Monday, September 30, 2013

How to get excellent backlinks

There’s a lot of disorder in the world of link building. For years, many webmasters relied on spam and automatic backlink building tools to get high rankings on Google. These methods don’t work anymore. Fortunately, there is a way to get high class backlinks to your site.

seo tips

Step 1: Not remember robots and think like a person

Before Google’s Penguin update, many webmasters thought that link building was for robots. You entered your keywords and the link building tool mechanically created hundreds of backlinks with your keywords in the anchor text.
The fact that these backlinks didn’t make any sense for human visitors didn’t worry most of these people. Unluckily, Google didn’t like these backlinks at all and as soon as their algorithms were good enough to detect these backlinks, websites that relied on spam backlinks experienced massive ranking drops.
If you want to succeed in the modern world of link building, you have to think and act like a being.

Step 2: find good aim websites

Getting pertinent links is the only sustainable link building strategy. The basis of a successful link building campaign is the websites that link to your site. Finding these sites can be hard. It is easy if you have the right tools.

SEOprofiler offers a variety of powerful tools that help you to discover good websites that should link to your website:

•    The competitor backlinks tool: websites that link to your competitors are websites that should link to your website. The competitor backlinks device in SEOprofiler helps you to find these sites.
 
•    The keyword backlinks tool: backlinks from related web pages have a higher crash on your search engine rankings than backlinks from unrelated web pages. The keyword backlink tool in SEOprofiler helps you to find potential link partners that are connected to the topic of your website.

•    The hub finder: web sites that link to more than one of your competitors are so-called hub sites. These sites help search engines to classify your website. If search engines assign your website to the right category, your web pages will get higher rankings for keywords that are connected to this category. The hub finder tool in SEOprofiler helps you to find these hub sites.

•    The link opportunity finder: the link opportunity finder tool in SEOprofiler automatically creates link related search queries and it automatically retrieves the results for these queries. You will get good link partner suggestions as quickly and professionally as possible.

Step 3: get the backlink 

Find a cause to contact the owner of the other website. Would a link to your site be a resource for visitors of the other site? Can you add unique content to the other website?
Write a personal communication and let the other webmaster know that you are a real human being. Try to form a connection.
The backlink manager in SEOprofiler helps you to find the contact information of other websites. It also keeps path of your conversions and it provides additional information about your link partners. The link manager helps you to build backlinks as professionally as possible:


This time, it’s personal 

If you want to make sure that your links lead to long-term rankings, it is very significant that you build links like a human being. Focus on significance. Show others that you are a real person. Link to other websites whenever it makes sense. Treat others like you would like to be treated.
You don’t need hundreds of links to do well. A handful of really good backlinks can have a huge influence on your Google rankings. The tools in SEOprofiler make it as easy as possible to get these backlinks. If you haven’t done it yet, create your SEOprofiler account now.

Friday, September 27, 2013

Google introduces innovative Hummingbird search algorithm

Google has softly retooled the closely guarded formula running its internet search engine to give better answers to the more and more complex questions posed by web surfers.

The overhaul came as part of an update called "Hummingbird" that Google has slowly rolled out in the past month without disclosing the modifications.

latest google updates

What’s a “search algorithm?”

That’s a technological term for what you can think of as a formula that Google uses to sort through the billions of web pages and other information it has, in order to return what it believes are the best answers.

What’s “Hummingbird?”

It’s the name of the new search algorithm that Google is using; one that Google says should come back better results.

So that “PageRank” algorithm is dead?

No. PageRank is one of over 200 major “ingredients” that go into the Hummingbird formula. Hummingbird looks at PageRank — how significant links to a page are deemed to be — along with other factors like whether Google believes a page is of good quality, the words used on it and many other things

What does it indicate that Hummingbird is now being used?

Think of a car build in the 1950s. It might have a great engine, but it might also be an engine that lacks things like fuel injection or be unable to use unleaded fuel. When Google switched to Hummingbird, it’s as if it dropped the older engine out of a car and put in a new one. It also did this so rapidly that no one really noticed the switch.

 When’s the last time Google replaced its algorithm this way?

Google struggled to recall when any type of major modify like this last happened. In 2010, the “Caffeine Update” was a huge change. But that was also a change mostly destined to help Google improved gather information (indexing) rather than sorting through the information.

What about all these Penguin, Panda and other “updates” — haven’t those been changes to the algorithm?

Panda, Penguin and other updates were changes to parts of the old algorithm, but not an whole replacement of the whole. Think of it again like an engine. Those things were as if the engine received a fresh oil filter or had an improved pump put in. Hummingbird is a brand new engine, though it continues to use some of the same parts of the old, like Penguin and Panda

What type of “new” search action does Hummingbird help?

