Category Archives: Denver SEO

The New SEO Citations

The New Citations for SEO.  Or how SEO is changing

We think the new rankings algorithm is based on Supervised Learning and raw statistical analysis that Google uses. The change is probably simple, and frankly very logical.  I have two blogs listed at the end of this article you can read for more and better detailed information.

Google Chrome
Google Chrome (Photo credit: thms.nl)

Before the panda and penguin updates at Google It was too easy to use on site tactics ( Keywords and H1 Tags and meta titles) to influence rankings.

Google is now moving too, and undoubtedly is using more off site context, and content to determine what your site should rank for.  To do that they probably  look at all the “citations” (mentions) for your site, in what ever format they appear, and have a raw statistical analysis of the relevancy, and then the context.

The results would be very much in line with what we have seen with the Panda and Penguin updates and algorithm changes.  If your site
has been listed in a bunch of directories that have SEO or Rankings in the titles then Google starts with this:

You say your site is about Insurance.

Sites about or related to Insurance that you are listed on or mentioned:  3
Sites not about Insurance or related topics you are listed on:  200

You get credit for the three, and how much credit would depend on the Authority of the page and site you are listed on.

One of the interesting consequences of all this is the no follow or follow link value disappears.  As many “citations” may not have a link to your site.

Statistical analysis of the COM:QIC archives
So, in summary:

  • A Citation or link is only going to help you if it comes from a site or page that Google see’s as relevant to your site.That’s one reason your rankings dropped off the face of the earth if you where primarily using non relevant sites.

Words matter. Google probably (using raw statistical analysis) looks at what a relevant page citation says about your site, or the content about your site on that page.  ( Co-citation’s and such)

  • Follow or not, a high authority site citation with a link or without is still good for your sites Authority, and ranking.

 

  • On site signals continue to be important, but they only point  Google in a direction to determine your sites Authority theywon’t help your ranking on their own.

Interesting example.

We recently built a 2 page site about a specific remodeling type project. We wanted to test the exact match domain changes. The site
url is (Project Type) in (City).
We added it to 4 or 5 sites that were related directly to Remodeling.  We may have tweeted it, and added it to a facebook comment.

Two months later it was ranked number 1 for that very specific keyword, and on the first page for that keyword phrase in different form. It was (and is) ranking higher than several sites that have been around for a long time and had SEO companies working on for years (at least to an extent).

We originally thought the the exact match domain for local sites was still a very important ranking factor and it was that simple. Now, I think  if we had back linked the same 2 page site to 4 or 5 unrelated directories… or sites, that it would have never been ranked. Well, only one way to find out. Check back in a few months. We will give you an up date.

All of this is admittedly a very simplistic view of the new Google ranking changes. There are many other important factors. Our point is to communicate that many of the old SEO tactics don’t work any more, and why. For us, it’s all good news, as we have followed the
“act as if Google doesn’t exist” principle in SEO for years (to the extent any Internet marketing company like My One Call LLC can).
Our clients didn’t see any rankings drop over the last 6 months based on these new changes.

For far more detail read Joshua Giardino’s excellent blog here :http://blog.iacquire.com/2012/11/28/its-not-co-citation-but-its-still-awesome/

I also mentioned the SEOmoz blog on Co-citations on an early blog.  http://www.seomoz.org/blog/prediction-anchor-text-is-dying-and-will-be-replaced-by-cocitation-whiteboard-friday .

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By Mike Bayes

Co-Citations. Better than Title Tags

In the new world of SEO, changes are happening at a break neck speed.

The Citation article, with no citations.
The Citation article, with no citations. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The latest (and most interesting) chatter is about co-citation as a new ranking factor. You can see the whiteboard presentation by Rand Fishkin at http://www.seomoz.org/blog/prediction-anchor-text-is-dying-and-will-be-replaced-by-cocitation-whiteboard-friday

We have noticed a clear change in local rankings (not just Google Places but blended and organic rankings) based on Title Tag usage. Because I am in a hurry (Thanksgiving tomorrow and all) let me just say your title tags may have diminished in value, and in fact may be hurting a sites ranking if they are spammy. They need to be looked at in concert with your URL descriptions and page copy.  To much is to much.  Those with ears will hear.

