End of Year Thoughts, Google Panda, Marketing Strategies

Posted by Cindy on Dec 19, 2011 in Blog | 21 comments

I just wrote all of our client’s a note on what to expect in 2012 as the Internet is ever changing and our marketing strategies have to always be dynamic and evolve.  Here’s a recap of what we will be doing for our client’s in 2012:

Great Article: “The New SEO” by Mark Nunney

Posted by Cindy on Nov 19, 2011 in Blog | 14 comments

Another great article that hits the nail on the head!  I shared with our client’s and it is incredibly important to monitor and watch your Brand and encourage customers to promote your brand!

THANKS Word Tracker for this article! http://www.wordtracker.com/academy/authors/mark-nunney

The New SEO

Posted by Mark Nunney on 12 November 2011

Although the use of keywords on website pages and in the anchor text of inbound links remains important for SEO, search engines are increasingly using a site’s branding, visitor behavior and social data. This is The New SEO, introduced here by Mark Nunney in an edited extract from his new book, SEO for Profit.

Google’s new Panda update has changed SEO and it appears to include user behavior and (possibly) branding data.

But even if they aren’t considered at all by Panda, these factors are considered by Google’s main algorithm.

So you must consider them in your SEO planning.

To become a leader in your niche’s SERPs you have to be a leading brand in your niche.

That’s branding.

To stay a leader, visitors from SERPs are going to have to like what they find on your site, probably stay on it and certainly not return to the SERP that brought them.

That’s user behavior.

Engagement – that’s comments, mentions, sharing and links from social media (Twitter, Facebook, G+, StumbleUpon, etc) – will increasingly be used to rank and verify ranking.

That’s social.

The old SEO factors of on-page optimization, site build and inbound links with target keywords in the anchor are still important.

But branding, behavior and social data now count too. And will likely count more in the future as search engines learn how to use them.

All this means the user experience is now at the heart of SEO.

This is the New SEO.

Branding

Google engineers say they don’t favor big brands.

But Eric Schmidt, Google chairman, and ex-CEO, seems to disagree. When talking about the “cesspool” (his description) that is the internet (ie, spammy results on Google), he says:

“Brands are the solution, not the problem”.

These two viewpoints are easily reconciled though. Google favors sites with a wide range of factors that big brands just happen to display. Factors like:

• Brand mentions, shares and links in social media.

• Brand mentions and links on highly trusted sites.

• Searches with brand and domain names.

It’s important to note that the definition of a big brand is relative to the keyword and the market it is part of.

So a big brand in a small market might not be a large company. But a big brand in a big market will be a large company (or a smart small one).

In practice, this means if you’re a small company it’s going to be hard to do well in a big market.

This is a bit like high rents keeping small shops out of the shopping mall.

Behavior

User behavior data is all the factors that Google can measure via its toolbar, search results pages (SERPs) and other data sources it might choose to use from its vast store of information. Factors like:

• Time spent on site when clicking through from a SERP.

• Bounce rate.

• Bounce rate back to a SERP.

• Use of the ‘block all results’ button on Google SERPs.

• Time on site.

• Return visits.

(About those other data sources I’ve mysteriously referred to: you might believe Google that it was an accident its Street View cars downloaded the web browsing data of the wifi signals they passed. But it wasn’t a coincidence because Google is dedicated to gathering as much information as possible about everyone.)

That Google uses toolbar data is now clearly documented. For evidence, read SEO veteran Mike Grehan:

“Andrew Tomkins, Engineering Director at Google and former Chief Scientist at Yahoo, made it quite clear at SES New York in 2008 that, in his opinion, whereas anchor text had always been the ‘workhorse’ of search, the strongest signal now comes from the toolbar.”

Also, when Panda 2.0 rolled out, Google publicly stated that user feedback signals were now being used. These signals can come from use of the ‘Block all results’ links which now appear next to search results if you quickly bounce back to them. See the example below:

Learn how to make sure your site delivers what searchers for your target keywords want in SEO for Profit (A Wordtracker Masterclass in SEO in the real world).

Social

All forms of engagement including comments, likes, tweets, +1s and mentions, either:

• Might be found by search engines and directly used in their algorithms; or

• Share your content with a person or website (it may be automated) that then might mention or link to your website in a way that is used directly in search engine algorithms.

Also, such engagement might also lead to repeat and new direct visits and response.

That social might work and work for SEO is clear. The question then becomes: is it significant? And the answer is: yes.

A simple piece of evidence to support that answer is that Facebook is now the most visited site in the USand therefore more popular in the US than Google.

It’s not hard to see why Google would like a piece of that social action.

Google and social

Social websites, especially Facebook and Twitter, are now serious competitors for Google’s audience and subsequent advertising revenue.

So Google has tried (but failed) to ‘do’ social eg, with Lively, Google Buzz, Orkut, Dodgeball, Google Wave and Google Me.

Google+ is its latest effort and this time it might succeed. We’ll see.

