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Leading Your Business Through The Google Landscape

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By Georgina Stamp

As the leader of an online business there are many responsibilities that you carry upon your shoulders; one of these is ensuring that your business survives each and every hurdle that Google has to throw at it. Most of these obstacles come in the form of changes to the way in which Google works and how it views and verifies the authority of websites. In order to efficiently lead your business through Google’s changes you need only follow these straightforward steps.

1. Your Website

Your main priority during Google’s updates should be the functionality of your website; ensuring that it’s clean, easy to use with plenty of unique content that’s appropriate for your target audience.

Google analyses each page of your site and estimates whether it is useful for a user so key aspects include content that is exclusive to your website and text that is not stuffed with search terms that you would like to rank for. With a strong focus on content, you should look at adding a blog/guides section where you can add content on a regular basis for the benefit of your visitors. This is something that search engines value greatly.

Creating an optimised, user-friendly website is the first step towards leading your business through the Google landscape.

2. Website Links

A link to your website on an external site is the equivalent of a recommendation in the eyes of Google; this means that the more links that you place on authoritative, quality websites that are both relevant to your site and that post regularly, the better your own site will appear to be.

This strategy is essential if you want your online business to survive Google’s updates and changes as a lot of organic traffic to your website is dependent upon where Google ranks you – and this depends partly on how many “recommendations” you have received from high quality websites.

In the past, websites were able to accrue backlinks from all sorts of websites with little attention to quality or relevance but Google has put a stop to this and even punished some with penalties.

3. Social Media

Another method of leading your company into a brighter future is through the use of social media; Google includes social media as another tool by which they can judge your reputation and your authority.

It’s essential that you build a following, post unique content frequently and interact with your audience on the various social channels.

The best social channels for you to utilise include Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn; when using the first three of these social channels we recommend that you attempt to communicate with both your audience and relevant authoritative figures.

It’s also important to keep an eye on your social metrics – the aim is to acquire more followers, likes or be in more social circles than vice versa. Not only will this look good to the individuals that may be interested in what you’re sharing, but it’ll also increase the likelihood of Google noticing an increase in your reputation.

By following these simple steps you can stop fearing changes from Google and start taking advantage of organic traffic for your online business.

Author’s Bio: Georgina Stamp is a dedicated member of the team at Marble Hill Partners and spends a lot of her time assessing individuals with leadership qualities.

How Will Google’s Hummingbird Update Affect Small Businesses?

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By Michelle Rebecca

When Google issued its most recent update (named Hummingbird) to the company’s 15-year-old search algorithm, it raised a number of concerns for small business owners. The update has two primary objectives: using so-called conversational searches to find results, as opposed to the traditional keywords, and displaying search content on the far right side of search pages.

Many small businesses rely on search engine optimization to gain the notice of potential customers. As with any algorithm update, this one will impact SEO in a big way. Here’s what small businesses can expect, and what measures they can implement to ensure that their rankings don’t take a hit.

Google's hummingbird algorithm change

Think Like Your Customer

The Hummingbird shift to conversational searches is based in part on the impact that mobile phones are having on search. These days people can vocally ask their tablet or smartphone a question, like “where’s the best Chinese restaurant within 5 miles of here,” instead of simply searching “Chinese restaurant” with the keypad. Google’s goal has always been to think like its users, therefore bringing back the most relevant and helpful results. And so it’s changing its search to anticipate questions.

Small businesses must do the same thing. Any SEO company should now advise their clients it’s time to rethink search. You must expand beyond keywords and instead think about conversational search terms that could lead people to your site. Try to anticipate what sort of phrases people might use to search out your wares. For example, if you provide plumbing services, a good place to start would be “where can I find the best plumber?”

More Focused Results

In the past small businesses were often fighting with bigger ones, with bigger budgets, over choice keywords. But with the greater focus on phrases, which tend to be more precise, small businesses will gain an edge. Geo-targeting, or targeting by location, becomes increasingly important with these Hummingbird updates.

Small businesses should increasingly focus on searches confined to a specific area, where they stand to benefit most, rather than broader search terms. Hummingbird will take the location of a search into account whenever possible, and a small business with a very narrow focus is more likely to come up in results than a big one with locations across the country.

