Archive for February, 2009
Please Do Not Spam
Posted on 26. Feb, 2009 by search_junkie.
It is amazing that in 2009 SEOs are still trying to pull off linking strategies that worked in 2001! And what’s even worse is that some are still getting away with it! A friend of mine brought to my attention some local lawyer’s competition in the SERPs and that in analyzing some of the top ranking sites he uncovered things like this (blatant), this (wikipedia scraper+check below the fold), and this (check below the fold).
It was links from pages like these that were the primary linking for the top ranking sites in this local law niche. Now come on now Google, you have got to be kidding me. But this just reinforces my proclamation that Google cannnot algorithmically control poor linking that much and that they will never have the manpower to fight it! I’ll say it again, Google will never win the War on paid links.
This does not mean you should try to rank by doing these things because most of the time links like the ones mentioned above will not get you rankings and may penalize you. It is very hit or miss as far as what can get you penalized and it kind of depends on your niche. So its a shot in the dark and not a good gamble to take at all. Please, no more reciprocal linking people. It is a lost cause. That is unless you are a local Florida lawyer. 
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The Online Popularity Contest
Posted on 24. Feb, 2009 by search_junkie.
Search engine optimization is quickly becoming one big online popularity contest. Really it is just an online PR campaign. The more places you can “get the word out” on your site the more trust and respect Google is going to have for you. Great, now you understand the concept, but how can you leverage that?
Its simple and yet complicated. The answer to that question is link building. But its not in the knowing, its in the doing, and that is the complicated part! There are many link building services out there and of course just as many claims about those services. I can tell you that not all links are created equally though. I can also tell you that you need to be skilled enough to know what will and will not irritate Google about your link building.
Link building is a hot and often contested topic in the SEO world, always has been and probably always will be. Why? Because linking is the foundation of Google’s algorithms, it was what set them apart from the competition years ago. That will not change. When looking into link building services there are a couple of things to consider if you don’t want to upset Google and get penalized. One is don’t build too many links at one time with the same anchor text. And the other is to diversify your inbound linking, in other words get links from varied sources like blogs, press releases, articles, and even paid link advertising.
Nothing will help your online popularity more than one way links. One way links are links from one site to the other, without a reciprocating link back. So you need to get as many sites to link your pages as possible without you having to link back to them. This shows Google that “hey, this site has many others linking to it from different IPs. It is probably a good resource and we should rank it higher.” That is the general idea, its an over simplified explanation of link popularity.
So find a link building firm that knows, understands, and lives by these rules and you should have a successful campaign.
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Cost Effective Online Marketing
Posted on 24. Feb, 2009 by search_junkie.
Unless you live under a rock somewhere you are all well aware of the economic situation right now. In times like these people need to find the most cost effective ways of growing their business. I will share a little secret from a seasoned Internet marketer, search engine optimization is still THE most cost effective form of online marketing available today!
The thing that holds most people back from exploring this option is the fact that it takes a long time to see/realize the results from these efforts. On top of that, if your SEO is not being done right then you will not realize that for a very long time. Because again, SEO takes time and you need to give your team time to show you the results and the ROI. There are definitely reputable companies in the SEO field that one can go to. Companies like Keyword Performance who are a Wallingford, CT SEO firm, that are well established and have a great track record.
Of course for every good SEO firm there are a handful of bad ones. This is why you need to perform your due diligence and go with an established and reputable firm for your search engine optimization services. It will probably cost you a bit more than that guy you found on Craig’s List who promises to optimize your site and have you ranking within a month, but you really do get what you pay for when you use a larger SEO firm.
I have been in this business for a long time and can honestly say that it is not worth it to go cheap on your search marketing. I see people do it all the time and end up wasting their money and then spending the higher amount with and established firm anyways. So please do yourself a favor and take my advice on this. Do not throw your money away on “cheap” search marketing services, save your money and spend it with and established firm. It will save you money in the long run!
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Optimizing On A Budget – Decreasing Your Bounce Rate
Posted on 21. Feb, 2009 by search_junkie.
Over at the Official Google Blog they have begun a new series that will focus on helping webmasters, in these tough economic times, to improve their sites. They do this by sharing tips on how to utilize the data you get from Google Analytics to make changes to your site that will increase your business.
Bounce rate is a great metric because it tells you a bit about how much visitors liked, or disliked, your page(s). This is a great insight. So the higher your bounce rate the less someone liked your page. Many search marketing specialists speculate that Google will be integrating things like bounce rate into their organic rankings at some point. The idea is that Google could possibly make their SERPs better by filtering out pages with high bounce rates. A high bounce rate could be a function of a poor page or one that did not match the searcher’s intent. You need to engage your visitors which is why rich media like Flash and Video are being used to engage visitors and keep them on the site longer.
So let’s get back to bounce rate and analyzing the analytics, which is free. You can look at a couple of different things like the bounce rate of the traffic from different sources/campaigns, the bounce rate from certain referring keywords, or the bounce rate of certain pages which may need improvements to their “stickiness.” All of those things allow you to optimize your site’s traffic by tweaking certain things about your site based off of the preferences of your traffic. This is extremely valuable in tougher economic times. You simply cannot afford to miss out on opportunities like this. So take the time, do the studying, just basically commit to it and learn more about your site’s analytics.
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Google Testing SearchWiki in Sponsored Results
Posted on 20. Feb, 2009 by search_junkie.
Earlier this week a thread at WebmasterWorld announced that some people had discovered that Google had a SearchWiki in the Adwords results in the SERPs. This manipulation of pay per click ads within the SERPs is yet another attempt by Google to enhance the user experience.
Barry Schwartz over at Sphinn got this statement from Google:
As part of our ongoing commitment to innovation, we are currently running an experiment in which users can customize the ads that appear in the “Sponsored Links” section of the search results page by deleting ad results. This experimental feature is only visible to a small number of users, and we have no news to announce at this time regarding developments in our AdWords product offering.
I have to wonder what the advertisers will have to say about this? Who wants to have their ads removed from results after working so hard to increase quality score and bidding at a high rate? Plus, how does it get tracked? I mean if the results are personal Google could totally fake the numbers! We’ll see if this ever makes it past Beta.