“Conversational search” is one of the major examples Google gave. People, when speaking searches, may find it more useful to have a conversation..
Hummingbird should better focus on the meaning behind the language. It may better understand the actual location of your home, if you’ve shared that with Google. It might recognize that “place” means you want a brick-and-mortar store
In particular, Google said that Hummingbird is paying more notice to each word in a query, ensuring that the whole

Does it really work? Any before-and-afters?

We don’t know. There’s no way to do a “before-and-after” ourselves, now. Attractive much, we only have Google’s word that Hummingbird is improving things. However, Google did present some before-and-after examples of its own; that it says shows Hummingbird improvements.

Does this mean SEO is dead?

No, SEO is not yet again dead. In fact, Google’s saying there’s nothing new or different SEOs or publishers need to worry about. Guidance remains the same, it says: have original, high-quality content. Signals that have been significant in the past remain important; Hummingbird just allows Google to practice them in new and hopefully better ways.

Does this denote I’m going to lose traffic from Google?

If you haven’t in the past month, well, you came through Hummingbird unscathed. After all, it went live about a month ago. If you were going to have evils with it, you would have known by now.

By and large, there’s been no major disagreement among publishers that they’ve lost rankings. This seems to support Google saying this is very much a query-by-query effect, one that may   pick up particular searches — particularly complex ones — rather than something that hits “head” terms that can, in turn, cause major traffic shifts.

But I did lose traffic!

 Maybe it was due to Hummingbird, but Google stressed that it could also be due to some of the other parts of its algorithm, which are always being changed, tweaked or enhanced. There’s no way to know.

I hope to do a extra formal look at the changes from those conversations in the near future. But for now, hopefully you’ve found this fast FAQ based on those conversations to be helpful.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

5 Reasons for increase your SEO budget in the coming year

With the latest turmoil with search engines and rankings, many are wondering about how much they should ask for their SEO budget in the coming year. Fortunately, even with Google’s changes, SEO continues to give up a great return on investment. This will give you 5 reasons why it is in your best benefit to increase your SEO budget for 2014.
seo latest news


1. Gaming the System with Cheap Backlinks Will get you broken

Google has made it clear that they will not stand sites that try to “game the system”. They’ve made great strides over the past couple years to reduce many of the inexpensive methods that website owners often use to create backlinks. Tactics like article spinning, excessive social bookmarks, paid links, duplicate content, and keyword stuffing are no longer acceptable in Google’s eyes. For more outmoded tactics as well as what works now, see “Still Relying on Old SEO Tricks? Here’s What Works Now.”

2. Recovering from Google Penguin is Expensive

Many websites have been able to recover from a drop in the SERPs due to Penguin. However, recovering is costly. Typically, a full SEO link profile audit is needed to identify the problems and craft a path for recovery.
Even if your website has not been hit by an unnatural link warning within Google Webmaster Tools, it’s still a good idea to perform a link profile audit to identify any possible links which could cause future trouble. Preventing the problem is often cheaper than fixing it.
The lack of enough inbound link diversification (in terms of anchor text, domain diversity, and content type) became a real problem when Google’s Penguin algorithm was launched. cheap or manipulative inbound links also pose a important risk. A proper link profile audit will tell you if your backlinks are likely to result in a rankings drop.

3. The accurate Kind of Content Marketing Isn’t Cheap

Not long ago, you could publish a couple 500-word blog posts per week and gain quantifiable traffic and authority with Google. While short articles do still have value, there’s absolutely a trend within Google toward favoring longer content.
In the future, I expect that articles will need to be a minimum of 1,000 words in span to rank well in Google, and better yet if they’re over 2,000 words. Already, Google is providing a latest section within the first page of its search results called “In-depth articles.” Take a look at the screenshot below, for my query on “censorship.”

4. You Will Need a Content Marketing policy

. Building your brand by publishing awesome, useful content that closely fits the needs of your aim audience is what generates real brand signals that will get your content ranked in the search engines.
This is one reason why it’s dangerous for your SEO provider to also provide content marketing services. In 2014, content marketing will play an even more significant role in building your brand through generating traffic, leads, and conversions. Without it, your SEO firm is likely to fall back into the low quality content trap where they simply try to make the content “unique” and not care about quality.

5. Outsource Your Social Media to Scale It Up

We believe that in 2014 social media signals will continue to exert a growing influence on search engine rankings. One thing for certain is that social media is definitely becoming more of a factor for driving traffic and building a successful brand.
Social media positively affects the bottom line in many ways. However, is it a good idea for you, the business owner, to spend a lot of your time doing social media? Probably not. Every minute you spend participating across multiple social media platforms means that you’re not focusing on the parts of your business that only you can do.  And as the business owner, that’s all you should be doing – otherwise, you’re not maximizing your valuable time. The simplest solution is to outsource social media management. This will allow you to scale it far beyond the time you could spend doing it yourself.