Dealing with the Drawbacks

Of course, for every up there is a down, and the down for small business owners is the other Hummingbird adjustment, which is designed to give users answers to their questions without ever leaving the Google page. Displaying search content on the search pages means in essence that Google will try to anticipate the information people are searching and highlight the answer in special boxes on the right-side column that offer small glimpses into web pages without making the searcher click on the result.

For example, if you’re looking for the date that the song “My Girl” was released, Google might display a few lines from the “My Girl” Wikipedia entry that answer the question on the right side of the search results page, eliminating the need for further searching.

The end result is less web traffic for your business’s web site. The dilemma is how to get people to click to your site anyway. Small business owners will need to come up with some innovative answers. One is to offer something of value on the site that can’t be “scraped” onto the right side by the Google bots, such as a coupon or voucher for a free sample. You might try offering contests on your site that you can advertise on the homepage but require clicking on the site to actually enter. The smartest businesses will play around with different approaches to see what delivers the most traffic, at least until Google offers another update.

Will you be making any changes to your SEO strategy because of the Hummingbird update?

Author’s Bio: Michelle is a freelancer who currently works for a top SEO company. She has a passion for the Internet, specifically social media and blogging. She loves how social media connects people across the globe, and appreciates that blogging gives her the opportunity to voice her thoughts and share advice with an unlimited audience. Follow her on Google+.

What Google Added To The Link Schemes Document Found In Webmaster Tools

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By Matthew Schmoldt

Recently, Google updated the “Link schemes” informational document found in Webmaster Tools. The change was easy to miss. There were no large scale announcements.

Unlike a Wikipedia document, there is no easy way to see what was changed. Thankfully, the Internet has the wayback machine for such matters. The tool shows that two records have been kept this year for the page in question. One archive is from June 28th, the other is from August 5th.

As you can see, there seem to be significant changes. The June 28th version of the link schemes page had an opening paragraph that explained why external links were important and why Google uses them as a key influencer in search results. Now the document begins with a stern warning:

“Any links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site’s ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme and a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. This includes any behavior that manipulates links to your site or outgoing links from your site.”

To many, this paragraph is not only troubling but troublingly ambiguous. You will notice the use of the word “intended” in the paragraph. How does Google determine if a link is intended to manipulate PageRank? In the second sentence, is Google saying any link building efforts will be considered manipulation?

On July 10th, Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s webspam team, was interviewed and said the following:

“No, not all link building is bad. The philosophy that we’ve always had is if you make something that’s compelling then it would be much easier to get people to write about it and to link to it.”

Does the July 10th interview with Matt Cutts answer the questions of the August update to the link schemes document? My guess is, yes. Google seems to be preparing to take the webspam fight to the next level and has updated their official link schemes document with a hardcore and broad stance.

In the same interview, Matt Cutts said:

“I would concentrate on the stuff that people write, the utility that people find in it, and the amount of times that people link to it. All of those are ways that implicitly measure how relevant or important somebody is to someone else.

Links are still the best way that we’ve found to discover that, and maybe over time social or authorship or other types of markup will give us a lot more information about that.”

It is clear to me, that link building is quite appropriate and still legal. But, shift from thinking about link building to the idea of link earning. High quality links from high authority links should be the target. These sorts of links are earned and not built with a few clicks of the mouse.

What else was changed in the link schemes document?

Buying or selling links that pass PageRank. This includes exchanging money for links, or posts that contain links; exchanging goods or services for links; or sending someone a “free” product in exchange for them writing about it and including a link

The above paragraph seems to be fairly black and white. Google doesn’t want people to sell links for money or for products. But, what If you sign up for a Chamber of Commerce and pay a fee. Have you just purchased a link from their site? Should you request a nofollow of your link just in case?

Matt Cutts has said that you should only pursue a link if it is something you would have built or pursued if SEO did not exist.

Excessive link exchanges (“Link to me and I’ll link to you”) or partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking

The use of excessive and exclusively are ambiguous and troubling in this new entry in the document. It is impossible to know where the line is with this rule. But, remember, Google wants you to do things naturally. They want you to do things that make logical sense. If you are a flower shop, it makes sense to have a linking relationship with the local chocolate shop. It may make sense to link to the local cookie shop, to the local wedding dress store, etc.

