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| 04/04/2011
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Weekly Search & Social News: 29/03/2011

Mobilitate

Hello and welcome to another edition of ‘7 Days of Search and Social‘. It was fairly quiet out there last week as there are a few conferences/seminars and the like. No drama. No algo changes… nada. Man, this feels like th emiddle of August out there (usually the quiet time).

On with the news….

Oddly enough, for the first time in a long time, there really wasn’t a ‘lead story’ last week. There was no drama. There was no ‘big news’. Maybe its because the conference season is swinging, not really sure.

So, this week I thought I’d touch on something we talked about in our SEO training chat sessions (held each Friday) – getting a grip on social and SEO.

Far too many people seem to get focussed on the links… the followers… metrics that aren’t likely to mean much. On the other hand, very few seem to be talking about the updates Google made to its social search. More here;

Google Updates Social Search

This is an important oportunity because Google is actually adding and re-ranking sites in the top 10 of query spaces where your social circle might appear. This is no small change, but not really talked about much. If you’re not adapting for it, do so NOW.

Now on with the rest of the weeks news and views.

3 Content Strategies To Target Decision Makers By Search Intent – one of the areas I like to talk about that really isn’t much is; user intent. Meaning assessing WHAT the query is seeking to accomplish. This was a great post along that line which offers some interesting insight.

Google’s Page Segmentation Patent Granted – I bumped this one into the main section, from the geeks section, because it’s an area also not talked about much out there. This is an important concept which both Google and Bing are very interested in. Learn it now!

Headsmacking Tip #18: Use Discussion Search as Competitive Intel – Rand had some advice on using the discussions vertical (in Google) for doing some competitive research. Interesting stuff that I hadn’t thought of before (hate it when that happens).

Five Visionaries Sum Up The Future Of Search – sure, I wish they’d asked me so I could be a ‘visionary’ but ya can’t win ‘em all right? Some great insight here including my pals from Surf Canyon.

Link Building With Elizabeth Taylor – while a few folks gave her a hard time about riding the coat tails of the event, this post from Debra certainly is not. It does show not only a few good ideas, but an understanding of how to get the most from recent headlines.

Product Page SEO tips – was an short but important post via the Vertical Leap Blog. This is one area I also haven’t seen enough on and thought it was worth adding. Ecommerce SEO can be a very trying time, add this to your mandatory reading.

How SEO Consulting Has Changed – Jennifer wrote a thought provking post, via SNC, which looks at how our job has changed over the years.

/end SOSG session

PG

David Harry is an SEO and IR geek that runs Reliable SEO, blogs on the Fire Horse Trail and is the head geek at the SEO Training Dojo.

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| 04/04/2011
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SERPd.com is Changing Hands

Mobilitate

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

SERPd.com is Changing Hands

Houston, Texas – March 31, 2011 – Just seven short months after the site’s inception in September of 2010, SERPd.com has been bought for an undisclosed dollar amount.  This marks the fastest acquisition of a niche Web 2.0 community site.

Currently, there is a media blackout in place that prevents either party from disclosing the full details of the transaction.  This includes identifying the new owners of the site.  However, the creators of SERPd are able to say that they are very pleased with the terms of this deal and extremely optimistic about the future of the site.

What does this mean for SERPd?

Users will be happy to know that not much will change in terms of the type of content and the overall goals of SERPd. Founders Chris Burns and Gerald Weber will remain on the site’s staff and continue in a community manager role.

As SERPd undergoes this new “changing of hands,” the site will be doing away with the voting model. The general consensus is that the voting model is dying and we are looking forward to seeing the site move in a more modern Web 2.0 direction.  Because this is also what SERPd’s users wanted, this new direction is being embraced with open arms.

The voting system will remain in place for approximately ten days until the new moderation system is put in place.  The site will then transition to its new editorial model.

That being said, Gerald wants to personally thank all of the devoted members of SERPd for making this possible.  The team is looking forward to this new change and a bright future for the site and all of it’s members.

Additionally, because there will be an increased need for active moderation as a result of the site’s new ownership and model, anyone interested in being involved in scouting quality SEO content should send an email to staff@serpd.com.

Thanks again folks, it’s been an awesome ride!

Please leave a comment if you have any questions or concerns about this exciting new change for the SERPd community.