Now, Rand makes the point that c0-citation is a new and important ranking factor, somewhat like what title tags were.  I agree.  After looking at over 100 high ranking sites and the terms ( which have been bouncing around in the last 30 days a lot) I am convinced that co-citation is part of the now, and future.

Rand Fishkin gets Employee love... Uh.. Kiss?
Rand Fishkin gets Employee love… Uh.. Kiss? (Photo credit: Thos003)

So how can you start implementing co-citation in your web promotion. The good news is its a very natural occurrence. In a simple explanation, a co-citation lists a company’s name, and a service next to it.  So, My One Call LLC is a Denver SEO, written in text on a decent authority web site can become a co citation. No need for a link, or spammy Anchor text. ( You can see my personal feelings about Anchor Text being a silly SEO tactic in other blogs on this site).

So using a co-citation in your bio’s and descriptions on forums, blogs, and high value directories is a much better tactic than using Anchor text.

Feel free to email me if you see these correlations in any of your rankings info@myonecall.com…. and thanks to the SEOmoz group for doing a superior job.

For those of you who don’t know, SEOmoz develops SEO Software, and provides a robust link intelligence API.  I wonder if that is a tri-citation?

 

 

 

 

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Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Pay a Good SEO Company

Top 10 reasons Why You Should Pay a Good SEO Company

  1. Your prospects use the internet to find your services.
  1. Your Revenues come from one or two primary sources, and the Internet isn’t one of them.
  1. You have tried to get your site more visible on your own, but it’s not.
  1. You have tried Pay Per Click and it didn’t work.
  1. You have used a SEO company and never saw real results.
  1. You would like new prospects to call you every day.
  1. Your site was built by a friend of your sister who now has gone into real estate and doesn’t have time to make changes, but you think it’s a pretty good site.
  1. You don’t have 16 hours a week to keep up on the latest SEO news, research, and changes.
  1. You hate to work on a computer.
  1. Because you didn’t build your own house or car right?English: seo company 

Reasons your shouldn’t hire a SEO Company

  • They promise you first position rankings
  • They are very inexpensive
  • They sent you a very impressive email sales pitch
  • Your sisters company used them for “Locksmith for your home in Garden City” and they are now in the 5th position under that keyword.
  • Your prospects do not find your services on line.
  • They talk about really complicated Internet stuff and seem to understand the Interweb really well.
  • They know secret Google information because they worked there 5 years ago as an Intern.
  • They know secret SEO tricks they won’t tell you. (There are no SEO tricks BTW)
  • They have no references in your industry.
  • They can not produce 5 references from the last 12 months.
  • They won’t tell you who they have worked for based on client privacy. (Huh?)

What you are paying for when you hire an SEO.

NEW YORK, NY - MAY 17: Chelsea Rising watches ...
NEW YORK, NY – MAY 17: and  Clear Vision into SEO (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)


  • Years of experience.
  • Constant research into changes in SEO.
  • A clear and proven understanding of White Hat SEO.
  • A long track record which recent success in generating revenue through the Internet.
  • Transparency and reporting.
  • A complete understanding of on site SEO, Social media as it relates to promoting your site, conversion tactics on your site, content generation, your link profile, and high authority site attraction.

What you shouldn’t pay for when you hire an SEO

NEW YORK, NY - MAY 17:  People attend  the 5th...
NEW YORK, NY – MAY 17: People attend the 5th annual Internet Week. Are you taking Notes?


  • Submitting your site to a bunch of directories every month.
  • Writing poorly written articles and spinning them on a bunch of Article sites.
  • A secret sauce.

Search Engine Optimization has changed more in the last year than in the history of the service. The proof that a SEO is worth its fee is if their clients have not suffered in the last year, and if it was local SEO, since April 2012.

Ask them for references from 3 similar industry clients who have used them for several years, and 3 that have started with them since April. Call those references and look for them on line.

