Category Archives: SEO Analysis Denver

Denver SEO, Internet Marketing, SEO, SEO Analysis Denver

Local Search Engine Optimization Changes

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SEO in Denver ClientRecently there has been a great deal of discussion on the SEO forum’s and professional sites about how the Google Map rankings are changing.

We have been watching it very closely, and in a nut shell, the big difference between how you places account was ranked last year, and how they seem to get ranked this year is this:

Google places rankings now are based more on organic SEO  than maps criteria. There are two elements that remain important that were and are unique to Places. First, and I know this sounds  like I don’t have to say it, but you need to list your company in Google places if you are not there now, and fill out the profile with good categories.  Two, the address of your business as it relates to the city center still is important.

After that, We use to add a bunch of known citation sites. Most of those don’t even show up as a citation any more, and many don’t even show up as a link.  I wouldn’t forget citations, but I would down grade their importance a bunch.

Now it’s all about standard organic optimization.  Get your home page up to speed (easy)  and then add quality content to your site, and then add links from quality popular sites.

The best way we have found to determine how strong your site is (from an SEO prospective) is to use the free tool bar from www.seomoz.com If some or all of this is above your head, but you want to learn, SEOmoz is a great resource, as is SEO book  and Majestic SEO.

Once you have it downloaded it will give you a Page Authority rank for any page you are on.  It’s called PA  and you need to see how the sites that are ranking above you ranked on PA, and then look at yours.

Many sites that have had very little attention will be around a 10 PA.  In most local categories you will need a 25 to 40  PA for your site to get on the front page.  You can learn how to add ranking to your site at any of the sites I listed above.  I use the rule of thumb that you will need 10 hours SEO to get from 20-30, and 40 hours more to move from 30 to 40.  If you follow with that logic you are looking at 120-160 hours to move from 40 to 50. And of course, if you are a beginner Triple the time, as you will  be learning as you go.

Most SEO companies charge at least $100  to $150. an hour.  If you do the math, you can then decide if SEO is  viable  option for your business.  We have other options as well, including SEO management consulting, where we work with your employee to work through an SEO program.  And we do the complete SEO programs for you as well.

If your interested in Doing your own SEO work, you may want to look at joining our Web Optimizers club. It makes your life easier

 

 

 

 

 

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Denver SEO, Internet Marketing, SEO, SEO Analysis Denver

Face Book Shares and SEO

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The conversation continues in the SEO circles concerning how facebook shares effect a sites ranking.

In a recent blog on SEOmoz , Matt Peters goes into great detail to test the relationship between a web sites number of face book shares and it’s ranking. You can read it here

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/does-google-use-facebook-shares-to-influence-search-rankings

For those of us who do not possess a degree in advanced mathmatic’s, it comes down to this.  If a Site get’s a lot of shares, it’s because the page or site is interesting. Interesting web sites get lot’s of attention, and getting a lot of attention brings better rankings.

So once again, the best tactic to bring up your search engine rankings is to be interesting, and be clear.  Some of the better rated sites we have developed or worked on do not have contest pages, or cartoons, or tips. What they do have is very clear information about what the visitor came to the site to get.

This is very good news for the small and medium business owner who doesn’t have the budget or time to put together a multimedia extravaganza produced by the top marketing minds in the Industry.  All we need to do is be very clear and informative on what our audience wants.

The mistakes we see are trying to be to many things to to many people on a page or site. If you sell both Carpet and Tile, you have two different audiences that over lap.  Better to have very two different  sections on your site.  Be clear and communicate one message at a time.

Think through what a person wants when they come to your page. They want to trust you, they want to know what you sell (brands and styles) they want to know your where you stand on pricing, and they want to know that you are popular.  You can get all that in the fold.

The best bounce rate we see on client sites is one of the most simple sites in it’s category. Highly ranked, and a 4% to 12% bounce. It’s simple, clear, and attracts the right people because of those elements.

 

 

 

 

 

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Denver SEO, Internet Marketing, SEO, SEO Analysis Denver

Google Citation and Links DEnver

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Interesting Changes in Citations and Links this year.

Last year, as a matter of practice , when we did on line visibility programs for clients we added directory links to many of the major on line directories, yellow pages, and other local web sites.  We would then track the traffic from each (as part of the analytics) and quality scoring. Part of that was watching the back links report to see when the listing, citation or link was “indexed”.

We do much more than just this process during on line visibility programs, so we have a very rounded profile to drive traffic to a clients site.

