SEO the Search

SEOmoz Reports that Search Engines Pay Attention to Social Media

2010-12-08T19:41:00.000-08:00

SEOmoz is reporting that search engine giants Google and Bing confirm that social media sites like Twitter and Facebook influence Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEOmoz cited an interview with Danny Sullivan, that links shared through status updates on social media sites have a direct impact on the search engine rankings. Danny Sullivan is the editor of Search Engine Land. He’s a widely cited authority on search engines and search marketing issues since the mid 1990s.

Many of those in search engine optimization and web marketing believed that social media does in fact impacts search engine optimization for a while now, but it is finally confirmed. The SEOmoz article concludes the following with what we are walking away from this interview that Sullvan did with Google and Bing. Rand Fishkin states, "Here's to the evolution of organic marketing - search, social, content, blogs, links - it's all coming together faster than ever before, and that's a very good thing for holisticly minded web marketers." I could not agree with him more!

For more on the Danny Sullivan interviewing Bing/Google and how social media is impacting SEO read the SEOmoz article.

Improving SEO for Google Instant

2010-11-17T19:10:00.000-08:00

The HubSpot Blog is dedicated on providing great information on Search Engine Optimization, Blogging, Social Media, Landing Pages, Lead Generation and Analytics. Recently, HubSpot posted on how to tweak your site with these four SEO tips for Google Instant:

1. Meta Descriptions
2. No Flash
3. Header Tags
4. Alt Text

Want to learn more about Google Instant and SEO? Then read 4 SEO Tips to Instantly Take Advantage of Google Instant over at the HubSpot Blog.

How To Get Traffic From Google's Real-Time Search Firehose

2010-03-06T19:51:00.000-08:00

Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile for SEO (Video)

2010-02-24T19:05:00.000-08:00

Hubspot's Mike Volpe does an excellent job in explaining how to maximize SEO from LinkedIn to three of your web properties. Volpe explains this great SEO tip in under 5 minutes.

10 Basic SEO Tips To Get You Started

2010-02-19T21:40:00.000-08:00

You can also read An Introduction to SEO.

Are Keywords Used by Google to Determine Web Ranking?

2009-10-02T20:49:00.000-07:00

Back in September, Google made it official on their Google Webmaster Central Blog about the use of the keyword meta tag. No, Google does not use the keywords meta tag for ranking webpages in their search engine results. Googler Matt Cutts from the Search Quality group explains why Google does not use keywords in the rankings.

SEO Is Not Easy

2009-08-14T19:51:00.000-07:00

It seems like everyone nowadays is doing Search Engine Optimization. SEO is not easy. Many people just don't realize how time consuming it is. This article from Stoney deGeyter called SEO Is Not Always As Simple We Think really breaks down all the behind-the-scenes involvement of SEO. He even discusses a few examples of SEO work that he has done in the past.

Are you SEOing the Breadcrumbs?

2009-08-09T19:28:00.000-07:00

According to Stoney deGeyter Articles, who is associate editor over at Search Engine Guide, he recommends not to "SEO" the breadcrumbs. Instead, he mentions to utilize titles and headings for SEO. Breadcrumbs are there to serve the user for the purpose of usability and navigation. Read more about effective use of "breadcrumbing" a site with this great article titled Quick Tip: Simple Breadcrumb Usage.

SEO Project About to Start?

2009-07-07T17:35:00.000-07:00

Lee Odden of the Online Marketing Blog recently posted a great article on SEO client/vendor relationships. He wrote 5 Tips on Hiring and Getting the Most Value from SEO Consultants. This is something an SEO Consultant/firm or vendor should reference before the start of a SEO project.

PageRank Sculpting

2009-06-25T18:58:00.000-07:00

The buzz around the SEO world now is PageRank Sculpting. What is PageRank Sculpting you ask? Well, I just got my weekly Search Engine Guide newsletter and a usual contributor to this SEO publication is Sage Lewis. He is a web marketer who posts videos and writes articles about all kinds of SEO topics and website marketing. He recently posted a video on YouTube explaining PageRank Sculpting.