Our company, My One Call llc provides internet visibility marketing for Attorneys, CPA’s, Residential Contractors, Home Improvement Companies, Publishing Company’s, On Line E Commerce sites, Professional services, and many more.  We often get called in after a business has spent far too much money on sub standard SEO services.  Using the above guidelines will save you money, and get you to the right Internet Marketing company quicker.

Call us if we can help. 303 500 3053.

 

 

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How To Choose A SEO Company

Unicorn Display’s and How to Choose an SEO company.

( Quick Note on reading this Blog. When you see the word really, that thought is really important.)

Choosing a search engine optimization company isn’t all the different than selecting a contractor to build your home addition.

Let’s say you want to build a new 1000 square foot home addition for your rare collection of pictures of your favorite breed of unicorn. ( we all have our favorites). Because you have a specific purpose, you will have some ideas on the design.  A space for displaying pictures of unicorns is going to look and feel different than building an exercise room (something I would know nothing about).

Cover of "Unicorns (Troubador Color and S...

So, the first step is going to be to find a contractor who has:

  • Experience in building home additions in your area.
  • Even better if they have in fact built an addition to display rare pictures of actual Unicorns in the past.
  • Has excellent and current references. The current part is very important. Building codes change, and a companies performance will change over time as well. You don’t want to see references from last year.
  • Is not the cheapest. Let’s face it; this is a pretty complication and specialized area. You don’t want someone faking it as they build your space.  Of all the horror stories you have heard about hiring contractors, I would wager the vast majority started out with the purchaser choosing the lowest price. Same goes for SEO.  Really. Don’t trust me? Let me know how that $49.00 a month program works for you.  Really.
    BELIZE CITY, BELIZE - MARCH 02:  Prince Harry ...
    BELIZE CITY, BELIZE – MARCH 02: Prince Harry greets Governor General Sir Coleville Young as he arrives at Philip Goldson International Airport on March 2, 2012 in Belize City, Belize. The Prince is visiting Belize as part of a Diamond Jubilee tour where he will be visiting Belize, the Bahamas, Jamaica and Brazil as a representative of Queen Elizabeth II. Belize is a Commonwealth realm with a population of around 350,000 and boasts the second longest barrier reef in the world. With much of the country covered in tropical jungle and a diversity of wildlife, Belize relies heavily on tourism. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

     

  • Communication with the contractor during the proposal process. You are going to live with these people for a few months at least. View it as if you were dating this company. At the end of the relationship you want to say it was beautiful… and fulfilling and really meant something good. You don’t want nor need an ugly break up.  It’s all about communication and chemistry.  If it’s not there in the proposal process it won’t be there in the building process. Make sure you speak with the actual person who will be the “lead” on the project, not the sales representative.

Okay… so you see the correlation? Of course you do.  I am talking correlation not causation here. (SEO joke).

Pick an SEO who has experience in YOUR type business. If you are an Attorney, you want an SEO who has proven results with… Attorneys.  Just because they got your brother in laws restaurant rated number two on Google Plus for business (places) for Belizean family restaurants in Greeley Colorado, does not mean they will have any clue how to help a law firm.  Now.. if you own a Belizean family restaurant…  you are on the right path!

Pick an SEO with Current references. Really.  SEO changes from nanosecond to nanosecond (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanosecond ) . Last years rankings and results don’t mean much. What does is the last 6 months of programs. Really. Ask for the clients they are working with currently and started less than 7 months ago.  Oh…  and call them.  Really. Call them.

If the price seems really low, check those references again.

And, make sure you feel completely comfortable with their style of communication. Let’s face it, the last thing you need is a failure to communicate. Remember what happened to cool hand Luke? Me either, but that is where that line came from…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Checking Your Competitors Backlinks

Checking Your Competitors Backlinks.

Many in the SEO field use the common practice of checking on their competitors backlinks, and then adding their clients to the web pages they find that are available.

Search Engine Optimisation. Search Engine Opti...
Search Engine Optimisation. Search Engine Optimization (Photo credit: Hobo!)