The interesting thing is,  most of the local directory and y.p sites are no longer showing up as links, or as indexed, and the traffic to a clients site from these sources is way down

 

Here is an example.  Hot Frog has traditional been a good citation site and gets a lot of traffic.  But sine January, we have not seen a clients listing appear as a link to there site, and traffic is almost non existent.

This listing has been live for almost three months. No sign of it any where on Google Web Master, SEOmoz reports and any other reports we use.

I could add 10 more examples here.  But the point being, has the search world stopped recognizing this directory listings?  And if so how valuable are they to driving traffic to a site.

Let me know what you have seen.

 

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Denver SEO, Internet Marketing, SEO, SEO Analysis Denver

Bing and Yahoo now 30% of Search Engine Traffic

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For businesses in Denver and throughout Colorado, who are interested in promoting their services utilizing the Internet, this weeks news that Bing + Yahoo is now over 30% of searches should not go ignored.

The Bing Yahoo combo picked up over 6% while Google fell 3% in Search traffic. These are big numbers, but they still represent the “gross” numbers. We will be watching to see if we can get more industry specific statistics. It should be noted that on a very small scale we have seen Bing searches (Clicks)  pick up in the home improvement area last month, but, far to little data to make a definitive statement.

What to do?  Check your Bing SEO rankings.  Make sure you read information (specific) on Bing optimization.  Make sure you use the Bing web master tools, and have your local company listed in Bings local program.

If you are using Google exclusively for pay per click it may be time to divide the budget and spend 30%  with Bing- Yahoo.  Or add 30% and use them.

We will follow up with a few specific tips on SEO on Bing for Denver and Colorado Businesses over the next few weeks.

 

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Denver SEO, SEO, SEO Analysis Denver

Should you add no follow links for your site?

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Yes. And here is why you should not discount no follow links.

Rand Fishkin,  Founder of SEOmoz just did a great blog on early ranking factors data after his companies April Linkscape update.

One of his interesting points during the session was that many SEO’s are using more no follow links, and that they are seeing better value in them.

I have agreed with that for years. And here is why. A link profile that has a nice mix of Follow and no Follow is more natural.  Google likes natural.

Not only that,  but as Rand made this point in the presentation, alot of really trusted sites and high value sites use no follow. Face book, twitter, wordpress… the list goes on and on. I don’t think google really pays as much attention to the no follow tag as many people think they do. Why would they. Works to their advantage if we think they do, as they then have a metric that is pretty easy to identify sites building an unnatural linking profile using an unnatural amount or percentage of follow links.

So, I go back to were I always seem to go with Links. Add links that you would add without considering how they will effect your site rankings, and you will end up in good shape. SEO is not search engine manipulation. It is solid marketing and promotion for your web site.

 

You can see the blog here

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Denver SEO, SEO, SEO Analysis Denver

SEO and Twitter in Denver

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Denver skyline at sunset, from the southwest
Image via Wikipedia

SEO in Denver:

A client recently posted a blog on Denver data backup services, and that was the title.  It landed on the first page of Google that day, in the 7th position.

Today that same blog is in the first position, and the only difference I can see, is two people have used the url in a tweet. hmmmm.

So,  does using the url and basic title in a tweet really jump start your individual blogs ranking on Google? Is this something new with the new Google social media changes a few weeks ago?

I’ll let you know what I find, and let us know what you know.

 

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Denver SEO, SEO, SEO Analysis Denver

Denver SEO Analysis

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Denver SEO Analysis.

We get asked what should be included in an SEO analysis. The first thing is to understand that their are three large buckets to getting good rankings in Google and other search engines.

The first is your “on Site” SEO.  A good SEO company will do a fairly detailed report on how search engines view your site, and make suggestions on changes to improve it. Those will include your navigation strategy, Your page load times,  your graphics, your copy, your page names, your page name structures,  and other meta tag details.

The second bucket a good Denver SEO company will look at your current back links. How many, how trust worthy, how relevant, and their over all strength.

And the third bucket will be how competitive your keywords are. In other words, how strong are the sites that all ready rank highly for the keywords you want to rank highly for.No way of understanding how much work they will need to do unless they (and you) know what they are competing for.

On a local basis I would also add a fourth bucket. That being your listing in Google places , Yahoo and Bing local.

So if you get a Denver SEO Analysis done,  make sure they give you all the information above.  And as always ask for 3 recent references. The world of search engine optimization changes quickly, so a reference from more than 6 months ago isn’t very important.

Most SEO companies offer a free analysis, just make sure it is not only free, but also is  good.

You can see more about our SEO services in Denver here

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