Link Building Through Web Directories

2009-06-08T21:55:00.000-07:00

Zeke of The Outsourcing Company gives the handy SEO tip of getting your website or blog listed by the major search engines by submitting it to web directories. Zeke reminds us to keep quality in mind as far as the directories go by stating to, "...submit (your site) to the good ones." Ken from Village Navigator recommends Directory Maximizer, which is a professional directory submission service. Directory Maximizer has a list of FREE SEO friendly directories that are sorted by PageRank, a Google page ranking system based on external links pointing to a website or blog. From Directory Maximizer I found a great free directory that is called The Little Web Directory that has a PageRank of 5. The higher the PageRank of a site that is linking to your site, the better! Find your sub-category on The Little Web Directory and then select Add Your Link option and then submit after you fill-out a brief form about your URL. According to The Little Web Directory, a "reciprocal link is not required, however, reciprocal links recieve placement on higher page ranked pages." I went ahead and added a reciprocal link below to reciprocate.

Free Web Directory - Add Your Link
The Little Web Directory

SEO 101

2009-05-06T20:23:00.000-07:00

Are you a do-it-yourselfer? Do you enjoy handling all the day-to-day responsibilities with your business or organization, especially if it involves your website? How about taking on some SEO duties for your blog or website? It is not as hard as you think. Rest easy, you now have a great resource to get you started with Search Engine Optimization.

I wrote an article and posted it on my web consulting website. It's called An Introduction to SEO and it covers the following topics:

SEO, What is It?
How do Search Engines Work?
Algorithms
Onpage SEO
Meta Title Tag
Meta Description Tag
Meta Keywords Tag

The SEO article also has many referenced links on SEO and how Search Engines work.

So what are you waiting for? A great SEO 101 awaits you. It may just boost your rankings on Google, Yahoo! and MSN (aka Live.com).

Google Adwords Links and Resources

2009-03-27T21:24:00.000-07:00

As you know a while back SEO the Search shared a deal to get you started on Google Adwords with $25 Credit For Google Adwords. I also wanted to share a number of very helpful links and resources to get you started on Google Adwords if you are interested in advertising on Google through their Pay Per Click (PPC) program.

Here is a great 10 step quick overview of Google Adwords from Google that you can go through and read in about 5 minutes. Another great Google Adwords link from Google is AdWords Help that offers a nicely laid out site map of helpful Google Adwords links. Google also offers a Google Adwords Learning Center. The Google Adwords Learning Center contains an incredible Lessons Catalog with lessons available to anyone in Multimedia or Text formats (it all depends on your learning style). Each lesson has a quiz you can take to test what you have learned about Google Adwords. If you are trying to sign-up a client with Google Adwords or you are trying to convince your marketing department to try Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising then the Selling the Benefits of AdWords (7 min) lesson is a must! And the last Google Adwords resource that I want to share is the Inside Adwords Blog. The Inside Adwords Blog has a following of almost 20,000 people!

Here is a Google Adwords video titled, "An introduction to Google AdWords":

SEO - A Part of Your Overall Marketing Plan

2008-11-28T19:59:00.000-08:00

I spent the last couple of days casually discussing Internet Marketing, Social Media and Web 2.0 with the owner of a small company (about 700 employees). The How to Convince a CEO to Enter 21st Century Internet Marketing article came in really handy. I have to hand it to HubSpot, they did an excellent job writing about marketing on the Internet. Hubspot even includes a presentation (PowerPoint PPT) that you can use as a template for that presentation to your CEO which essentially guides you through how to use the PowerPoint download.

Facebook is just the beginning and should be on the short list for a small business' Internet Marketing plan regarding Social Media. Read more about how Facebook can help your business with Now, Any Business Can Tap 53 Million Facebook Users (For Free). Another great SEO article from HubSpot and a must read for any business that is considering any marketing strategy to use Facebook.