UPDATE!

Happy April Fools Day Folks!

This was our April fools day prank guys and gals.

SERPd is not changing the voting model or anything else. We were just joshin ya!

We had also added a silly logo to the SERPd site but not as many people seemed to notice that part of the prank.

PG

Ann Smarty is the Editor of Search Engine Journal. Ann’s expertise in blogging and tools serve as a base for her writing, tutorials and her guest blogging project, MyBlogGuest.com

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| 04/04/2011
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8 Reasons SEO Audits are Needed Before Sites are Built

Mobilitate

If you’ve worked in the SEO industry for any significant length of time, you’ve inevitably had a situation arise where a brand new site was being planned or an existing site was being overhauled and you were brought in to ensure the new (or new version) site would get SEO.

And unless you have magic fairy dust at your beck and call, you have also had to deal with the fact that you were called in after the new site was already planned.  Or more likely, the build was already taking place.  Or worse, already done and in launch mode.  Unfortunately this is the wrong time to be doing SEO, let alone performing an SEO audit.

1. Keyword Focus

If you don’t know what keywords to focus on, you can’t truly know or understand the topical focus you need to convey across the entire site.  Sure, you may have content already written – maybe even from a previous site.  Except without current data on now-trending topics, your message could now be irrelevant.  Or even if it’s relevant, it could be lacking the focus necessary to current search trends.

In an SEO audit, keyword research is paramount.  Not only to hone in on timely relevance and trending, but to also help reveal who the true competitors are that are currently ranking for those main topics you need to focus on.

2. URL Structure

All too often, marketers or site designers or developers know there needs to be content related to services or products, and information about the company or business, yet without first having an SEO audit performed, URLs can’t properly be seeded without that keyword research being performed.  And only after the keyword research is performed can you understand what the URL structure needs to look like.

3. Content Organization

URL structure is integral to content organization, and builds on topical organization.  Without a proper SEO audit, you don’t know the best way to organize the content on a site.  Sure, you can guess, or “think” you know, yet that’s like rolling the dice believing (falsely) that “good enough” is well, good enough.  If you don’t get your content organization plan hammered out before site build or rebuild, you end up causing topical dilution.

4. Content Depth

Without a proper SEO audit, how do you know the amount of content you need, whether it’s on an individual page, an entire section, or the whole site?  Only a proper audit can reveal the sweet spot in your goal setting plans for competitive success.  And only the sweet spot, weighed against topical focus priorities, will reveal how much content you need.

5. Inbound Link Planning

Only a proper SEO audit can reveal the details of a  link building plan, based on the combination of the previous four reasons you need to do the audit first.  From what keywords you’ll need in your inbound link mix, to what the URLs will be you’ll be targeting, to which groups of content need how much link building effort to support, supplement or overcome content depth factors.

6. Social Media Needs

Without a proper audit, social media initiatives are another shot in the dark.  Maybe you’re going to succeed at reaching your prospective clients or customers, yet even if you do, you won’t be able to maximize the value of your effort without that site audit.

A properly performed audit will reveal details about your target market, competitive landscape and opportunities for social media initiatives.  Again, the sweet spot grid will help identify some of these, as will an understanding of those topic priorities.

7.  Production Costs

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been brought in to perform an audit after production has begun.  Let’s just say “too many”.  Given all of the issues I’ve described above, it’s going to inevitably mean some of that production effort will have to be scrapped if you want to get the full value from your SEO efforts.  URL changes, content re-organization, topical messaging, starting link building campaigns…

All of these cost additional money that can always be saved by first having that audit performed.

8. Sanity

This is actually an important reason – not just for the sake of the person performing the audit.  Every person involved in the process, whether they’re willing to acknowledge this factor or not, will suffer a lot less stress, a lot less chaos when an audit is performed first.

Real World Barriers

Quite often, you’ll find key players in the web initiative will have a vested interest in having the site build started or even completed before SEO is considered.  Usually it’s a financial issue – “we have to get the new site out there sooner – we can’t afford to wait a week or a month…”

Sadly, that’s usually because people have made promises or commitments they are unwilling to break.  Sometimes its fear based, other times its more subtle fear – pride, stubborn thinking, ego-driven need to maintain control of a process.   And yes, sometimes its even a matter of “any site is better than no site”.

