. Today we check out how the game plan for SEO has changed over time, by exploring the changing Google algorithm. These rankings are a selected view of our personal opinions about internet marketing, including our observations about which activities get which results.
We’ll be looking at four major factors that Google uses to rank pages for a particular search query:
- Keyword usage on site, including keyword density, positioning, relative appearance next to related words, etc.
- Anchor text used in external links
- Link popularity – how many links of what level of ‘authority’ you have linking to your site
- Trust and authority of the domain hosting the page
2004 – Back in Aught-Four!
- Trust and authority: Only had a very slight impact on SEO rankings. Having a .gov or .edu domain probably would have helped relatively little in rankings.
- Keyword usage: Was of moderate importance in determining rankings
- Anchor text: Was very important in determining SERPs
- Link popularity: Was seen as the dominant force in determining the SERP
2007 – Back in Aught-Seven!
- Trust and authority: Was moving up in importance, we could now see a moderate impact
- Keyword usage: Again, of moderate importance
- Link popularity: Moderate importance – the top three factors had relatively equal weight
- Anchor text: However, was seen as immensely important by Google
2009 – Back to the Not So Distant Past
- Trust and authority: Our recent SEO projects have shown much better results for host domains with good trust and authority in Google’s eyes – it seems this is now of quite dominant importance.
- Keyword usage: Still has a moderate impact on internet marketing activities
- Anchor text: Still important, but not so much as it was a few years ago
- Link popularity: Currently this has the least effect on over all ranking of the four major factors.
This is all very interesting to note – but an important point to remember is that you shouldn’t neglect to use keywords in your achor text just because Google doesn’t care about it right now … those links will still be there in a couple of years when Google may have changed its mind. For the same reason, there’s still no excuse for neglecting on-site optimization or working on building link popularity as an internet marketing tactic.
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.
2009 SEO Trends: A View by webmarketingexperts.com.au (Part 1)
May 27th
Search engines are always upgrading their search algorithm in view of combating the rampant exploitation of the search engines by the spammers. SEO professionals may be infuriated with the ever changing search engine behavior; however, the upgrading or updating of search engine algorithm is not for the purpose of making things difficult. This should happen for the sake of the internet users. Search engines have no other goals except delivering quality results to their users. Only in giving the internet users with relevant, useful, and information-rich search results that the credibility of search engine be established.
Relevant, useful and information-rich search results are what internet users often serve as the basis of the effectiveness of a search engine. So far, only Google has met this standard. Since Yahoo and MSN are still not good in delivering totally quality search results, they are left behind by Google in hundred miles in terms of market share.
Since 2008, there are already several speculations about the 2009 SEO trends. Those speculations were proven to happen in 2009 and continue to occur. Let me present the enumeration of events about 2009 SEO trends:
(a) Google is still the most preferred search engine by internet users, resulting to its unbeatable reigning in market share. Since Google is still on top of internet search race, it is important to optimize your site for Google. Though the competition in this arena is really tough, you will be rewarded with immeasurable opportunities.
Continue reading here: 2009 SEO Trends: A View by webmarketingexperts.com.au (Part 2)
~oOo~
Contact Web Marketing Experts (webmarketingexperts.com.au) for more useful SEO tips and other relevant points of view.
The Challenge of SEO: A View on Search Engine Behavior
Apr 30th
SEO professionals only study the behavior of search engines in terms of how the ranking changes over time. By looking at the search results, they conduct studies to determine why a certain web page is ranked higher over the others. Out of assumptions, they would implement ways they think would optimize the page. Methods can only be proven be effective if they find that the page gains higher ranking in the search engine results page.
Another challenge that SEO professionals are facing is the fact that search engines updates or revise the search algorithm. What’s more challenging is that no one knows when search engines change search algorithm. As a result, some web pages that are optimized for particular keyword phrase would lose their ranking. There will be another headache for SEO experts; they have to study again what new optimizing strategies would be acceptable or what are the latest trends. The nature of search engines in which algorithm is changed any (unknown) time also defines SEO. SEO is a continuous process because the search engine algorithm is always changeable.
The changing of search algorithm is done to control SEO service provider companies. This is to avoid spammers dominate the search engine results page. Frequent updating of search engine algorithm would prevent spammers and will eventually have them totally eradicated. Just in time.
Other Factors that Define Your Site Ranking
Apr 10th
Aside from web content, web design, internal and external links, and Meta tags, there are also other factors that affect your site ranking in the search engine results page. SEO professionals have already explained these things but only few understand because the presentation of their ideas is complicated. Let me present the concept in layman’s term. This would somehow help you understand the basic concepts involved in internet marketing.
Keywords are important in search engine ranking. They must be visible in the content throughout the web page. However, you should be careful of the keyword density. Keyword density is the frequency of repetition of your keywords in content. It can be derived by dividing the number of times the keyword is repeated over the number of words in your content. The ideal keyword density is 5% while some agrees that 7% or 9% is the standard. Once your keyword density exceeds from the limit by repeating your keywords unnecessarily, search engines would identify it as spam. Of course, you would likely get erased from their index or your site would be banned. This is the punishment that SEO professionals and other rest of internet marketing experts are avoiding. That is why, everyone is cautious on their strategies. Abiding the rules of search engines is the best way to get the desired results such as ranking higher in SERP of major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN.
If a jungle explorer has a paper map with him to avoid getting lost while on the journey, site visitors deserves a sitemap. The sitemap serves as the guide for visitors of your site in order to navigate all the pages of your site smoothly. Sitemap is also a factor in having all your site pages getting indexed because it helps the search engines find all of your pages. If you want search engines to crawl deeper through your site, create a sitemap and that’s it.