Selecting an SEO Firm

One big factor to consider when selecting an SEO firm is to make sure they have a correct long-term vision of your needs. SEO, when done correctly, incorporates a long-term vision with the correct mix and integration of strong content, social media, and inbound links.
Earning high-quality inbound links is far more important than it used to be, particularly since the rollout of the Google Panda and Penguin algorithm updates. This is probably the main reason why the cost of search engine optimization is likely to increase, and thus why your budget will need to increase. When you include the cost of properly scaling social media to meet your rising company’s needs, it’s likely to increase even further.

I hope you have a good understanding of why you’ll likely need to boost your  budget in SEO 2014. There have been a lot of changes in the past few years, and many companies have suffered as a result. Working with an SEO professional can help clarify your goals and design a plan that will help you achieve those goals.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Removing perverted Links by Removing Pages on Your Website

Trying to fresh up your backlink profile? Did you know that you can rapidly remove links by removing the page of your site to which that link points?

Obviously this tactic can’t be used for links pointing to your home page. But, if you have inner pages that have built up huge numbers of unnatural links and are causing your site to be affected harmfully by a Google penalty or algorithm issue, then this could be a good method to use.
link building

Be sure you do it correctly though! Later on in this article I’ll share about how a client of mine got their site re-penalized by making an error in 404ing their pages.

Removing a Page with Unnatural Links pointing to it

During a Webmaster Central Hangout, Google employee John Mueller was asked:
Does removing a page that has abnormal links pointing to it accomplish the same thing when it comes to removing a link when it comes to the Penguin algorithm? If a site has its entire links pointing to one page and removes the page is the issue solved?

"Yes, basically that’s pretty much the same thing," Mueller said. "So, what happens when a page is removed and the page returns a 404, what happens is that we drop those links so that they don’t count. Generally talking, if you can’t remove those links and you don’t want to use the disavow back links tool then you could remove those pages."

And here's how Mueller answered a question in the Google Webmaster Forum on the similar topic:
In general, if you remove the page that is being linked to and make sure that it returns a 404/410 HTTP response code, we'll overlook the links to those pages.

Don’t Make These Mistakes!

Please know, though, that the page must be really removed in order for the links pointing to it to no longer count. The following won't work to take away links:

•    No indexing and/or no following the page. A no indexed, no followed page will still receive Page Rank from links pointing to it. Marking a page on your site no indexed and/or no followed doesn't achieve the same thing as physically removing a link.
•    Blocking by robots.txt: A page that is infertile by robots.txt will still receive Page Rank as well. The robots.txt directive will simply tell Google not to crawl that page. But, if links point to it then they will still count towards your site.
•    Redirecting the pages to another page on your site. A forward will pass somewhere from 95 to 100 percent of the Page Rank from bad link on to the redirected page and won't remove the link.
•    Removing the link but creating an identical page on your site with a different URL. I've seen situations where Google can be familiar with identical content and automatically cannibalize it. What this means is that links pointing to the original page will be attributed to the new page.

A Grievous Error

One of my clients made a big mistake. Several months ago we worked hard to take away an unnatural links penalty that this client received.
An earlier SEO company had built abnormal links to their site by creating a large number of articles on the site and then paying other sites to link to these articles. We detached those unnatural links by removing all of the articles that had been made on the site. If someone clicked on one of those unnatural links, they would be going to to a 404 page.

The site also had some other visibly unnatural links, such as low-quality directories which we dealt with as well. We were very pleased when Google removed the unnatural links punishment from the site.
However, I was very astonished to find out about two months later that the site was penalized.
It didn’t take long to decide what had happened. The site owners had decided to redirect all of those 404 pages to the home page.

Whether it was done in error, or done to try to sneakily regain some link juice, I don't know. Somehow their site underwent another physical review and the penalty was levied again.

Should You 404 Pages or Just Disavow the perverted Links?

In the same Hangout linked to above, Mueller said that using the disavow tool to ask Google to not count these bad links would work just as well as 404ing the page(s) on your sites to remove links.

However, as there is argument over the use of the disavow tool,I would suggest that if all of a page’s links are bad ones, to just remove the page rather than disavow. Removing the page will remove all of the bad links.

3 fundamentals for huge Mobile SEO

Much of the argument around mobile SEO seems to be a numbers game. Dozens of articles focus on mobile usage statistics – from 25 percent of all searches being performed on mobile devices, to cross-device decision-making. These articles have the goal of support professionals get buy-in from their bosses, or freelancers pitch to their clients.
While it's one thing to know that consumers are using a knowledge, it's quite another to know how, where and for what purposes.

latest seo news

Going Beyond the Mobile Stats

If all we have are mobile usage data – essentially quantifying a exacting search demographic – then we have few insights on how to really capture their attention.
This approach only scratches the surface of the present and future of mobile.
This article will look at:

•    Distinct technical necessities of mobile SEO.
•    Mobile-specific keywords and how to spot them.
•    Ways to stop wasting your time with "killer content."

