Tag Archives: Search engine Optimization

Internet Marketing

Google places change again… (Yawn)

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Local SEO ExampleGoogle places has made some changes to what is displayed in your businesses Google places account.  Gone are the reviews from other than Google places users, although it will still show the links and number of reviews found on other review site (Yelp, Insider pages, and mores)

They also have removed the long studied (by local SEO firms) citations at the bottom of the page. Many bloggers are calling this a major blow to local SEO firms.  They base this on old and outdated local SEO tactic where a SEO would research the Citation sites found on the top ranked local maps competition and use those citations to get ranking for a client.  Frankly, that has not worked since fall of 2010. (Our estimate)

As we have been blogging about from time to time, Local SEO changed last October, when Google decided to mix both a sites organic rankings and Maps placement.  We had always used both Local directories as well as organic SEO to get our clients better Internet visibility, but for the “Local SEO” firms that where just using Local only tactics, the changes must have had a negative effect on client rankings.

So what do yesterdays changes mean to Local SEO?  Nothing. It’s still  the same premise.  Do great promotion and visibility programs for your site.  Don’t try to keep up with every change Google makes (it will drive you crazy),  just use sound marketing and promotion principles to get the right people to your site.

As this post is getting a great deal of attention and is ranked number 1 on Google for “Google places Changes”  I thought I should add some additional content that might be of use to someone interested in the subject.  I am assuming you are either a SEO or a business owner manager involved in the on-line promotion of your site?

Best current Local Maps (Google places) promotional tactics.

First, don’t fall in love with Maps.  Organic SEO on local intent SER can do as much if not more for you. Remember only 30%-60% of searchers are searching with a local intent term. The others are being served local sites because Google assumes they are looking for a local company.

Second.  Citations are dead. This is my opinion, but watching and assessing rankings for new clients seems to strongly suggest that  building the old Citation links and mentions is a complete waste of time. Only add your site to local directories that will actually bring you traffic!  Here is our YES list:  Yelp, Angie’s, local Better Business Bureau, and your chamber.  Also any niche directory’s with less than 10 0r 15 listings can be very valuable.  Don’t pay for listings!

Third. In the beginning your physical address has as much to do with your local ranking as anything. The address of your company and its proximity to what Google considers “city center” is a huge factor. Also, make sure your address(s) are displayed on your home page and contact page. As your site gains better trust and SEOmoz page authority your physical address will become less of a factor. Make sure Google knows what cities you service by using your Google places account, and mention this on your site.

Fourth. Using SEOmoz page authority as your guiding light is the best method for improving your rankings on Maps and organic. Combine the other tactics I am talking about with high quality back linking and content is the only way to improve your rankings that I see consistently work.

Fifth. Link’s and mentions from other local site’s are highly respected with Google.  Get your associates to mention you on their sites. Sponsor a local charities page, write real reviews of your local vendors that they can post on their site (include your Company Name Address and Phone, as well as your www if they will do that.

Eight.  Domain names matter. So do Company names. Yes, I understand that if you have been in business 10 years you can not change your name,  domain and address. Or can you?  If it’s a new campaign, go ahead and start with a keyword based domain name.

Nine. No follow links are good.  You hear a lot that no follow links pass no link juice (or whatever).  The point is to get your site promoted, so if a site is no follow, but can bring you good traffic, use it!  Twitter, Face book, most wordpress blogs are no follow, but have great traffic and, do you really thing Google is just blindly following the instructions of the site owner for what link is trustworthy and what link is not? Please.

Ten.  If you are going to work on your sites ranking and visibility, you are going to need to put in the time to do it. Figure an hour a day for 3 months. That’s 60 hours of sometimes productive, and many times non productive time, some one has to invest.

And then the golden rule: No one thing is going to put you in the top of a Google Places  search. I think you would agree, that all of the tactics I talk about are just good old fashion P.R. and promotion. Use this mind set… the P.R. mind set, what can I do to get my site (businesses/services) seen and noticed by the largest group of prospects possible.  And once I am noticed, what is it they are going to experience?

Putting all this work into a poorly developed site is a pretty big mistake, I had three restaurants I owned years ago and did a BIG radio promotion selling any thing on the menu for .79 cents on a Saturday morning. It was a disaster of course, we had a line out the door, and ran out of half our items. Service was slow, and the product went out lousy.  Not only did the promotion not work, it hurt us!

As in life, as in SEO ” above all, do no harm”

The best SEO advice?  Build content your prospects want to see.

If you are interested in doing your own SEO, or are a SEO looking for a little help, you may want to check out our web optimizer club

 

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Internet Marketing, SEO Analysis Denver

White Hat SEO in Denver

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As a company that works on web popularity and marketing programs for businesses in Denver a lot, part of that is seeing what tactics  other SEO companies use to get rankings for their clients.

SEO in Denver is a relatively small field, so if you are around long enough you have the opportunity to see the process and work of many of the leading companies.

