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Penguin and Panda, the 2 New Ps of Internet Marketing

Doug Williams @ 5:45 am

This blog entry was posted on May 15, 2012.

The four Ps of marketing: price, product, promotion and place have been joined by 2 new Ps when it comes to Internet marketing. The Penguin and Panda updates by Google are reshaping the fundamentals of how Internet marketing is done.

Google Panda

In February 2011 Google changed its algorithm with Panda. Panda is designed to lower the rank of low quality websites. These are sites that did not use quality original content. Sites that use duplicate content, spun articles and scraper content were hit very hard by the Panda update.

Panda will affect an entire site rather than a section or a web page. Google continues to roll out versions of this update. There have been multiple updates with two updates in April 2012.

Proper actions caused by Panda update

  1. Use only high quality original content
  2. Do not “over optimize” content for keywords
  3. Focus on increasing trustworthiness of site
  4. Include site contact info (address, phone)

Google Penguin

At about the same time that Google Panda updates were occurring, Google rolled out its Penguin update (April 24). This is also known as the spam fighting algorithm. Penguin is designed to eliminate spamming techniques that are against their quality guidelines (black hat SEO methods).

  1. Hidden text, cloaking, keyword stuffing
  2. Link schemes, paid links

Penguin is designed to act against individual pages rather than the entire website. If you have experienced Penguin, then you were found to be spamming by Google. If you resolve the spam problems, your site’s ranking will generally return in 1-2 months. You can also file a Google reconsideration request.

Expect many versions of the Penguin update to follow.

Proper actions caused by the Penguin update

  1. Follow Google’s quality guidelines
  2. Avoid Black hat (Gray Hat) SEO methods.

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Filed under: SEO Strategies



7 Ways to Promote Your Mobile App

Doug Williams @ 3:28 pm

This blog entry was posted on May 11, 2012.

There are more than a million apps available to download to your mobile phone.. How are you going to get your app noticed and used amongst such competition? You need to market it so your audience will notice you.

  1. Brand: Create your story. What is the human angle of the problem you solve? Define and build your brand personality. This means stretching beyond your current following and reaching out to a new audience.
  2. App Store: Differentiate your app from your competition. What are your unique features. What are the cool things that your app does that others in your same category doesn’t do?
  3. Website: Build and promote your app website. Make your website interesting. Show the app in action. Tell your story and make downloading easy.
  4. Buzz: The more people talk, the more exposure your app will get. Use social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to spread the word. Target forms of social media where your targeted audience participates. Engage in forums where your app users are likely to congregate and engage them in discussions.
  5. Release: Announce the release using press releases and blogging. Continue using social media to engage your audience. Give out promo codes on Twitter, run contests and be creative.
  6. QR Code: Increase downloads by making it easy for people to scan your QR Code with their mobile phone’s camera to go to your download page. Use your QR codes in your email signature, blogs and print ads.
  7. Reviews: Get positive reviews on some of the mobile app review sites. This will create great exposure and interest. Here is a nice list of review sites for iphone apps. Many also review Android apps.

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Filed under: Mobile Web



Google’s Penguin Update Shakes up the System

Doug Williams @ 7:48 am

This blog entry was posted on May 8, 2012.

Google’s Penguin update has website owners very concerned… At least the ones that are gaming the system. Estimates are that it will affect 3-5% of the websites with loss of rankings. The Penguin update is designed to negatively affect websites using SEO methods against Google’s guidelines. This includes things like keyword stuffing, hidden text, cloaking, article spinning and link schemes.

5 More articles on the recent Penguin update.

  1. Google Penguin Update: Impact of Anchor Text Diversity & Link Relevancy: The Google Penguin Update, much like Panda last year, has angered SEOs and webmasters, most of who say they have played by Google’s rules. Anchor text diversity and link relevancy may be two key factors of Penguin, according to more early analysis.
  2. Google Shakeup: Coming to a Website Near You: It appears that spammy techniques like keyword stuffing, duplicate content, questionable linking practices, creating fluff content and basically anything with the sole purpose of misleading Google is getting penalized.
  3. Watch Out for a Penguin! Google Fights Back Against Spam: A younger and more advanced brother of the ‘Panda’ update, ‘Penguin’ is an algorithm created to catch out websites using Search Engine Optimization methods which are against Google’s policies…
  4. Google’s New Over-Optimization Penalty: Is Your Website at Risk? The Google Webspam Update or Penguin update went live on Tuesday, April 24. According to Google, it is an update intended to decrease rankings for sites that they believe are “violating their existing quality guidelines.”
  5. Article Spinning: Why It’ll Make You Dizzy: Article spinning is the practice of taking content and rewriting it. This isn’t the same as re-purposing content – which is a wonderful white-hat strategy for reusing the same information in many formats – but rather a very mechanical purpose whose only point is to diddle Google into thinking that you’re more of a resource than you are.