Nonetheless, when taking a detached view of everything involved and the ramifications of failing to have that audit performed before the site build, everything points to the sequence needing to be audit first, build later.

PG

Alan Bleiweiss has been an Internet professional since 1995, managing client projects valued at upwards of $2,000,000.00. He currently specializes in world class forensic SEO audits for sites of all sizes, though he really enjoys it when he gets to work on sites with millions of pages, because he says, that’s when he really gets to shine…

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| 04/04/2011
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How Bloggers Who Provide Free Content Make Money

Mobilitate

Have you ever wondered how bloggers who provide nothing but valuable FREE content are able to make a living from their blog? I know I wondered the same thing when I first started blogging. I kept saying to myself, how are people able to keep taking the time out of their day to write awesome content, without having to worry about paying their bills? Finally I realized how….

The Power of The Email List

These bloggers are not making enough money from just a few banner ads in the sidebar of their blog. It is not from throwing up adsense all over their site to make it look unappealing and spammy. It is from getting people to Opt-In to their email marketing list. Once a blogger is able to get you on their list, they have the power to be able to control when (within reason) and what they say to you in a message that gets directly sent to you in your inbox.

Bloggers are making money off the backend, not the frontend. Building a list means that bloggers are able to do things like Affiliate Marketing by promoting other relevant products and earning commissions for anyone they refer. They can promote their own products, paid webinars, premium memberships, live events, etc…

So if you are a blogger you are probably wondering how do I build my own list? Here is how.

The best way is you offer a free piece of content on your blog, which people need to opt-in or provide their name and email address to access. Typically the higher the perceived value is of the content you are giving away, the better the chance you have of exchanging contact info for your free offer.

To increase your list even faster, try offering multiple pieces of free content. For example, offer a free PDF, access to a previous webinar you recorded, and a 7 day free trial to your premium membership forum. This will help cater to a larger audience, instead of hoping that the one piece of content you create will cater to all of your readers.

You will need to make it easy for the visitor to Opt-In, so placing opt-in forms in key areas of your blog will drastically improve your subscriber rate.

Probably the place where you will get the greatest conversion rate is going to be at the top of the sidebar. This will ensure that no matter what size computer screen or resolution the reader has, they will be able to see the Opt-In box, above the fold.

Sidebar

After someone finishes reading a blog post, what do they do next? Have them opt-in to your list. Add an Opt-In box that is shows up immediately after the end of your post.

bottom

Many bloggers don’t like using this method, but the fact is…it works! Having a pop-up display when the reader gets to your site, will put your free offer front and center. It is important not to have the popup show up every time the reader visits your site, so if you are using something like PopUp Domination, set it so the reader only sees it once every 10 times.

popup

In order for this strategy to work, you need traffic! So it is important to understand that without visitors, none of these tactics will matter. Keep in mind that it will take time to build up an audience, but for the traffic you are currently receiving, you need to capitalize on it. Each visitor is a possible customer in one form or another. Even if you don’t have a product offer, you could be marketing to them affiliate products and making money that way.

The biggest mistake I made was not building a list from day 1…so don’t make the same mistake. Create a free piece of content, make it easy for people to Opt-In, and start building your list!

Now that we have discussed the basics of building your list, I wanted to talk about a few advanced tactics that can help you rapidly build your lister MUCH faster.

A list swap is basically where you partner with another person in your industry that has a similar size email list as you and you mail out something for each other to your respective lists. It works best when you request your partner to send out an email that promotes a free piece of content. This way you can get their email list to opt-in to your list as well.

One thing with list swaps is that if you don’t have a list at all, you may have to bribe them by paying a fee for them to email their list. However as you start to build up your list, it works best when you partner with others who have around the same size list as you. If they have double the size, you can offer to email your list twice to compensate.

If you find the right list swap partners, you can double or even triple your list over night!

To get you started on the right foot, check out these list swap resources. Each of these sites are communities where people are looking to swap lists with others in the same industry as you.

http://adswapfinder.com/http://listswapper.com/http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-joint-ventures/http://www.jvnotifypro.com/community/http://safe-swaps.com/http://www.eliteclickswaps.com/

A really effective way to build your list super fast is to do an interview or webinar with an authority in your space. You better believe that the person you interview will tell everyone on their list and blog. Immediately you are gaining access to their list indirectly.