With +1 buttons, Google is trying to integrate social with search. If you visit a page or see a search result you like, Google wants you to click a +1 button (similar to Facebook’s ‘like’).

And Google explicitly states:

“+1s from friends and contacts can be a useful signal to Google when determining the relevance of your page to a user’s query.”

That means that if a searcher’s friend +1s a page it will move up the results when you search.

Exactly how and when +1s, Facebook likes and tweets will affect others’ results is not yet clear and will evolve. Whatever the answer …

Social is now part of search and therefore part of SEO.

Mark Nunney has been a successful professional SEO since 2000. He is CEO of The Website Marketing Company and he publishes Leadership & Management Review from ThinkingManagers.com, the business management website.

Mark wrote SEO for Profit, Wordtracker Masterclass: Keyword Research bookand co-wrote Wordtracker Masterclass: Link Building with Ken McGaffin. He also is also the founder and project manager of Wordtracker Strategizer .

You can follow Mark Nunney’s SEO on Twitter , LinkedIn and Google+ .

Nick Stamoulis Hits it on the Head! “7 Reasons Why a Business Blog is Valuable”

Posted by Cindy on Oct 20, 2011 in Blog | 18 comments

Thank Nick for this great article!  I keep telling my client’s this as they wonder why have a blog!  Had a conversation with a client today about this topic:

7 Reasons Why a Business Blog is Valuable

Writing by Nick Stamoulis,

I am a huge fan of blogging (obviously so, seeing as how I have been writing for this one for the last four years) for numerous reasons. Content marketing is one of the most critical components of any web marketing campaign because it can be leveraged across all mediums. A blog post isn’t limited to existing solely on that blog. It can be shared on social networking sites, submitted to social bookmarking sites, used to develop your company newsletter and more.

Still not convinced? Here are 7 reasons a company blog can be valuable:

1. Establish yourself as an industry authority
Customers want to purchase from/work with the best in the business. Routinely updating a company blog can help you build brand’s reputation as an industry expert and valuable resource.

2. Help educate your consumers
Having an educated target audience can make it much easier for you to promote your products/services. If potential customers have a firm understanding of your industry, it is easier to position your brand as the solution to their problem. You don’t have to explain as much general information in your messaging and can focus on more important topics.

3. Build your online brand presence
Individual blog posts can rank in the search engines like any page on your website. When optimized to include the most appropriate keywords, your blog can help your increase your brand presence in the SERP for the related long-tail keywords searches.

4. Humanize your brand
People like to do business with other people, not faceless corporations. When you attach an actual name to your blog (whether it be your CEO, VP of Marketing, etc), you are giving your company an actual persona. Having content written by a person and not “Company Name” means you can afford to throw a little style and personality into your posts.

5. Promote your products/services
A business blog should mainly be used to inform and educate, but a little self-promoting post every now and again is perfectly acceptable. Your business blog is the perfect place to announce new product launches or let your readers know about an upcoming tradeshow or conference you’ll be appearing at. Someone who reads your blog has already self-identified themselves as your target audience.

6. Respond to a crisis
When bad news breaks, companies don’t have the luxury of hiding out until it blows over or holding a press conference next week. The public expects a response and they expect it now. Silence is almost never the best option. A company blog is a good place to issue public statements and updates as a situation develops. You want to keep the lines of communication open and transparent.

7. Build links
A company blog can become part of your internal linking structure. Not only should you link relevant posts to each other, but you can also link different blog posts to pages of your website and vice-versa. This kind of horizontal linking can help spread link juice and increase the trust factor of some of your internal pages.

Local Listings, Link Building and Top Local Directories

Posted by Cindy on Sep 29, 2011 in Blog | 133 comments

Many of our clients have been asking for help in figuring out what sites and directories they should be listed on and if they should pay for the listings.  We have done some heavy duty research and have come up with a list of sites that fit our clients’ needs and some pricing guidelines.

The first step to local link building is to build profile listings on the Search Engines.  Google Places page, Yahoo Directory, and MSN Bing listings are a must!  The next step is to request customer reviews on certain sites.  BE WARNED however.  DO NOT post your own review of your business.  Only ask customers to review your business.  Many sites do background checks on where the reviews are coming from and WILL remove your listing if they feel the review is not done by a true customer.

Localized sites and review sites that are top of my list:

Google Maps/Places page.  Also Google Reviews-A MUST HAVE in order to rank higher in the search engines.  Point your customers there to place reviews!

Yelp – www.yelp.com

Yelp has the biggest review collection on the web; it reported exceeding 17 million reviews in April, and doubled its regular rate of reviews with about two million added just in the first quarter of this year. (http://searchengineland.com/yelp-crushed-citysearch-yahoo-why-google-stealing-yelps-playbook-78623).  Keep in mind that Yelp doesn’t like you to tell customers to review on Yelp, Yelp wants that to happen organically.