 

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Filed under: SEO Strategies



3 Reasons SEO Can Be a Waste of Your Money

Doug Williams @ 6:24 am

This blog entry was posted on May 4, 2012.

SEO is an expensive process where many businesses spend many thousands of dollars every month. While some SEO tactics are ineffective, others will attract the wrong traffic to your website. Many times SEO will attract traffic to a website that is not equipped to convert traffic into sales.

Search engine optimization services are one of the best investments a business can make. According to Netcraft,  the web consists of over 675 million websites. SEO is necessary for a website to be found among all the others.

What are the pitfalls to watch out for?

  1. Wrong Traffic: Are you attracting the right visitors to your website? Your SEO needs to use the correct keyword phrases to attract the right buyers. Local businesses need local buyers. Short 1-2 word phrases tend to attract researches while longer phrases that include specifics such as make and model will attract buyers.
  2. Wrong Tactics: Google has taken strong actions over the past year penalizing websites with low quality content, duplicate content and link schemes. Using what are termed black hat SEO methods may work in the short term, but always seem to fail in the long term. Instead focus good quality original content that is keyword rich that is something others would want to link to.
  3. Website Conversion: Your website needs to be designed to sell. Visitors should be directed to request to sign-up, request a quote or to buy. Visitors arrive looking for a specific solution. If your website is not set-up with a clear call to action, you may get plenty of visits, but no leads or sales.

Good traffic is important, but high conversion rates are even more important.

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Filed under: SEO Strategies



Use SEO Blogging to Boost Rankings

Doug Williams @ 4:32 am

This blog entry was posted on May 1, 2012.

What is a natural way to increase your website rankings? Try adding a blog to your website and writing with a technique known as SEO blogging. Each posting adds one more page of fresh original, keyword rich content to your website.

In SEO blogging you use blogging to optimize your website. It requires writing interesting and original material to attract links from other bloggers. Here is how the process works.

  1. Set-up a blog on your website. Place it in a folder such as mydomain.com/blog (never in a subdomain such as blog.mydomain.com). This is very important since others will link to your content and you want those links to benefit your entire website and not just your blog.
  2. Keyword plan: Create a list of keywords that you want your website to rank well for. Every phrase should have a page on your website that it relates to. Place the URL of the page next to the keyword phrase that most closely relates to that phrase. For the best results you should be using these keyword phrases visibly on the content in your web pages.
  3. Topic: Select a topic that interests you and that you think your readers will enjoy. The topic should be closely related to a keyword phrase from your keyword plan; this should be in line with the theme of your blog. Your blog should answer a popular question, solve a problem or entertain your audience.
  4. Keyword Focused Posting: The key is to have a highly keyword focused posting that will link to a specific page on your site. Select one primary keyword phrase that you will center your entire posting around. Use the keyword in the Title, in the first paragraph, at least one other time in the posting and once as a hyperlink to the most relevant page on your website. Hint: This posting is written around the phrase SEO blogging.

For SEO blogging, make it easy for readers to be able to scan through your content quickly and easily. A typical blog posting should be about 250 words and be written in a simple format.

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Filed under: Blog Marketing



Top 100 Most Searched for Local Businesses

Doug Williams @ 6:44 am

This blog entry was posted on April 27, 2012.

Local search growth continues to explode. 2-1/2 years ago I looked at the Top 76 Most Searched for Local Businesses. Just like my last analysis, I checked the cities of Atlanta, Denver, Miami, Minneapolis, Phoenix and Portland to see which businesses or services were being searched for. The total daily searches for all cities combined are shown next to the keyword phrase.

The methodology was simple; I used my keyword research tool, Market Samurai and searched on each city name separately. Each search would come up with over 700 results. I then selected phrases that indicated a search for a local service or company. I then tabulated the results. These are searches that are paired with the city name.

What are the major shifts since I did this over 2 years ago?