In order to take advanage of their list, you need to make sure you have some sort of call to action in your webinar that gets them to sign-up for something. If they just click a link to the webinar, you are not getting their information. Offer a discount on a product you are creating or put an opt-in form on the webinar page to download some free content.

A brand new list building wordpress plugin called List Eruption is something I have been working on for over 6 months now. It integrates seamlessly with your email provider and allows you to leverage EVERY subscriber you get, by enticing each subscriber with social sharing options and referral bonuses. This system allows you to setup referral bonuses which will give people a reward for telling their network of friends about anything you are having visitors Opt-In to. I have personally been able to increase my email list by 257% after I started using this.

The plugin is ALMOST ready to be released to the public. To learn more about its features and what it can do for your list, sign-up for notifications. You will be the first to find out exactly when this new WordPress plugin will be released.

Sign-Up Here

PG

Mark Thompson is the creator of StayOnSearch, a blog dedicated to Marketing Professionals, SEO’s, and Business Owners. He also is the President of Search Creatively, an Internet Marketing and Consulting company.

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| 04/04/2011
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Is Syndicated Content Duplicate Content?

Mobilitate

One of the challenges we all face whether as Webmasters, Bloggers, SEOs or any other related fields is the sheer volume of knowledge that we need to properly perform our work and advise our clients.

These are “full-time, plus” jobs!  SO much reading is required to really be informed and there is only so much time in a day.

Yet, many Webmasters and Bloggers we interact with aren’t full-time, having other responsibilities, which is understandable in today’s world and economy.

I believe this is where a lot of the misinformation begins. We can all be guilty from time to time, so I point the finger at no one. But I’d like to clear up a misconception about what is (and isn’t) “Duplicate Content” and what is “Syndicated Content”.

Wrong. Or at least it’s not that simple.

Duplicate Content is the same or very similar content on the SAME website.

Have you watched the TV news and seen someone being interviewed or offering commentary and that person is labeled as a ”Syndicated Columnist”? Or, ever seen a story reported by the A.P. (Associated Press) in your hometown newspaper or on TV news? That same story will be in many news outlets. These are examples of Syndicated Content at work.

Search Google News and find the same news stories picked up on multiple websites.

Quality content like News, Press Releases and Articles are all similar and are considered Syndicated Content. If the content is good, it’s expected to be seen in multiple places.

Syndicated Content is natural. It’s existed for decades. This is the way things have been long before Google or the Internet even existed.

NOTE: Quality Syndicated Content on the Internet has nothing to do with PLR (private label rights) articles that can be re-used by anyone buying them. Syndicated Content as I describe it is originally written by the Author (or ghost written only for that Author) and that Author maintains ownership, sharing the work subject to the Terms of Use of the blog(s) or website(s) using that content, often under a Creative Commons license.

Really? Yeah, it won’t. Not even close.

Don’t take my word, see what Google says right here:    http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66359

Specifically, about Syndicated Content, Google says:

“If you syndicate your content on other sites, Google will always show the version we think is most appropriate for users in each given search, which may or may not be the version you’d prefer.”

By contrast, what does Google says about Duplicate Content on the same page?

1. “However, in some cases, content is deliberately duplicated across domains in an attempt to manipulate search engine rankings or win more traffic. Deceptive practices like this can result in a poor user experience, when a visitor sees substantially the same content repeated within a set of search results.”

2. “Duplicate content on a site is not grounds for action on that site unless it appears that the intent of the duplicate content is to be deceptive and manipulate search engine results.”

3. “In the rare cases in which Google perceives that duplicate content may be shown with intent to manipulate our rankings and deceive our users, we’ll also make appropriate adjustments in the indexing and ranking of the sites involved.”

My advice is don’t try to manipulate Google’s ranking algorithm. Always has been.

White-hat SEO your sites. Use high-quality Syndicated Content, Original Content (or both) to build website content and to build links.

But don’t manipulate Google, using Black-hat techniques and violating Google’s Terms of Use.

Original Content is always better, right? Well, maybe, but maybe not.

First, what is original? Are we only talking about a brand new idea that’s never been written about before? That would eliminate probably 99% of possible content! Or, are we just talking about content that would pass Copyscape®?

