Google and High Quality Content

Love it or hate it, Google is the dominant force when it comes to ranking your company's website. That ranking is registered when a prospect types in a keyword to find something they're looking for like "dentist in East Lansing" or "T-shirts in Fort Lauderdale." Google wants to reward it's users by presenting the most relevant websites at the top of their ranking page.

There aren't any "Google elves" sitting there answering keyword searches. Instead, an algorithm is activated for every search. Throughout the years, Google has tweaked the algorithm to make it better at finding great websites for the respective search results. They keep the algorithm a secret as many companies try to game it in order to be ranked higher. However, there are general rules that Google has outlined what a relevant website should follow in order to be ranked high.

According to Matt Cutts, Head of Google’s WebSpam team, fresh, relevant content is the foundation for high rankings. So, how does Google tell if a web page has high quality content? Consider these factors:

Duplicate Content

Google performs an instantaneous scan and recognizes just as fast whether or not a web site has overlapping and/or redundant content on your site. They look to see if you’ve copied content from other sites by checking the age of the content and percentage of similar content when comparing sites. Here is where your inclusion of keywords could actually come back to haunt you, especially if they are being overused. Does this mean you should abandon those keywords? Absolutely not. However, you might also want to freshen up your existing content if your keyword phrases all appear to be using the same phrasing.  

Quality Content

Google is looking for quality. When it can deliver that to its users then those users will come back for more. Is your content well written? Are there grammar or spelling errors? Does it read like a robot wrote the piece? There are many quality content writers out there who can deliver engaging content. If you don't have the skills, hire someone who does. One way Google measures quality content is through tracking how long an user stays on the page. If they arrive on the page and leave immediately, Google knows that the page wasn’t relevant to the search query, or that the website content wasn’t good.

Relevant Content

Here is where you need to search out the competition. Pretend you're a customer and Google the same keywords you hope someone would use to look for your site. What businesses come up on the first ranking page? More importantly, why did those sites come up first? Take the time to study those pages to see what they are doing right in terms of content, titles and headers. This is what you should be striving for.

Viral Content

The best type of content is something that will be shared. Whether that is an infographic, top ten list or really cool photo, if you can get viewers to bookmark or share that piece then you're spreading your message further across the web. Information and humor are two solid items that can make a piece of content go viral. If you can add a short, funny video all the better!

When you get right down to it, it's not rocket science. It's all about quality. 

Why Isn't Your SEO Campaign Working?

How is your SEO working for you? If your response is, "What is SEO?" Then we're off to a bumpy start. Search Engine Optimization or SEO refers to how well your website content copy attracts a search engine. 

The goal is to get as close to number one status on that first search page as possible. To accomplish that you need to make some specific choices with regard to your SEO campaign.

 Top on the list of important SEO concerns should be:

• Finding the right keywords specifically geared for your business.
• Writing alternate title tags and Meta descriptions for all of your web site pages. Yes, all!
• Fold the perfect keywords into all your titles, subheads and links. Yes, all!
• Develop a plan to attract back-links to drive traffic to your site. Here's a hint: link out to other sites that have similar content.
• Develop a social media plan to share your content and increase link-building.
• Stay on top of your analytics to make current adjustments.

A strong SEO campaign isn't about programming technology. Instead, it should be about focusing on the following areas:

Informative Content

The foundation of all your website copy should be to inform your customers. That's what search engines will be on the prowl for because they want to inform their customers. There shouldn't be a scatter shot approach to your content. Instead, plot out an editorial calendar for each month. This can help you focus on informative themes and allow you to set consistent deadlines for updating that content.

Tracking Traffic

If it looks like that your online marketing strategy isn't attracting traffic, change it. That's why you're following your analytics! A simple test is to play the role of customer. Type in your target keywords and see what comes up. Why is one website above another? What are they offering their customers? Can you do the same?

Don't Stuff Your Content

There are plenty of so-called SEO experts trolling around who promise to optimize your content. Merely stuffing keywords into a couple of paragraphs is an attempt to fool the search engines. It's not going to work. SEO isn't about technology as much as it is about quality. Along with content, give you customers the chance to post positive reviews. Often those reviews are what pops up first.