Large-scale article marketing or guest posting campaigns with keyword-rich anchor text links

The ambiguous word here is “large-scale.” To me, I refer back to my rule of link earning and not link building. If the link is too easy to get, it’s probably not the kind of link that is desirable. Removing the easy to get links removes most of the ability to create a large-scale link building operation. The hard links take time to get. Also remember, Google is targeting keyword-rich anchor links and not generic links in articles.

Using automated programs or services to create links to your site

This seems to be the one area where Google was decisive. Do not use automated means to build backlinks. If you are tempted to use automated programs, don’t. Google is constantly indexing the Internet and can detect a sudden and unnatural increase in backlinks.

Author’s Bio: Matthew Schmoldt is an Internet marketer who has been published at Yahoo and Moz. He has four years of SEO and social media experience. He is the owner of Cool Things To Buy Inc. His website features amazing gadgets other neat stuff.

Don’t Sweat the Page Views

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By Michelle Rebecca

Yes, today’s online business leaders have it hard. There’s a ton of competition and a lot of complexity involved in dealing with certain kinds of market realities. It’s hard to monetize a web project the way that businesses monetize other kinds of investments and campaigns.

However, some of those who are promoting a business and its products or services online can get too wrapped up in various kinds of technical fixes for these issues, and may tend to disregard the bigger picture. Meanwhile, big companies like Google are trying to promote big-picture thinking that adds to the general quality of the Internet.

Effective Online Management and User Interest

Even though online business owners know that Google has made a raft of changes to its algorithms, punishing content mills and other generic SEO sites, many of those managing web projects are still obsessed with the idea that they can manipulate page rankings through metrics like keyword placement metadata and back linking.

Busy managers who want results without coordination simply plug page view analytics into automated job managers that they think will force outsourced marketing or content people to spit out the magic formula for growth. What these businesses are neglecting is the idea that natural interest is derived naturally from creating actual benefits for Web viewers.

Preserving Traditional Practices… and Branching Out

It’s not that businesses need to disregard all of their analytics or drop all of the market research. Targeted content and user analysis has its place. But beyond just micro-managing technical results, web project managers who free up content producers to explore new avenues connected to “the meat space” (the off-line world) can see a lot of improvement in their return on investment.

Time and time again, online entrepreneurs who take risks have seen their sites blossom as the consumer audience for a particular industry starts to read more, link more, and share more of what they have to offer. This generates web results in a system with longevity, where yesterday’s linking and page optimizing created quick floods of web traffic that taper off when Web viewers understand they have simply been directed by a search term.

Web project managers who understand all of these new dynamics often source projects differently. Instead of getting a low dollar bid for a few landing pages or some generic high-volume domain SERP optimization, they hire industry professionals and qualified freelance journalists to create actual content that explores the flesh and blood realities of an industry and offers readers material from the real world rather than rehashed phrasing from a Google analytics result.

That can drive a lot more vitality and power into a web campaign than anything dreamed up in an SEO laboratory.

Author’s Bio: Michelle is a blogger and freelancer. She’s written about almost every topic under the sun, and loves constantly learning about new subjects and industries while she’s writing. In her spare time she enjoys spending time outdoors with her dogs. Check out her blog, SocialWeLove, and follow her on Google+.

Why Automated Link Building is Bad For Your Business

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By Rob James

A few years ago, it was common practice for businesses and Search Engine Optimisation marketers to use automated link building to increase links to their sites, with the aim of boosting a website’s PageRank in Google. However, with Google clamping down on “black hat” SEO strategies in their Penguin and Panda algorithm updates, automated link building isn’t going to do your business many favours; instead, it’s better to focus on “white hat” and organic SEO to get the most out of search.

Primarily, automated link building is all about quantity, whereby you run software and join directories to multiply the number of backlinks to your page – blog comments, and filling blogs with low quality repeated content could also enable a single website to generate large numbers of links. However, while this might be an effective method for building up a page’s ranking, automated link building is less invested in getting good quality links from relevant sites, and has been increasingly punished by Google.

The main problem that Google has with automated link building is that it can effectively represent a form of spam – multiple links from low quality sites, or spamming comments boards with links, and posting content with awkwardly placed content distorts the actual relevancy of a page for users. In this context, your business may have a high search ranking, but not one that’s necessarily made up of the right kinds of associations.