Personally, I wouldn’t want content that had been syndicated to 50 or 100 sites. That’s just my take.

But what about a good article or blog post that’s been Syndicated to maybe 5 or 10 sites?

If the article or post was really good, you wouldn’t want it on your site?

Really?

Bloggers – If you use User Generated Content and want to grab the big ‘take away” from this post, here it is:    Think like your Authors.

Your Authors and Guest Bloggers have cost for their content, either in time, money or both. You have something you need from them (quality content) AND they have something they need from you (links, qualified traffic or both).

If your Authors can absorb their cost of content over a slightly larger number of blogs or other websites publishing the article or post, they can invest more in it! More research can be performed for the article, it may potentially be longer, be more precisely worded and better edited.

Crappy content is crappy content, whether it is an Article, a Blog Guest Post, whether it’s Original or Syndicated.

Authors – Think like your blog | website owners accepting content, since it’s not all about you, either. And if you’ve agreed to supply Original Content, do so. Do NOT misrepresent your content!

Both sides’ needs have to be met or otherwise, the relationship doesn’t work! Often times, we’re only thinking about our side of the deal and not the other person’s.

Look, if you accept content from guest bloggers and you only allow Original Content, I’m not asking you to change and I’m not saying that you’re wrong. I’m just asking you to consider what your real goals are and the best ways to accomplish them.

Does “original” by itself really accomplish quality for your website or for your loyal readers?

It’s the intent of the person – in this case the Author – that makes the content crap or quality, not whether the content is Syndicated or Original.

And sharing content or guest blogging is all about building relationships, first. If everyone believed that, our work lives would be easier and a whole lot more enjoyable. :-)

Thanks for your time reading. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

PG

Paul Marshall is an Internet Marketing Consultant. And for other SEOs, he also offers services (for their clients), including Link Building using Content, Techniques to Increase Page and Domain Authority, Reverse Engineering Competitors’ Google Rankings, Keyword | Competition Research and AdWords Account Set Up | Management. You can learn more about Paul on his SEOmoz Profile Page. Contact Paul through his website, Strategic Web Marketing.net.

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| 04/04/2011
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Facebook Microchip- Store your ‘Likes’ and Check-ins

Mobilitate

We’ve all been wondering about Facebook’s capabilities; can it really collect as much data as Google? Is that data really MORE valuable than Google, since users on Facebook are browsing upon free will into interests and brands, rather than being subjected to sifting through SERPS for what they want? Enter the Facebook Microchip- in the making for the past year and about to be reveled at the next f8 conference.

The Facebook Like and Facebook Places has been prototyped for quite some time now- making sure that people found this useful and even going so far as to say that the Facebook Like could increase a tie between Search and Social. Think about it: you’re on Facebook. You start checking out your friend’s pages. Finding what’s relevant to you- clicking on brands and pages that you’re interested in.

It’s the perfect setup.

So where does the microchip come into play?

Facebook was recently threatened by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who stated he would release these papers unless they went public with the details. Given this, Facebook decided to expose the public to this information; hoping they’ll be receptive and participate as this unravels.

Researchers and scientists have been working some time in CERN (yes, it’s not just for recreating the big bang) to build Facebook microchip prototypes- allowing the like button to roll out over the past two years and places over the past year- and for people to crawl and explore Facebook while putting together these magical little pieces of metal.

Users will now be able to purchase these ‘microchips’ for about $6,999 US dollars- all proceeds going directly to Facebook to fund their CIA program which was recently subject to cost cuts. There will be some discounts for seniors and those with medical conditions where they may have short term memory.

With these microchips, users will be able to utilize Facebook Like on both external sites and within Facebook, as well as check into places for discounts, and the microchip will automatically pick these signals up and store it for you- forming ‘memories’ that will be accessible by those who have microchip readers (yourself, and others).

What does this mean? Well, if you get arrested,, go into the services, become a public official, etc, you’ll have to undergo a brain scan- where they’ll pull in all the information from the chip (somewhat like a Facebook data-dump) and be able to recall anything you’ve liked and where you’ve been over the past few years. They’ll most likely categorize you by a ratio of interests.

Is this a new way of Facebook profiling and/or marketing?

Possibly.

Users will have to willingly undergo these microchip surgeries to get them installed… to the furthest of my knowledge.