SEO and User knowledge: the Real Overlap

The overlie between SEO and UX is paramount when it comes to mobile. Few businesses understand that the mobile experience of a website is a unique one – fewer comprehend Google has outright said that a poor mobile experience will demote a domain's rankings.

For mobile, we're going to focus on:

•    Page load time (you can test yours here).
•    Fixing bounce rate.
•    Reducing redirects (each redirect = 2-4 second additional load time)
These considerations are what will actuallymake a difference in the mobile SEO value and performance of your website. Plus, it will make your users happy – delighted even. And when all is said and done, you can check how your rankings have been improved (or equally important, defended) using a mobile-savvy platform such as BrightEdge.

Keyword Relevancy

When performing keyword investigates, there's usually a search phrase that stands out as odd. It could be a niche request, or something completely inane:
Figure out and annotate what's relevant for your website by:

•    Crunching the mobile-share percentages of keywords in analytics.
•    Marking keywords you already receive traffic from for mobile potential.
•    Brainstorm or feel potential new keywords specific to your niche.

Once you've finished up the legwork, the next steps should be basic. Start with optimizing titles, Meta, and on-page content to include these keywords – preferably with new, dedicated pages that intentionally target your mobile audience.

Context is the New Content

In the move to making SEO more bright, strategic, and sincere, realizing the importance of intention and context becomes supreme.
Why particularities – such as load time or mobile-specific keywords – are opening to great mobile SEO is because people who are on the go are looking for actionable, immediate and significant websites.

Mobile users are deterred by delays, friction, and unresponsive design. They won't parse keyword-garbled text, or navigate to the depths of some ether to buy products or subscribe to services – particularly when competitors treat their time with more respect.
It's Still About Numbers

Yes – it's still a numbers game.

More significant than broader marketing trends, is the data available for particular companies. Whether you're hooked into Google Analytics, Omniture, or CoreMetrics, you'll be able to authenticate whether mobile is worth investing in today.

Hopefully this article has armed you with something more than statistics – information or motivation that can help ignite a sincerely user-centric mobile plan. As always, I look forward to your feedback, thoughts, or questions in the comments below.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Update Your Website’s Content

Creating a well organized, well written website is a great achievement and it can lead to a lucrative business, but that isn’t where the work ends. Whether a website was created last month or last year, it is completely necessary to keep the content fresh, accurate, and up-to-date. Updating the content on a website so that it remains on topic and relevant can help push any business to middle stage.


The Internet plays a very important role in many people’s lives today. Through the decades, the Internet has evolved from a innovation to a tool that is used in almost every aspect of one’s life, from paying bills and ordering victuals to communicating with friends and family to earning an income. Because the Internet is so dynamic, webmasters must continually deal with the challenge of simply keeping up with regular changes and the latest innovations and trends. That means that regular website maintenance is necessary to ensure that visitors are getting the very best information possible.

Update frequently – it’s essential

consistently updating a website’s content is the only way to maintain a spirited edge. Here is a look at the importance of updating definite aspects of a website to ensure that users are getting the best experience probable which will, in turn. Result in improved sales and a better online presence.


Types of website content

There are two types of content on a website: that which is static and that which is dynamic. Static content would contain the likes of the “About Us,” “FAQ,” and “Contact” pages, whereas dynamic pages might include the news section or blog. The dynamic content should be regularly updated and should be relevant at all times. Static content should also be updated; however, it does not need to be done as repeatedly.

When updating the content of a website, it is not only significant to ensure the content is relevant and fresh, but also well crafted. New search engine algorithms require that content be well written for the human eye rather than for the search engine spiders. The focus should be on original, quality content that is not just limited to the written word but should also include info graphics and videos. 
Website will not succeed to keep up with the constantly changing market. This can mean certain doom for any online business because the website will almost surely lose its ranking in the search engines, and every webmaster knows the lower the rank, the fewer the customers.

Hiring a competent copywriter to uphold a blog is not the only way to keep the content of a website updated and fresh, though it is a brilliant way to attract regular visitors and engage the customer. Today, social media plays a vital role in the success of a content marketing strategy. Therefore, any business should have a presence on the leading social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, where clients may obtain the latest information and engage with the business.

Google Moves completely to safe Search


The day many SEO professionals hoped would never approach but feared finally would, apparently has arrived today. It appears that Google has cut off keyword data altogether.

google latest news

Almost two years after making one of the biggest changes to secure search that resulted in a steady rise in "(not provided)" data, Google has switched all searches over to encrypted searches using HTTPS. This means no more keyword data will be approved to site owners.


Encrypted Google searches don't pass the keyword data through to websites, thereby eliminating the capability to track users by their keyword searches. The biggest impact for many site owners has been not being able to section users by keywords within their web analytics software.


To publish any purpose of Google's motives for this move would be pure the

ory. Not wanting to feed the rumor mill or feed any false theory, Search Engine Watch has reached out to Google for a comment.