Your website is your storefront. If you had an actual brick and mortar business you'd greet your customers as they come in the door, ask them what they are looking for and volunteer to help them find that. Now transfer that attitude to your web business. That's what will make for a successful SEO campaign. 

Getting the Most Out Of SEO

There you are, finally ready to launch your online business. You went through weeks of planning with a web designer and got everything worked out and tested.

Then, finally, your website goes live. And you wait. And wait.

Where are the customers? Where's the traffic? That's when you'll hear the word SEO for the first time. It's a word you should make your new best friend!

Search Engine Optimization is what can put your site at the top of search page rankings. But how can you get those high rankings? Fortunately, there are many wonderful resources available online to help you beef up your SEO. The goal is to choose the right SEO services and make sure that you get the value for your marketing money.

Here's what a good SEO company should be providing:

Knowledge and tools to research strong keywords. Everything starts with the keywords. This is what the typical customer will use to type into the search engines. Finding the right combination of keywords is, well, key. Keywords or phrases should be based on your understanding of your customers’ buying cycle. A comprehensive keyword search includes keyword popularity, competitive research and product-related searches. There are some keywords that appear to rank high but might make no sense in terms of being added to content. Your SEO expert needs to decipher the difference.

Ability to create engaging copy. Once you've got the keywords locked down you then have to fold them into your content. This is what will be picked up by the search engines. Working them into headlines is easy but it's the copy that really matters. Search engines are becoming extremely sophisticated - they can sniff out "spam copy" and penalize you for it. Don't depend on an IT guy crunching algorithms or a web designer to be able to entice your customers with the written word.

Up-to-date information. Google is still the reigning champ of search engines but it is getting plenty of competition from rivals Bing, Yahoo and a whole range of other players. Your SEO expert needs to be on top of all of the search engine parameters because they are constantly being upgraded. You want someone who will be staying far ahead of the technology curve. Ask them when the latest update to a search engine was and have them explain to you how it can affect your website. 

As you look for an SEO expert don't hesitate to shop around to find one that best suits your needs. Obviously, you should start with the ones that have the highest rankings themselves. You know they're doing something right.

SEO tips for your small business

As Google has changed how people access and consume information, so must small businesses if they want to compete effectively. The goal of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is to drive traffic to your website and therefore increase sales.  It has become such an important of marketing that you can’t really ignore it and expect to be successful in business.  

Here are some tips that can help your site get better optimized so that you can increase your sales. 

·         Picking the right keywords: One of the most important components of SEO is selecting the right keywords as optimizing for the wrong keyword will be leaving money on the table. You want to make sure that you pick keywords that have high traffic but are not competitive. Pick the keywords that people might type in the search engine, usually they would be two to four words.

·         Use short and keyword- targeted titles: Make sure that your title tag is descriptive and reflects the keywords and content of the particular page. Your title shouldn’t be too long, up to 10 words, and should also include your business name or website.

·         Detailed meta description tags: While ‘Meta Keyword’ tags are a topic of debate in the SEO world, what has remained is the frequent use of something called a “Meta Description” tag. This tag should contain an overview of what the visitor will experience on your specific page. This tag should be no longer than a couple of sentences. Omitting the “Meta Description” tag will result in the search engine quoting unintended parts of the page in the search engine results page.

·         Use search engine friendly URLs and domains:  When you purchase a domain, make sure that you purchase a domain with keywords that your clients will type in the search engine. By matching the domain name to the search phrase, you have a higher probability of gaining more visibility.

·         Content freshness & age:  The reason search engines exist is to provide you with great information. If your site doesn’t have fresh content on a frequent basis, they will bypass you in favour of a site that does have recent and relevant content.  When you publish unique and interesting content on a regular basis, you get noticed by the search engines, who will place you

·         Obtaining backlinks: The more links you get from other high rank websites, the better it affects your SEO ranking. A way to get backlinks is to provide great content and have people share it. The only reason people will want to link with you is because you have something great to offer. Don’t just link only to the homepage, but also make sure that you can get links to other pages on your website if they are relevant.

 ·       Social media content and sharing: Recently, Google has changed some parts of its algorithm, called the Panda Update. One change that was supposed to help in search rankings was how many times people share a webpage or website through social media. Now, to get people to share, you must provide great content to be shared.  Also, have your customers post reviews on major sites like Yelp, Zagat, Facebook and link back to your website.