I would call that, by itself, a pretty big waste of time. So much has changed with Google over the last 12 months that many of the back links you are looking at have no value, or may even hurt your rankings with the new changes. A site that has been around 10 years and has a massive amount of backlinks has very little value to you, or anyone trying to grow their internet visibility, unless… you are looking at every site you see a back link on and doing a complete assessment to see if that page makes sense to add YOUR site to it.  The only reason to add your site to a page is ____________________ .  <<<<<Fill in the blank.

  • If you said to help your SEO and improve your rankings, well, you are in trouble.
  • If you said because that page and site will bring you more and better traffic.  You get an A
  • If you said because being a part of that pages community will help your brand and increase your visibility to the market, you get another A

With the recent changes it’s more important than ever to implement SEO programs with the right intent. If you work as if Google didn’t exist, you are probably on the right track.

Here are the basic tips we are giving about the recent changes from Google and what to do now.

Content.  Add lots of good content. Blog on your site

Become part of several highly respected on-line communities. Participate often and with quality.

Stop reading about linking strategies.  Stop reading any SEO “experts” information that isn’t highly respected and hasn’t been around at least 6 years.  Stop all the ranking checks and searches you are doing to find your rankings.  Take all that saved time and write and produce great content.

Let us know how we can help.

Mike

http://wwwsalesjumpstart.net

303 500 3053 Ext 1

 

 

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Local Search Engine Optimization Changes

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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Should you add no follow links for your site?

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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SEO in Denver Tips

Panorama of downtown Denver, circa 2007, looki...
Image via Wikipedia

SEO in Denver Tips

 

I am preparing for a webinar were I will be helping some of an ActionCoaches clients to understand how to do SEO and get better internet visibility on their sites. Part of this process is reading through some of my SEO tips on this blog.  I thought I would share the blogs that are of most importance and why:

salesjumpstart.net/blog/2011/03/13/google-places-citations/

This tells you some of the better sites you should link your site to.

salesjumpstart.net/blog/2011/03/09/search-engine-optimization-denver-tips/

More information on how to research linking opportunities for your site

salesjumpstart.net/blog/2011/03/05/seo-and-twitter-in-denver/

How twitter may affect your rankings on a blog.

salesjumpstart.net/blog/2011/02/28/search-engine-optimization-in-denver/

How A BBB link or association links can help your site.

salesjumpstart.net/blog/2011/03/01/importance-of-google-places-reviews/

The importance on getting On-line reviews on Google places.

If you spend 15 minutes reading those blogs you will have a great start on your sites Internet Visibility program.

Don’t forget to start by listing your site on Google places, Yahoo local and Bing Local!


 

 

Social Media Search Engine Optimization Page

So here is the concept. One page on a site that your clients, prospects and friends can find all the places you are on the Internet.

Yes, I know they can see all your Icons on your site. But here is the difference, with a Social Media page, dedicated on a site with nothing but Social media pages, you and other business owners can return the favor by getting an email that they have liked, followed , or reviewed your company and going and doing the same for them.

Here is a concept page. What do you think?

Denver SEO Success Story

Search Engine Optimisation. Search Engine Opti...
Image by Hobo! via Flickr

Denver SEO Success Story

I just got off the phone with one of our Denver SEO clients.  It’s  a business coach who we have been working on their Denver SEO for about a month.

She shared with me that she had just signed up a new client based solely on her ranking under Denver Business Coach on Google. That was the keyword phrase we started with to get her company more visible.

That one client will pay for the optimization program 10 times over. And that’s just the start.

We did Denver SEO for a linen rental company late last year (2010)  and the owner told me he gets about two new clients a month from the Google listing.

Each client bills over $12,000  a year.  So, at that rate he would have an additional 24 clients a year billing $288,000.00  in annual gross billing just based on his SEO program.  I may have to go to a percentage of sales on these Denver SEO programs!  😉

That’s why I really love SEO.  When done correctly, it’s the best R.O.I. a company can have in advertising.

See more on our site

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