When encrypted search initially launched in May 2010, Google to begin with had encrypted search on a separate URL. A year soon, in late 2011, Google started redirecting all U.S. users who were signed into their Google Accounts to the encrypted version at https://google.com. This led to the now-infamous "(not provided)" row in keywords data in Google Analytics and other web traffic software packages.


When questioned, Cutts was quick to answer that it was estimated that the amount of "(not provided)" visits "even at full roll-out ... would still be in the single-digit percentages of all Google searchers on Google.com."

As time rolled on, the conversion to encrypted search extended globally to all signed-in users then even further to include default searching in Firefox

Just last month, BrightEdge released a study fining the proportion of "(not provided)" data was over 50% for some industries.


There are methods around determining "(not provided)" data via Webmaster Tools. While the method isn't foolproof, it can be useful to determine trends.

At this point, it seems even when you aren't logged in, using private browsing (or incognito mode) and by force type HTTP://www.google.com, you are being redirected to the HTTPS version, thereby encrypting your search and no doubt leading to a total removal of keyword data – at slightest from Google search visitors. Remember, keyword data from other search engines – like Bing, for example – still send keyword data through.

If you're a practitioner, how will you be adjusting your strategies and practices? How will you begin the chat with your clients? Sound off in the comments. We'll have reactions and more reporting as this story develops.

Monday, September 23, 2013

Calculating Your Blogger Outreach Campaigns

Many pros say that blogger outreach campaigns can’t exactly be measured; however, we need amazing to take back to our boss, right? We need to be able to compare blogger relationships against each other to decide who to keep working with; not to mention knowing whether or not your movement as a whole was even worth the money, time, and effort.

Though we may not be able to measure blogger outreach ROI to an exact level, we have got to give it a “community college try” so that we have some sort of launch pad.

As of now, there are no industries standards for measuring blogger outreach campaigns, so it’s up to each group or brand to establish an “in house standard.” From estimated impressions to lead generation, each company has different goals and thus dissimilar standards to measure.

Since blogger outreach is a marketing method that is ongoing, the ROI can’t be measured to an accurate number but we can still get close. One thing that many CEO’s don’t know when it comes to this form of marketing is that the earned posts live in cyber space, and they bring in traffic long after the campaign is “over.”

In order to decide some sort of ROI for your outreach campaigns or a measurement standard, a goal needs to be determined before you start reach out to bloggers in your niche. Next, you need to optimize your movement and linkable assets for that goal. Here are some ideas:
 
Optimize Your Campaign According to Your aim
 
Lead creation: Build a landing page that you construct in advance so that you can give your blogger something to link to in its place of just your brand’s homepage. Whether the landing page prompts company sign up for a free software demo, an eBook or a webinar, the lead capture info is yours forever and allows you to measure how many people filled it out for a more accurate standard than simple web traffic.

Move Customers through the channel: Provide the blogger with downloadable possessions such as white papers, case studies, and eBooks. Your potential prospects will fill out a quick form with their name and email address to get the free giveaways. Case studies and eBooks that talk about how your brand can help reach a goal are great income to move customers to that next level.

Increase New Customers: Using your handy Google Analytics, keep track of all new visitors to your site from the post. Set a “conversion goal” to track how many take a positive action while on your site, not just how many people visit.

Gain power for Your Brand: Reach out to bloggers who want to link to your brand or a store from your brand as an authority on a topic in your niche. Social media shares and blog comments (positive ones anyway) are great metrics to look at.

Brand Awareness: Since brand awareness is such a broad goal, simply track social media shares and site traffic via Google Analytics or use a link shortened like bitly.

Product Purchases: Have the blogger present a coupon in their post or a code for a discount. This way you can track where those purchases came from.

Estimate on an Individual Level

Using your spreadsheet or measurement tool, it’s important to evaluate the metrics that agree with your goal for each blogger. It’s also wise to examine the post tactics, titles, and etc. of the successful and unsuccessful dealings so you can encourage tactics that moved your goal forward for future campaigns.
 
Analyze the operation as a Whole
 
To see the success of your campaign as a whole, it’s significant to look at totals from all the bloggers posts. This is crucial reporting to show to a boss or a client. Not to declare it lets you know if your tactic was successful.
Keep track of your time and money spent on your operation and compare it against the total amount of leads, new customers, clicks, and social media shares that you got from your bloggers’ posts.
 
Repeatedly Track
 
If blogger outreach is something you plan on doing a lot of, then you maybe want to invest in a blogger outreach tool that also tracks and monitors your campaigns continually like Group High to save time.
If blogger outreach is something that you don’t plan on doing on a regular basis, then plan to spend time staying organized and allot time every week to update your spreadsheets so that you can keep track of the post URLs and the metrics that contribute to your goal. Keep track even after the campaign is over—mentions from bloggers are evergreen content.