  • The sheer numbers of daily searches are much higher.
  • Hotels still top the list, but everything else shifted toward everyday life type of searches.
  • People still searched most often did a simple search using the keyword + the city (geo modifier) or the city + the keyword.
  • There was a noticeable increase in people using “in” as part of the search phrase: apartments in phoenix or restaurants in denver.
  1. hotels (54,567)
  2. university (27,166)
  3. airport (18,730)
  4. apartments (15,843)
  5. restaurants (11,994)
  6. museums (5,087)
  7. theaters (5,081)
  8. furniture (5,065)
  9. real estate (4,894)
  10. events (3,827)
  11. car rental (3,127)
  12. resorts (2,867)
  13. concerts (2,866)
  14. zoo (2,779)
  15. condos (2,734)
  16. colleges (2,724)
  17. homes (2,331)
  18. aquarium (2,118)
  19. spa (1,808)
  20. newspaper (1,385)
  21. convention center (1,308)
  22. hospitals (1,307)
  23. clubs (1,180)
  24. yoga (1,112)
  25. attractions (1,002)
  26. used cars (996)
  27. parking (947)
  28. library (891)
  29. motels (884)
  30. houses (804)
  31. dentist (779)
  32. rentals (708)
  33. web design (702)
  34. limo service (666)
  35. schools (648)
  36. shopping (635)
  37. catering (621)
  38. property management (611)
  39. furniture stores (603)
  40. flowers (594)
  41. rental cars (594)
  42. insurance (569)
  43. tires (540)
  44. nightlife (535)
  45. locksmith (512)
  46. malls (484)
  47. movers (476)
  48. farmers market (428)
  49. storage (421)
  50. carpet cleaning (411)
  51. ballet (407)
  52. limo (403)
  53. pizza (395)
  54. photographers (388)
  55. hostel (337)
  56. auto parts (323)
  57. roofing (319)
  58. activities (302)
  59. party rentals (294)
  60. tourism (276)
  61. performing arts (266)
  62. seminary (266)
  63. auctions (250)
  64. taxi (234)
  65. estate sales (233)
  66. housing (221)
  67. bank (217)
  68. seo (217)
  69. computer repair (214)
  70. florist (210)
  71. skydiving (209)
  72. acupuncture (196)
  73. movie theaters (194)
  74. dermatologist (175)
  75. fabric stores (174)
  76. patio furniture (172)
  77. plumbers (172)
  78. churches (171)
  79. plastic surgery (165)
  80. wedding photographers (163)
  81. appliances (160)
  82. chiropractor (158)
  83. weddings (158)
  84. cakes (157)
  85. boat show (151)
  86. office furniture (148)
  87. plumbing (145)
  88. carpet (144)
  89. tv repair (142)
  90. bars (141)
  91. hospice (141)
  92. rv rental (139)
  93. food delivery (138)
  94. auto show (132)
  95. vacation rentals (128)
  96. athletic club (118)
  97. boutiques (118)
  98. lawyers (118)
  99. bowling (115)
  100. cab (101)

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Filed under: Local Search



Google Continues to Penalize for Low Quality

Doug Williams @ 5:44 am

This blog entry was posted on April 24, 2012.

Google continues its emphasis toward quality. We saw this early last year with the Google Panda update that de-indexed low quality and duplicate content. This changed article marketing to a focus on high quality original articles.

Earlier this year we saw the blog network “Build My Rank” have all their links de-indexed, thus putting them out of business over a few day period. This is just another example of Google’s ongoing battle to improve the quality experience of search.

What do we need to do to stay ahead of Google? The answer is simple, focus on quality and on the user experience. This is for both content and in back-linking methods. High quality original content will naturally attract links.

So what will hurt you with Google?

  1. Hastily written, sloppy postings or articles will hurt you.
  2. Poor grammar, spelling errors will hurt you.
  3. Duplicate content, scraper content or spun content will hurt you.
  4. Low value content with high bounce rates will hurt you.
  5. Mass created content from offshore writers will hurt you.
  6. An excess number of ads that distract from the content will hurt you.

How do you outsmart Google? …Don’t try.

Content should be valuable, original and be similar to what you would expect to see in an encyclopedia or a magazine. It should inspire trust. It should be something people would want to bookmark. It should contain insightful analysis or interesting information. It should contain original research and contain specific information.

Focusing on quality and producing valuable and interesting content is the long-term solution to gaining great Google rankings.

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Filed under: SEO Strategies



How to Convert Lookers into Buyers

Doug Williams @ 6:01 am

This blog entry was posted on April 20, 2012.

Timing is everything. You want to clearly understand your buyer and what drives them to make their buying decision. To do this, ask 3 questions. The answers will allow you to position your product or service as the natural solution so the will want to purchase immediately.