Google’s Panda and Penguin algorithm updates were consequently designed to prevent PageRank, the main Google algorithm, from being manipulated. Panda has received 24 updates since February 2011, and crawls pages for low quality features and links to duplicate content – the emphasis with Panda is on duplicated and “thin” content, where the use of links isn’t contextually motivated, and closer to spam.

By comparison, Google Penguin, introduced in April 2012, comes down even harder on automated link building through directories – if you have a portfolio of links that are mostly from link farms and other low quality sites, then Penguin will ignore or rank these links as less relevant. It’s not perfect, but it means that Penguin is going to punish your ranking if you have too many links from low quality pages.

So, what kind of actions can you take to improve your SEO without automated link building? The most straightforward method is to focus on creating original content, and on getting high quality guest posts on blogs and pages that aren’t going to get singled out by Penguin – while there are ongoing questions about how effective Google can be at identifying the right pages to disregard, it’s clear that businesses will have to spend more time on creating great content.

It’s also important to optimise existing content and pages, and to ensure that your HTML and CSS on pages is clearly set up to ensure that they can be picked up by search engines; moreover, businesses can do their SEO a big favour by investing in social media content, which can be easily shared and recommended via social toolbars and buttons. The more organic links that you get from high ranking, trusted sites, the higher the chance will be that Google will increase the value of your own website.

Author’s Bio: Rob James is an online marketer and recommends DeepBlueSky web design to help you build a high quality site. In his spare time Rob can be found blogging about the many different linking techniques out there, which ones to apply, and which ones to avoid!

Steps to Optimize Your E-Commerce SEO

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By Brian Taylor

Optimizing the SEO on your e-commerce website is vital to selling more product. It will help your pages rank better on the search engines and keep prospective buyers on your pages longer, increasing conversions and sales. With that in mind we have put together a list of steps that you can use to optimize your e-commerce site’s SEO.

Read them, use them and watch them help increase your revenues greatly.

Concentrate more on each product page

Every single product that you have should have its own product page where as many questions can be answered as possible. It will need a great description, a unique title tag and unique description tags as well. Not only that but it should have relevant internal and external links and have all the social media sharing buttons as well so that it can be ‘shared’ online. Think of every product page as its own website and make sure that:

  • As many questions are answered about the product as possible so that a customer doesn’t have to ‘leave’ the page to finds an answer.
  • All technical specs about the product are included on the page.
  • The product title, the manufacturer of the product and the SKU are text, not images.

Take advantage of category and brand pages

These pages are very important. The average person is not going to be very specific when they first start searching for something online. For example, they won’t search for a ‘Honda Civic DL Sedan’ they will search for a ‘mid-sized car’ and then refine their search as they go. If you have a well done category page with all the possibilities listed someone who’s searching will be taken to the category page first and then be able to refine their search right on your website without leaving. These so-called ‘umbrella pages’ need to:

  • Have all the basic info for each product.
  • Have a descriptive category title on page and META.
  • Include at least a paragraph of content describing them to help prospective customers know what’s being shown as specifically as possible.

Create unique categories to group products

Even though you already have everything listed on your website you should create unique categories to be able to attract even more attention to specific items, like sale items at the end of summer for example. Most e-commerce sites won’t make a new page for ‘bikinis on sale’ but instead just make a ‘note’ on the existing webpage that they’re on sale.

Better to create an entirely new category (and page) to display these items so that they won’t be scattered all over your site but will all be grouped and found in one location.

Heavily incentivize user reviews

This may be the most important step. User reviews are the life-blood of many e-commerce websites. Just like positive reviews about movies will have people lining up at the theater for a new flick, positive user reviews will attract people to your site through SEO. And once they land, they will help persuade them to make a purchase.

The best thing you can do to get reviews is to give your customers an incentive to leave one like an extra discount or something similar. The more reviews the better and, if possible (and it is possible) they should be placed on the product page itself for even more selling power.

If you follow these steps your website will attract, convert and sell more products so don’t hesitate to start using them all ASAP and watch as your sales and revenues start to increase.

Author’s Bio:
Brian Taylor is the VP, Business Development at Forix SEO in Portland, OR. a team of crack SEO experts with an impressive record when it comes to results, experience, and expertise. Forix offers affordable and ethical SEO services in Portland helping small businesses with their Internet marketing needs.