Smart watches and SEO

We're still in the Stone Age when it comes to wearable knowledge. For all the pleasure over Google Glass and the smartwatches rolling out from Samsung, Sony, and, inevitably, Apple, we're still far off from any of these belongings being the status quo of personal computing.
It is expected that we'll be adopting these more personal and streamlined means of accessing the Internet en masse over the next couple of years.



Smartwatches and Content Strategy

So if we accept that our near prospect is more "Dick Tracy" than "Videodrome", what do we do to ensure that we are creating the right kind of user experiences? Because if the average desktop website wasn't working well on smartphones, it's going to have even bigger challenges on smartwatch screens.

Faster acceptance of Server-Side Responsive Design

Responsive design has fixed on quickly as marketers begin to realize that multiple screens call for a more fluid and bendable approach to content delivery. However, responsive design in its strictest sense would involve sending a extra amount of data to a smartwatch which is why it is likely that we'll see a faster adoption of responsive design with server-side components (RESS).

Rising Adoption of Location and Proximity-Triggered connections

Early predictions from analysts posit smartwatches as "remote control" devices that will simply deliver filtered content from smartphones and tablets. No doubt this will be a big part of the value proposal but they are also likely to have extra, standalone uses.

Greater Acceptance of Brand/Consumer Messaging and Alerts

In fact, smart watches are very likely to altogether increase our dependence on alerts and bite-sized brand/consumer messages.
The smaller screens of these devices will make a desire for extremely succinct and efficient content because if our broadmindedness for extraneous and irrelevant content was limited on a Smartphone, it's going to be even more limited on these devices.

Growing reception of Opt-in Search Models

The limited screen size of smart phones is also apt to increase consumer acceptance of behaviorally and contextually-customized models of search such as Google Now.
The smaller our screens become, the less attempt we'll be expect to expend in searching for and gathering data – all the better if we can get our search criteria pre-filtered and proactively delivered.
Heavier reliance on voice search
If you thought fat finger syndrome was a problem on smart phones, just wait until your screen shrinks to 128x128 pixels.

Accelerated uptake of app content

Another effect of diminished screen size may be enlarged consumer appetite for content in native app form. The simplified, icon-oriented user interfaces of apps present greater ease of use than the more info-dense arrangement of mobile websites and hence, are likely to increase in appeal.

Smart watches and SEO

So we've recognized that smart watch content will probably look much special from that consumed on smart phones and tablets – more stripped down, preference-based and action-oriented with a greater reliance on alerts, apps, and voice input. But how this content gets found is likely to look quite different as well.
Based on our assumptions of what the content will look like, we can maybe make some fairly accurate predictions as to how the SEO best practices for smart watches will unfold.

Site Factors

Location-specific keywords are bound to increase in significance with smart watches; the fact that smaller screens call for more exactly targeted content practically ensures it since location is one of the foremost factors that influence real-time consumer behavior.

Special Factors

In fact, we may find that it's the consumer's position that's really the determining factor, not the brands. This is something we've previously started to see taking shape with products like Google Now.
Rather than the consumer receiving search results that are customized to reflect a brand's local presence, we're more likely to see permission-based, Google Now type models come out in which consumers specify what types of content they'll be looking for or be open to receiving in certain locations and under certain conditions.

Voice Factors

Clearly voice search is going to come into its own finally and smart watches will no doubt speed the process. As discussed in my last post on SEO for apps, we're likely to see development in optimization for natural language queries vs. keywords but in the near term, there will be an enlarged focus on well-optimized mobile web pages with an emphasis on local content as well as optimization for longer queries and more slang and colloquial terms.

Optimization for Apps, Feeds, Locations, and Alerts

The main change of all may be that search from smart watches is likely to be less listening carefully on website results in favor of more actionable, bite-sized pieces of content. Physical locations will clearly be a popular query but consumers will also be more apt to search for feeds, opt-in alerts, and apps.The lesson? You SEO strategy will need to expand far beyond the web page of even the mobile web page since your users are probably going to be searching for a different set of content in total.

Summary

It may seem like an generalization to say that the changes brought about by smart watches will be all about the screen size but it's all about the screen size. Less room for user input, steering and consumption will turn up the pressure on us all to simplify, then simplify again and that's not essentially a bad thing.

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Seven guidelines for Winning with SEO Website Design

One of most difficult aspects of building a site for the search engines is implementing proper SEO website design. 

”seo

On one hand, the aim is to create a website that wows visitors and is engaging. On the other hand, you want to make sure the site is correctly optimized. Design-heavy sites don’t always leave much room for on-page optimization, so it’s essential to find the right balance.

Here are seven helpful tips to make it work:

Tip 1: maintain the layout simple 

Make sure the navigation links can be followed by the search engines. Keep the layout easy and clean but packed with design. Trying to achieve too much can work for the search engine spiders but will ultimately discourage visitors from browsing your site.