One tactic that is used often by several is the production of additional web sites in addition to the primary web site of a client. As an example, of you business is a handyman service, an seo might suggest the normal process of working with your main site, and then add 4 additional sites with the words handyman _____

and add a city name to the city term.

Lot’s of good SEO thought process here, and some might call it black hat or at least gray.  AS a comparison other SEO’s use blogs they clearly produced and optimized that frankly have little or no value besides the SEO value.

We think the multiple web site tactic is white hat.  Why wouldn’t you want your business as visible as possible?  If the Internet was a Interstate highway, your web site is a billboard. Of course you would want as many billboards as you could put up.

BUT,  Using the same content on different sites is a no no. This is where marketing and SEO have to work together.  In a Marketing sense, if you are being seen by a different audience than your main site duplicate content wouldn’t matter. (It’s like running an advertisement in two different magazines).  Google however hates duplicate content and has no ability to discern logically if the content is intended and delivered to different audiences.

Just another example of how small business owners can get into ranking trouble, even when their intent is honest.

See more about our search engine optimization

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Internet Marketing, 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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Internet Marketing, 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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Internet Marketing

SEO Tips Denver CO.

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SEO Tips in Denver

SEO tips for Denver Colorado web master s and business owners.

Recently Matt Cutts, the voice of Google for SEO , has been talking a bunch about the recent Panda changes at Google.  Here is what all this comes down to for SEO  and business owners.  Google says if someone will “book m,rk” your site, your in good shape for better rankings,  and then they add a hundred other things.  But, to me,  if we can focus on just that one aspect, the rest will fall in line quickly.

Here are some tips to get you thinking about why someone would book mark your site:

  • Calculators.  Useful information. How much will they save, spend, or what ever, for your service
  • Cartoons.  I know, odd, but a well done funny cartoon can get a lot of attention
  • Pictures of customers.  Good pictures will bring your customers back and they will tell there friends
  • Forums. Information with good interaction on your industry can bring lots of attention
  • Q  and A.  A well thought out Q.A. about important items in your industry
  • Videos  of ________.  How are process works, who are customers are, how we got started.
  • Tips.  Good tips they can not find somewhere else
  • DIY. Why not!  This can be very helpful
  • Contests. A good old fashion contest!

You don’t have to spend a ton of time linking other sites to yours if your site naturally attracts visitors through interesting and unique content.

Let us know what ideas work for you.

 

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Internet Marketing

Denver B.B.B. Fibs about it’s S.E.O. (search engine optimization) value.

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Better Business Bureau logo.
Image via Wikipedia

~~Up date April 2015.  Just spoke to a client who had a call from the local B.B.B. Sales representative who, just like in 2013 when we originally wrote about the Better Business Bureau claiming that the one simple act of joining their service and adding your web site link to your new B.B.B. listing will significantly increase your Google rankings. It’s not true.  Very few if any single site links will make a significant change in your web site rankings, and the link the B.B.B. provides certainly isn’t one of those.

You would think that an organization based on trust would employ better standards in their sales organization…. ~~~

If you read this blog you know that we encourage business owners to use their association memberships for getting more Internet traffic, and boasting their sites popularity.

We just had a call from a better business bureau sales rep, who said, and I quote, “the membership is probably worth the money just in it’s SEO value alone”. Sounds like the BBB is jumping on the SEO band wagon. I hope Google doesn’t penalize them for selling links with this approach!

The reason to join any business association should be the value it brings to your business in the areas of education, promotion, and credibility. If it helps your Internet popularity as a result, that’s a bonus.

We recommend A BBB membership to most of our clients who sell to consumers. It’s a important “trust” factor. But buying it for SEO only doesn’t make all that much sense.

You can read more about whats happening in Local SEO on this blog .

 

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Sales and SEO

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How do Sales and SEO relate to each other?

And why would a company offer both Search engine optimization services and Sales programs?  Because, sales professionals and small business owners can spend up to 80% of their sales effort on generating leads.  And SEO is a very good way to reduce the dollars and time spent finding prospects.  The best thing a business can do to increase sales numbers, is increase the number of leads coming in.  That means more time is spent in front of a prospect instead of finding them. Then they can go to work on converting more leads into customers.

So,  in our sales programs the first thing we look at is how to generate more and better leads (unless a company has plenty of leads) .  SEO and pay per click (until the Internet Marketing kicks in) can provide a great start in this process.

That’s how we as a company got involved in search engine optimization, through developing sales leads and process. The very same reason many of you as business owners are looking at SEO. We think this gives us a unique view of Internet Marketing that can help you achieve your sales goals. We don’t view SEO or web popularity (as we like to call it) programs as stand alone systems. It needs to be part of your larger sales and service plans.

Feel free to view our sales programs on our site and check out the client comments as well.

 

 

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Internet Marketing, 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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