$25 Credit For Google Adwords

2008-11-17T17:07:00.000-08:00

I just got this an email from Logoworks and there was a deal to sign-up for Google Adwords with a $25 credit. Google AdWords helps you advertise your business and acquire new customers on Google. Make sure you read the fine print. This offer expires on 12/31/2009.

You Should Be Blogging If You Own a Business

2008-10-09T19:35:00.000-07:00

Mark Collier did a presentation on the importance of blogging by using blogs to "spark conversation" about your products or services. The following are a couple of great articles about why you should be blogging if you own a business.

> Blogging Workshop - SBM Unleashed

> Blogging for Business - SBM Unleashed

And since the search engines, especially Google, prefer "fresh content". Blogs are ideal to help you in your search engine optimization efforts.

Get Your Business Listed - Tip #6

2007-10-12T20:02:00.000-07:00

Tonight, I was just over at MagicYellow, the Online Yellow Pages. Visitors can navigate a directory of businesses through a well-crafted category of links or by a search. Searches can be done by keyword, city, state or zip. Business owners can add their information for free. It took me less then six minutes to complete my business listing, which was by far the least amount of time I spent on a free business listing. Of course, an account executive will contact me shortly to verify my category and activate my listing.

Click here to add your business to the MagicYellow Business Directory for FREE!

You can find my listing on the MagicYellow page site here. They have given me a featured link on the right hand side of that page because I qualified for the MagicYellow link program.

The Veesolutions link will remain on the MagicYellow site as long as a link back to them is found on my site (blog actually). If the MagicYellow link is removed from my blog, the Veesolutions link will also be removed from the MagicYellow site.

Get Your Business Listed - Tip #5

2007-09-03T10:27:00.000-07:00

I recently corresponded with a customer support specialist over at Ask.com. You may have seen some of the commercials they have been running on television. Their campaign is directly targeted at Google Users and it sports the slogan "The Algorithm". You can catch all their commercials here.

In that recent email, the customer representative stated,"...if you are interested in listing your business with AskCity, simply send a message with the following information..."

* Business name
* Business address
* Phone number
* Category the business or service falls under
* URL address
* Email contact

...to this email address; ask AT mailca.custhelp.com.

--Please be certain you substitute the AT with @ in the email address and there is no space before or after--

This tip should take you between 5 and 10 minutes and your business or organization will eventually appear on a local search through Ask.com for FREE!

For more information on AskCity, click here.

Get Your Business Listed - Tip #4

2007-06-01T23:11:00.000-07:00

We return to the Get Your Business Listed Series with the fourth tip that can help your business increase its online presence. With minimal time and effort (about 15 minutes usually) you can easily register your business information and your website URL with many local search-based services. And best of all they are free!

Tip #4 is listing your business or organization with a local search engine called TrueLocal. TrueLocal's mission is to drive online customers to offline businesses. Sounds good for business, right? Well, how do you get started?

Begin the sign-up process by visiting the TruLocal List Your Business Page and clicking on the Basic Listing button for the free listing.

As with all the other search-based listing services, you need to be approved. This is the confirmation I received when I finished signing-up my Veesolutions website; "You have successfully submitted a basic listing to TrueLocal. The information you submitted will be up within three business days if it passes our approval process."

Google may penalize your site for duplicate content

2007-05-21T20:00:00.000-07:00

I'm going to deviate from the Get Your Business Listed Series this week to share a powerful tool that is freely available to all. The site is CopyScape and it is a tool that searches for copies of your website content or information on the Web. According to Copyscape's About page, it states:

Copyscape is dedicated to defending your rights online, helping you fight against online plagiarism and content theft. Copyscape finds sites that have copied your content without permission, as well as those that have quoted you.

You can follow CopyScape's example to see how they locate duplicate content and present that information.

Now copying and pasting, or duplicating content from another site, such as a competitor, is a big no-no according to how search engines work and could hurt your website's ranking in search engine results like Google, Yahoo and MSN.

Elixir Systems, a search engine marketing company, states the following fact regarding duplicated content:

Google penalizes page rank when it determines that content is duplicated by other sites.