Tip 2: influence text with CSS 

One of the biggest issues designers face is using plain text (such as the h1 tag) when graphical text is far more beautiful.
The solution is to use CSS to influence how plain text looks so the search engines will be able to pick up the content. It will never look good as graphical text, but it will be a huge improvement more than plain text.

Tip 3: Use mouse-over’s on images 

if the site is image-heavy and needs text, using mouse-over will be the ideal solution. If this is set up correctly, it can turn an image-heavy site into one that is full of content.
To the visitor’s eye, an image will mouse-over to written text. To the search engine spiders, the text will be crawl able and seen as real content.

Tip 4: test with different fonts 

there are many fonts that look like graphical text but are in fact regular text. This means that the search engines will be able to read the text. Try experimenting with different fonts and consider buying font packs. This will let you to avoid using images and keep your design simple.

Tip 5: make a mobile substitute and format it

more people are by mobile devices to browse the Internet.
That’s why it’s significant to build a site meant to be viewed in mobile format and optimize it for search engines. In addition to creating this site, it is necessary to test how it appears on different devices and platforms so it is formatted correctly.

Tip 6: Design is good but loading time is bad 

too much design can slow down the loading time of a site. When that happens, it’s time to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to decrease downloads. Many things can affect loading time from font downloads to plugins for SEO to high-resolution images to scripts.

Tip 7: Conversion is king 

Creating a well-designed site can give you a lot of pride. However, the one thing that matters most is conversion. Try out diverse designs and see which result in more action whether it is e-mail sign-ups, social media shares, or sales. After all, your sales numbers are what matter the most.

Finding the balance between optimization and great design isn’t always easy, but these solid tips will help you to win with SEO website design. There will be many times where it will be essential to go back and forth until all the technical problems are solved and the overall design is attractive.

Friday, September 20, 2013

The fact regarding SEO and Call Tracking

There has been a vast deal of talk about SEO and call tracking lately. Several local marketers have written articles decrying call tracking, saying that it hurts SEO. Other local marketing experts have written rebuttals, stating obviously that call tracking does not hurt SEO when it is deployed correctly.

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What is Call Tracking?

Call tracking is a way for online marketers to follow which sources, campaigns, and keywords generate phone calls. Hundreds of thousands of marketer’s crossways the U.S. and Canada use call tracking to close the loop on their marketing ROI calculations. Some of the biggest companies in the world use call tracking to calculate the effectiveness of their PPC campaigns, SEO pains, and retargeting. These companies value call data significantly. They spend a lot of money on it.

Marketing agencies also use call tracking. They use it as a way to show their worth to their clients. It is particularly popular among agencies that do PPC and SEO work.

What is the fact?

Call tracking, when used properly does not hurt SEO. That’s the truth. Even most eager call tracking opponents admit that.
The correct way to use call tracking is to use call tracking DNI. This doesn’t hurt SEO. We’ll discuss more about this afterward in the article.
The problem is that the call tracking industry has usually done a very poor job of educating marketers about what correct use of call tracking actually is.

Why Do Some Say Call Tracking Hurts SEO?

Because of NAP.
Google makes it very clear that Name Address and Phone number (NAP) have to be reliable across all online directories. Having unlike phone numbers in a ton of different places confuses Google’s algorithms and will hurt your SEO. This is why a few local marketers have written articles criticizing call tracking.

They’re right about one craze. Call tracking numbers should not be used in a range of directory listings across the web. That will hurt your SEO. This is common knowledge (or should be).
However, far too often articles offensive call tracking will lump all uses of call tracking (on-site Dynamic Number Insertion, primarily) together with erroneous use of call tracking in directories.
And, admittedly, some call tracking companies have not operated with care in this area. They have located call tracking numbers all over directories without worrying about the consequences for their clients. This is bad business and bad for the industry.

Ways to properly Use Call Tracking

One of the best articles regarding how to correctly use call tracking was written recently by the Minnesota Search Association. I STRONGLY recommend that you read this article. They lay out 5 exact ways to ensure that call tracking does not harm your SEO. At the risk of being recurring, I won’t go into the details and methods they discuss. But I will mention one more method that ensures call tracking is safe, Dynamic Number Insertion.
Both sides of the debate.

The bottom line is this: local marketers and call tracking companies need to deal with this nuanced issue in a nuanced way. If a call tracking business says that call tracking numbers NEVER hurt SEO, they are wrong. If a local marketer says that call tracking numbers ALWAYS or even MOSTLY hurt SEO, they are incorrect.
Using call tracking numbers on directories is bad. Using call tracking DNI on your site is good.