PG

Selena is the Director of Social Media Outreach for BlueGlass Interactive and is also an avid writer who loves entrepreneurship, productivity and social media. She also has caffeine intravenously flowing through her body at all times- stay away when she hasn’t had a cup. Her personal website to keep up with all things random in technology and social media is Esvienne

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| 03/04/2011
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Local Search O-Pack and the Art of Title Tags

Mobilitate

We all know how important title tags are when it comes to SEO. Not only for ranking but it will also be the first piece of information a searcher will see about your site. I like to think of a title tag as a first date. You want to look better than you really are, and hope you can impress just enough to cover up future blemishes that someone might get to know.

So, the question is how do title tags translate on the local playing field? I am sure by now you have seen that when the integrated local results show up (aka the O-Pack) there are usually quite a few organic listings tied to a places pin like the followed…

Local titles

When the O-Pack came out, it was a big enough change to the locosphere that I decided that I needed to do some extensive research into what makes the pack tick. So, I put together a study of the following over the past few months…

28 Google Places listings that are ranking 1-7

28 Google Places listings that are ranking 50-56

Listings were examined from the following keywords:

Chicago Personal Injury LawyerNew York Divorce LawyerSan Diego DentistDallas Dentist

In all I took 56 listings in 4 cities across the country in the law and dental categories. I generally find that these are well optimized categories in local search that have very little “luck” involved in rankings.  While the research covered 27 separate factors, one of the things I found most interesting has been the use of title tags.

Generally speaking, the first 5 results in the O-Pack pull from the title tag of the website page that Google thinks is most relevant, and the remaining listings pull from the Business Name given in the Places account.

title tags

This was the case for all results that were examined in my research. I have seen a few exceptions to this, but only a few. So, bottom line, gone are the days where you could get by without a good website for a Google Places listing. You used to be able to rank a company who didn’t have a website, and you could work wonders with companies that had a website (Even if it was built with website tonight).  Now, not only does your title from your site populate on your Places listing, but it holds effect on rankings.

22 of the 28 High Ranking Places listings (79%) had the keywords in the website title tag.  Whereas 12 of the 28 Low Ranking Places listings (43%) had the keywords in the website title tag.

16 of the 28 High Ranking Places listings (57%) had the keywords first in the Title Tag.  8 of the 28 High Ranking Places listings (29%) had the keywords first in the Title Tag.

17 of the 28 High Ranking listings (61%) have the Business Name in the website Title Tag. 15 of the 28 Low Ranking Places listings (53%) have the Business Name in the website Title Tag.

All of this data is shown in the graph below….

Title tags

When the O-Pack came out in late October, it didn’t take very long to realize that normal SEO ranking factors were now a very large part of local search. My studies have verified that to me. But, I also felt that there were some factors that were being overlooked.

Local Search is all about proving your local prominence through your Business Name, Address, and Phone Number. I couldn’t help but think that businesses would do well to include all of this information in a title tag.  Only 1 business had their phone number in the Title Tag. None had their address. But, as I looked deep into the listings (past the top 7 in each category) I didn’t see any listings that had this information. It simply hasn’t been done on a large scale.

So, I ran a few tests and they seemed to look a lot like this….

Local titles

The site in the first position doesn’t have a superior link profile, a higher pagerank, a crazy amount of citations, or anything else that would peg this listing in front of many others on this list. But they have the NAP information prominently displayed in a big way.  I haven’t shared this with many people as it isn’t something I can prove or disprove with the little data I have, but the results are interesting to say the least.

For rankings, I think it is very apparent that having the keyword phrase listed is extremely important and probably at the first. This is new in local but simply a transfer from our normal good ol’ SEO factors.

For Recognition, I think that it is very important to include your business name on your home page title tag. Many people try to stuff a title with only keywords. But from a local search perspective, you should be advertising your business on a lot more places that just online and if they search, see your business name and recognize it from either friends, billboards, print, phone books, or anything else, then the chance of you getting the click/call will go up dramatically. Does a business name effect rankings? I don’t know, but it doesn’t hurt them and I definitely think it will help your click through rate if it is included in your Title.

For Best Results, if you are in the top 7 then you better get to the top 5. I would much rather have control over what a user sees as the title to my listing than letting Google show only the business name.