Remember, people search for a solution to their problem or need.

  1. What are their buying criteria? These are the standards by which your buyer evaluates your product. These are the features, functions and capabilities that they are looking for. Customers will make their decision based on which product best satisfies their needs. Use product comparisons to show that yours is the best and obvious choice.
  2. What makes their problem an urgent priority? This is both timing and circumstances. What circumstances make buying now very necessary? Buyers make decisions faster and look at fewer suppliers when their need is highly urgent. If you discovered your hot water tank had a gushing leak and a plumber knocked on your door, you would probably hire them on the spot.
  3. What are the barriers that keep them from buying? You need to identify what these are and then work to remove every conceivable barrier and add urgency to their making a buy decision. Does your copy make your prospect think that a person like me would buy this? Do they clearly grasp why your product is different and better? If yours is a large ticket item, offer a payment plan.

Tailor your offer to your targeted buyer and present to them when their need is urgent. Make your offer clear and acknowledge their buying criteria. Work to remove barriers to buying.

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Filed under: Conversion Rate Optimization



Article Marketing in a Post Panda World

Doug Williams @ 7:08 am

This blog entry was posted on April 17, 2012.

Article marketing has long been a key traffic strategy and link building strategy. Then along came the Google Panda Update of 2011. This hit the article marketing industry very hard. Why is that?

Many article marketers used the shotgun approach. Many would write a single article and then run it through article spinning software. This would typically produce a hundred versions of the same article, all with slight variations. These would get placed on a hundred different article directories. Each article had a link back to the target website.

For a long time this was a very effective link building method that would get great results. Then along came the Panda update. This changed everything. The duplicate versions of the articles were discounted and de-indexed. The links stopped counting and traffic to the article directories tumbled. Many claimed that this was the end of article marketing.

Content is still king; just not multiple copies of the same article. Article directories have had to change too. They can’t just accept these duplicate versions if they want their sites to attract traffic.

Article marketing in this post panda time is different. Articles need to be original, informative, interesting and unique content. It is no longer a numbers game. It is about writing and publishing quality articles and placing them in key directories.

Many article directories today will no-follow any links in the articles. This is great for them, just not for you. This helps boost their popularity but passes no link popularity onto your website. Use article directories like featured-articles.com that will do-follow all their links.

In summary, what should your article marketing strategy be today?

  • Focus on article quality not quantity
  • Submit only original, unique articles with great informational content.
  • Submit to 3-4 article directories, not just one.
  • Submit only to directories that will pass the link popularity through to your site.
  • Submit 20-24 articles per year.

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Filed under: Article Marketing



How to Hire a Web Content Writer

Doug Williams @ 5:19 am

This blog entry was posted on April 13, 2012.

There are lots of content writers available to hire. They come in all price ranges, but price should not be your only selection criteria. Quality of your website content is  most important. Instead ask yourself “will it convince and sell my product?”

Good content writing should be well researched. The writer should understand your business and your industry. The content they write should resonate with your customers. Their writing should be professional and make your company look good.

Writing for the web is different. You will use shorter sentences and shorter paragraphs. There will only be one idea per paragraph. The content will be formatted for visual scanning using sub-headings, bulleted lists, italicized or bolded words.

Writing for the web should always be keyword driven. Be ready to supply a list of keywords to your writer. Use one primary keyword phrase per written page.

How do you find writers?

  1. Websites: Use websites like guru.com, elance.com or freelancer.com. These websites allow you to post your job and allow writers to bid on doing your work.
  2. Experience: Find people that know your industry. Are they exited and passionate about it? Do they have SEO content writing experience? Do they know how to work keywords in for maximum search engine impact?
  3. Quality: Most sites post ratings on writers from others that have used them. Only choose top rated writers. Always have writers submit samples of their work. Look at the writing quality for grammar and spelling. Is it engaging and interesting?
  4. Research: If you need the writer to research the topic, expect to pay extra for it. If you have pre-selected source material, make sure you supply that to the writer.
  5. Describe: Give clear and accurate descriptions of what you need written as you issue assignments. How long should the article be? Who is the audience? What is the call to action? Provide the keywords phrases that you want the writer to incorporate.
  6. Check: Always check the work of a writer as soon as you receive it. Check for originality using a website like copyscape.com. Did they capture the concepts that you wanted and was it well written? Communicate changes if you need them. Most writers will edit their articles if needed.

Think of the content writing as a strategic investment in your business. Balance quality and price to reach your marketing goals.

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Filed under: Internet Marketing



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