Yelp’s ad program is worth consideration as well.  If you want to rank at the top of Yelp listings you can pay for ads per impression under specific categories and the ad will also appear within the competitors’ listings.  Cost for ads is fairly economical and is based on categories and competition within that category.

Trip Advisor – http://www.tripadvisor.com/BusinessListings-t1#Features Hotels – build a profile here.  They allow you to upgrade your listing to a business listing based on how many rooms are on the property. You can manage your listing, reviews, add specials, and be in enhanced positioning for searches and mobile uses for Trip Advisor.  Trip Advisor provides you with all sorts of great tools to request reviews including code for emails and for your website.  They really want you to request reviews from customers.

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Foursquare- www.foursquare.com Social Media sites that people enjoy “checking into”  Be sure you have a profiles developed here!  You will need to post and monitor these daily!  Google + for Business is coming soon too. “65% of adults use social networking sites, and you should be present where they spend their time.” See this great White Paper on Social Media if you want to learn more:  http://www.hubspot.com/social-media-monitoring-in-10-minutes-ebook/?source=email-monitor-social-media-in-10-minutes-l-20110924

Merchant Circle – www.merchantcircle.com You can upgrade your account and enter blogs, specials and promote your business constantly with an upgraded listing.  I believe the listing price is $99 for the year.  They also have a neat social media platform that lets you reach out to other local businesses and make connections within MC.

City Search – www.citysearch.com

Kudzu – www.kudzu.com The enhanced listings with Kudzu are expensive, but I have heard from a few clients that it is worth the investment.

Insider Pages – www.insiderpages.com Get reviews from customers on this site after you fill out a profile.

Super Pages www.superpages.com approximate cost is 25 clicks for $99.00 per month.  Super Clicks program is $399 a month for high placements within Google and Yahoo per click.

CityGrid is another option, as well as YEXT, which partners with many of the sites mentioned above. YEXT will do the work for you in promoting your business within the site directories and enhance your listing or manage your pay per click program.  The only caution I have here is that you lose control over the listings and if you only want a few sites done, go direct.  I was told by one program above that going direct is better anyway for the listing position.  Hmmm…slow and steady rules again!

Another suggestion is to do a bit of your own research for directories that fit your target market, such as Auto Repair, Dental, Massage, Coffee, Restaurants, pull directories that fit your target market and look at getting listed!  There may be some really great directories you can tap into. Search engines look for relevancy right now so make sure you are listed on relevant sites!

I highly recommend this great research paper on Local SEO and How to Increase Awareness from HubSpot:  http://www.hubspot.com/How-To-Increase-Awareness-And-Generate-Leads-With-Local-SEO.  The article talks through some of the same information I have provided and also addresses posting on blogs and how to conduct Search Queries to find local directories.  Good stuff!

Blog Writing Input for Search Engine Optimization from WordPress

Posted by Cindy on Sep 21, 2011 in Blog | 198 comments

This SEO information comes from our friends at WordPress

http://codex.wordpress.org/Search_Engine_Optimization_for_WordPress

LuCorp Marketing uses many platforms and themes from WordPress for client websites and we are always happy with the SEO plug-in’s and accessibility of the platform for keyword integration.

Content Talks

Search engines can’t “see” a site. They can only “read” a site. Pretty does not talk to a search engine. What “talks” to a search engine are the words, the content, the material in your site that explains, shares, informs, educates, and babbles. Make sure you have quality word content for a search engine to examine and compare with all the parts and pieces to give you a good “score”.

Write Your Content with Searchers in Mind

How do you find information on the Internet? If you are writing something that you want to be “found” on the Internet, think about the words and phrases someone would use to find your information. Use them more than once as you write, but not in every sentence. Learn how search engines scan your content, evaluate it, and categorize it so you can help yourself get in good favor with search engines.  Use the Keywords that are on the website.

Content First

A search engine enters your site and, for the most part, ignores the style. It just plows through the site gathering content and information. Most WordPress Themes are designed with the content as close to the top of the unstyled page as possible, keeping sidebars and footers towards the bottom. Few search engines scan more than the first third of the page before moving on. Make sure your Theme puts the content near the top.

Keywords, Links, and Titles Meet Content

Search engines do not evaluate your site on how pretty it is, but they do evaluate the words and put them through a sifter, giving credit to certain words and combinations of words. Words found within your document are compared to words found within your links and titles. The more that match, the better your “score.”

Content in Links and Images

Your site may not have much text, mostly photographs and links, but you have places in which to add textual content. Search engines look for alt and title in link and image tags. While these have a bigger purpose of making your site more accessible, having good descriptions and words in these attributes helps provide more content for search engines to digest.

Good Navigation Links

A search engine crawls through your site, moving from page to page.  Be sure to add links back to specific pages within the website.  Link to the categories, archives, and various pages on your site will invite a search engine to move gracefully from one page to another, following the connecting links and visiting most of your site.

Read more here…..http://codex.wordpress.org/Search_Engine_Optimization_for_WordPress