7 Ways to Get Content thoughts from the customer

Sales People

Your client’s sales people are perhaps the best source of content ideas you can get. From their sales pitches, which would include information their customers need in order to select on a purchase to the ideal customer profile and more, they have all the info you need.
Specifically, ask them for such in sequence as:

amazing content
•    customer profile – who you will be marks for
•    customer pain points – what problems does the client answer solves
•    how your client solves them
•    some details about product usage
Based on those you can rapidly come up with a lot of useful “how to” type posts covering everything their target audience needs to know more about.

Most Common Customer investigation

Sales people, as well as the customer service team can expose the most common questions and problems prospects and vacant customers inquire about. These can be a good motivation for anything from how to posts, video overviews up to full blown, inbound marketing campaigns.

Most exclusive Customer Inquiries

Don’t stop there though. Find out what are the most rare, original customer inquiries your client receives about their product or a service. Since these might be fairly individual queries, your client’s competitor might not even be aware of such content ideas.
Even those topics might have a low search volume; content covering them might still bring a number of highly capable traffic to the site as there is a chance for a very low competition in SERPs.

Social Mentions

Quite often what other people say online about your client or their product or service can offer you with great content ideas. From product usage ideas to problems it had solved, the possibilities for content are continual.

Product or Service Reviews

A product review, regardless of whether it’s good or bad, can give you vast ideas for content. In fact, rewriting Amazon reviews is one of the ways many content marketers use to make copy for their websites.
But rewriting reviews is one thing, paying attention to what reviewers say about the product, how they use it and what their opinions about it are can offer an limitless pool of content ideas.

Testimonials

Generating content from testimonials works in a very alike way to doing so from reviews, however, with one, small difference. Testimonials are usually more personal and expose more about the user as well. They tell to one persons experience not only with a product but with a brand also, and offer a good insight into your target audience.
With testimonials you can find out what type of words your audience uses and thus expects from you. You can also find out whom actual people using the product are and you can use them to build marketing personas to goal with your content.

Support Calls

Lastly, the support calls your client receives can provide a plethora or content ideas. Why? Because they can disclose the very problems customers face when using a product.
Naturally, you will not be able to tap in to those calls to examine them but even a quick chat or a questionnaire sent to the customer service team can reveal everything you need to know in that stare.

Conclusion

Creating content on behalf of someone is not easy, fact. Similarly, creating content for a number of clients can pose rather a lot of problems, from content ideas to style. Yet, what many content marketers regularly forget is that their clients can be a real pool of ideas for both. All you need to know is where to look for that information.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

7 Ways to Get Content thoughts from the customer

Sales People

Your client’s sales people are perhaps the best source of content ideas you can get. From their sales pitches, which would include information their customers need in order to select on a purchase to the ideal customer profile and more, they have all the info you need.
Specifically, ask them for such in sequence as:

amazing content
•    customer profile – who you will be marks for
•    customer pain points – what problems does the client answer solves
•    how your client solves them
•    some details about product usage
Based on those you can rapidly come up with a lot of useful “how to” type posts covering everything their target audience needs to know more about.

Most Common Customer investigation

Sales people, as well as the customer service team can expose the most common questions and problems prospects and vacant customers inquire about. These can be a good motivation for anything from how to posts, video overviews up to full blown, inbound marketing campaigns.

Most exclusive Customer Inquiries

Don’t stop there though. Find out what are the most rare, original customer inquiries your client receives about their product or a service. Since these might be fairly individual queries, your client’s competitor might not even be aware of such content ideas.
Even those topics might have a low search volume; content covering them might still bring a number of highly capable traffic to the site as there is a chance for a very low competition in SERPs.

Social Mentions

Quite often what other people say online about your client or their product or service can offer you with great content ideas. From product usage ideas to problems it had solved, the possibilities for content are continual.

Product or Service Reviews

A product review, regardless of whether it’s good or bad, can give you vast ideas for content. In fact, rewriting Amazon reviews is one of the ways many content marketers use to make copy for their websites.
But rewriting reviews is one thing, paying attention to what reviewers say about the product, how they use it and what their opinions about it are can offer an limitless pool of content ideas.

Testimonials

Generating content from testimonials works in a very alike way to doing so from reviews, however, with one, small difference. Testimonials are usually more personal and expose more about the user as well. They tell to one persons experience not only with a product but with a brand also, and offer a good insight into your target audience.
With testimonials you can find out what type of words your audience uses and thus expects from you. You can also find out whom actual people using the product are and you can use them to build marketing personas to goal with your content.

Support Calls

Lastly, the support calls your client receives can provide a plethora or content ideas. Why? Because they can disclose the very problems customers face when using a product.
Naturally, you will not be able to tap in to those calls to examine them but even a quick chat or a questionnaire sent to the customer service team can reveal everything you need to know in that stare.

Conclusion

Creating content on behalf of someone is not easy, fact. Similarly, creating content for a number of clients can pose rather a lot of problems, from content ideas to style. Yet, what many content marketers regularly forget is that their clients can be a real pool of ideas for both. All you need to know is where to look for that information.