There is a lot more information that I have found interesting during my research of the O-Pack results from Link Profiles to Reviews, and Citations to Category choices. I will be publishing more in the coming weeks, and will probably release the data sheet for anyone to see what they can find as well.

PG

Mike Ramsey is the owner of Nifty Marketing, a Local Search Marketing company hailing from Burley, Idaho. His twitter handle is niftymarketing and he is a proud husband and father. Mike has lost 12 pounds on his local search recipe plan because after all, it’s not edible.

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| 03/04/2011
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Is SEO Going to be Costlier in Coming Years?

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Search engine dramas have left us with lots of “Ifs and Buts”. Caffeine update followed by algorithm change is only to start with.  A lot more is still waiting for webmasters and eventually the website owners to discover.

It is time to think ahead of time. What is there in store for this SEO as a blooming service industry?

Quick questions that came to my mind:

I was just wondering whether SEO industry would retain its position and importance in coming days, or will people take it for granted?  With “N” number of SEO professionals (majority from Asian countries) available at cheaper cost, will the industry loose its value and craze?  It seems anyone with the slightest bit of SEO knowledge can give you decent results.

Has it become the playground of unscrupulous freelancers and spammers forcing Google to come up with updates one after another?

What does the situation indicate?

Will SEO be the cheapest service in coming days? Does investing in it become a kid’s game?

Or,

SEO is going to be costlier with days.  Where is the tomorrow’s catch line?

What is the future of SEO, as it seems today?  We need to consider it from both SEO professionals and business owner’s point of view.

1. Think from SEO professional’s point of view:

Will corporate ever treat SEO as an established technology field?  Is it going to be a serious affair?Will online giants recognize and include SEO job as a full-fledged operation? Will they allocate a separate budget for like other advertisement expense?Should cheap and low quality SEO-service providers reign in the market and neutralize the over-all good effect?

Finally, will the professionals perish for their pay packages?  Since, number of providers (do not ask me about their honesty) are rising, there is a chance, website owners will say “Yes” to cheap proposals.

The bottom line is – how safe a good and ethical SEO consultant’s standpoint is in terms of job satisfaction and value.

Lesson:

Do not get pessimistic! Google is watching everything.  No search engine will allow people to garbage web and show them to public. After all, all are here to do business and at some point, we have to be ethical to our customers.

2. Think from Business point of view:

For them, the days are yet to be tougher. If you are already tempted with unsolicited mails, cold calls and willing to go for their low cost SEO options, here are few simple questions for you:

Are you still expecting someone to arrange pool of in-bound links for your site to rank good?Do you still believe that paid inclusions, traditional link building activities (though quick and easy options) will survive gracefully (say for another 5 years), so you can rest in peace?What is the viability of SEO techniques that your business is following currently?Is this going to be so affordable that any one can do away with SEO for his website and the results will simply follow thereafter?Do you move on gut feelings?

Lesson:

Businesses who think, SEO has almost become a layman’s job and who better than Asians can do it in bulk, will regret very soon.  Cheap SEO services are not going to stay long.  Moreover, this will not add any value to your website ranking or traffic generation. Forget about conversions or building long-term reputation.

You may ask why? Is there any definite reasons or, the judgement is on speculation basis?

Here are the possible citations:

Stereo type job like – traditional link building, directory submission, article syndication and other automated link generation processes are loosing importance to search enginesContent farms are no more going to boost you PR value or brings you huge trafficNothing artificial and duplicity in terms of information will get value from usersCustomer and viewer ratings will be prioritized, so your site to get on to top SERPsKeyword competition, PR allocation, traffic visits are going to be stringent

Forecasting solution:

Real marketing knowledge need to be applied along with SEO expertise.Off-line marketing concepts should be integrated with latest SEO knowledge. Managing and tracking consumer behaviour will gain importance.Local SEO service will earn more credit and demands, which need comprehensive knowledge on local market situation.

Conclusion:

The final effect would be much like this:

Cheap SEO service consultants will perish a lot. In fact, bringing perfection to this competition level will not be possible for them. They cannot afford high-end technical and marketing solutions at lower costs.SEO as an industry is going to earn a distinguished place in IT service domain. It will earn much recognition and respect.Skilled and talented SEO professionals will have more power and market demand. Their job is secure, but challenging.Number of service providers will reduce as search engines are getting stricter. Because, quality comes with priceBig time players having good infrastructure, resources, advanced technical support will survive. Cheap providers will fade away gradually.