Well, how do search engines do this? Since Google does not want identical listings in their search results, it compares the age of the page between sites containing the duplicated content and prioritizes the older page (or site).

Also worth reading is the article Duplicate Content Penalty - How to Lose Google Ranking Fast by Search Engine Journal.

Get Your Business Listed - Tip #3

2007-05-12T20:22:00.000-07:00

In today's tip to help increase online visibility to your site, I strongly recommend looking into Superpages.com. According to the Superpages.com about page:

Superpages.com is the local expert, and a top online resource for finding information and insights on businesses and retailers. Every month we help millions of consumers find valuable local business information from driving directions and hours of operation to Web links and customer reviews.

This is another process that will take 15-20 minutes but it is worth every minute. And even though Superpages.com has fee-based listing services, they have a an excellent free listing service that will get potential customers or clients calling you or visiting your site. That link can be found here at the free business listing and profile page.

Get Your Business Listed - Tip #2

2007-04-29T19:41:00.000-07:00

This posting is a continuation in a series to assist business owners and organizations to receive additional online visibility to their website for FREE. This would be accomplished by enrolling or signing-up to a service through the web, which is usually a 10 to 15 minute process.

The first tip in the series recommended getting your business signed-up to Yahoo! Local. This specialized Yahoo search shows relevant products and services in the customer's local area.

Google Maps is a great way to get customers to find you on Google Maps, when they of course are using Google Search. This is another free sign-up that you can do for your business or organization.

Google Maps, like Yahoo! Local, is a free listing. Click here to learn more about the Google Local Business Center account. According to Google, you are able to do the following for a business or organization:

- Reach new customers on Google Maps and Google.com
- Works great for businesses of any size
- Update your listing at any time
- Catch their eye with printable coupons

The sign-up process will take about 15 minutes and at the end of the process Google will inform you of your listing by mailing you a notification to your physical address for confirmation. Google will take about 2 weeks to send you this notification.

Get Your Business Listed - Tip #1

2007-04-27T19:46:00.000-07:00

I just read a great guide at locallytype.com on how to get listed on various search engines, phone directory services and social networking sites for your business. Since it may take some time to digest all the sites and perhaps hours to enroll or sign-up to do all of them, I will try and highlight one site tip from this guide at a time. So after reading this, it may take you just 10-15 minutes to list your business which may increase your website's online visibility. The nice thing is that this can be done for free and bring potential customers to your site.

Frank Fuchs runs the guide over at the locallytype.com which is a blog that boasts the following slogan; "Frank's Thoughts About Local Search, Maps And Some Random Bits & Rants". Frank's extensive guide starts with Yahoo! Local. He mentions the following about the Yahoo service:

Local helps you find the things you need in your neighborhood and beyond. It gives you the names and phone numbers of local services and businesses, and also shows you information related to them. For instance, you'll get the name and address of your local deli, the time it opens, whether it accepts Visa, and maybe even how helpful the wait staff is.

In fact, through Yahoo! Local, one of my clients Jumpdayz.com a moonwalk and inflatable party rental business in the Greater Atlanta area, appears in the number 4 spot for the following search: "moonwalks in atlanta" in the Yahoo! Local Search.

It's free to list on Yahoo! Local, but it does require that you have a Yahoo! account.

Get listed with Yahoo! Local Listing

SEO and Paid Search go Hand in Hand?

2007-03-13T20:52:00.000-07:00

At least according to this article titled "Leveling the Playing Field With SEO" by E-Commerce Times. Read this SEO article here.

Flash disabled in IE 7

2006-12-10T16:35:00.000-08:00

I just read here that Internet Explorer 7 will have Flash disabled by default. Gone are the days of the Flash Intro I guess.

Do you know about the 4 second rule?

2006-12-06T18:59:00.000-08:00

The following article was recommended from Brian Sinclair a marketing guru who lives and works "down under" in Australia. I read it in his email newsletter that I subscribe to. This BBC article titled Websites face for-second cut-off addresses the wait time consumers will wait before they go to the competition.