As it seems, future of SEO was never predictable and will not be ever. However, with all these fine tunings, we can hope – SEO will upscale its grade very soon. Are you ready for it?

PG

Sanat Singha is a SEO content writer who forecasts on SEO industry and its growth pattern. He is currently associated with a reputed Indian SEO Company. If you want to avail best of the services from SEO Company India, visit SoftzSolutions.com

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Category: SEO Tips | Tags: , ,
| 03/04/2011
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eBook Review: The Site Owner’s Guide to SEO for Content Writing by Alan Bleiweiss

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The Site Owner’s Guide to SEO for Content Writing by Alan BleiweissOne of our most awesome columnists you are most likely to be following, Alan Bleiweiss, has written an awesome eBook I have gone through and can absolutely open-heartedly recommend to our readers. The eBook is called The Site Owner’s Guide to SEO for Content Writing and you can grab your copy here.

Many of the recommendations found in the eBook come from a combination of SEO best practices and User Experience best practices:

Where a recommendation carries less value for SEO, it carries that much more value for usability.

The guide clearly outlines the whole keyword selection and content creation processes:

Keyword research: Start by creating a seed list (be sure to consider the different segments of your audience);Expand the list with help of keyword research tools;Creating a clear content structure: Breaking content into categories;Creating consistent title tag structureCreating clear meta tag structure;Building the organized subheading structure, etc(Internal) Content linking strategies and approaches: Linking back to your own content;Giving outbound links to trusted sources.Enriching content with additional phrases, media content as well as re-packaging content in other formats.

Alan Bleiweiss ebook

Apart from outlining the step-by-step process the guide also provides some very actionable and in-depth advice on very questionable issues:

Which are preferred title-tag separators and why;How to link from main navigation or footer;How to identify your brand through your content;Which keyword frequency to stick to when creating content, as well as many other interesting points content creators always need help with.

Most importantly, the guide encourages you to get creative and write content for your users because…

SEO in 2011 is an art form as much as it is a science.

The eBook costs just $9.95 and you can buy it here.

PG

Ann Smarty is the Editor of Search Engine Journal. Ann’s expertise in blogging and tools serve as a base for her writing, tutorials and her guest blogging project, MyBlogGuest.com

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| 03/04/2011
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Search for Tweeted Links and Photos with PostPo.st

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Social search has been a hot topic for quite some time but seldom we come across a really great search start-up. The problem with social updates is that they are too messy and hard to make sense of. Therefore social media search engines are far from being perfect.

PostPo.st is a new promising tool that hopes to bring some fresh breath into social search. The algorithm behind the start-up is perfectly reflected in their slogan:

We are who we follow

Amen to that…

Now let’s take a deeper look.

The first thing you will have to do is to allow access to your Twitter account (via Twitter Auth) and let the engine aggregate your and your friends’ updates:

PostPost

Now dig into your social media updates using the new tool:

If I understand the technology correctly, this feature works similarly to Tweeted Times displaying most tweeted links from your friends. PostPo.st lets you see your friends’ shared links or your friends’ tweeted photos:

PosPost

The page will list your friends’ popular links and allow you to:

Easily see the linked page title and favicon (to quickly associate the link with the site);Filter out updates from any user user;See updates only by certain user(s):

PostPost

Going to watch a new movie and want to know what your friends are saying about it? PostPo.st won’t help… What the tool can do is finding you the links and photos your friends tweet about the topic.

Apart from giving you an easy access to your social media news, the tool lets you search through them.

The most awesome (and unique) part about the tool is that it will index the actual content of pages linked from your friends’ updates and will show you the tweets that do not contain your search term (but the linked pages do):

postpost search

Let me click the link in the above screenshot and here you go: “The Black Swan” is mentioned in the very first paragraph:

PostPost

This looks like a complex but absolutely unique tool to me. What are your thoughts?

PG

Ann Smarty is the Editor of Search Engine Journal. Ann’s expertise in blogging and tools serve as a base for her writing, tutorials and her guest blogging project, MyBlogGuest.com

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