Write for Humans and Not for Search Engines

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Write for Humans and Not for Search Engines

Why It Is Important To Focus On Your Human Visitors and Not Search Engine Bots?

In the very early days of the Internet, the content industry was quite a bit like the Wild West. At that time, specific rules had not been established and the people who could sling out the most keywords in their content were getting the bulk of the Internet visitor traffic.

Website owners who were trying to create usable resources on the Internet started to get frustrated because the search engines were falling prey to keyword stuffing and were sending traffic to content mills and similar websites instead of legitimate experts.

In response to the outcries, along with many other search engine algorithm updates, Google released the Panda Update update. This update helped to weed out websites that were using keyword stuffing to drive traffic and helped legitimate websites to drive more visitors and thereby increase revenue.

In 2012, Google released a follow-up to Panda called the Penguin update. As effective as Panda was at pushing traffic to the proper websites, one of the main reasons for the Penguin update was to weed out websites were still utilizing keyword placement in lieu of good content.

The Penguin update has placed a strong emphasis on creating useful and relevant content as opposed to trying to attract search bots with lots and lots of keywords. The Penguin update has also started to severely punish websites that cut and paste content from other websites instead of generating their own content. It is imperative to never copy and create duplicate content!

The Penguin update puts the focus squarely on the most important visitor to your website: the human visitor and not on the search engine bots. The Penguin algorithm update is an important reason to start gearing your content more towards human readers rather than bots.

But another good reason for altering your content is because people want to read content that is useful to them and content that is written in good English. Content that is based on keywords tends to be difficult to read and often offers no value to the reader at all. But when the content is written to be informative and helpful, then that will help to keep existing traffic and attract new traffic as well.

Internet search engines are evolving on a day-by-day basis. But it has become obvious that the underlying theme to the new changes is the need for better content and content that is written in a manner that makes sense to human readers.

If you want to get your website to show up higher in the new Google search results pages, then you need to provide content that is valuable and useful to human readers. If you want to retain your current traffic and entice new traffic to visit your site, then you will need your content to be easy to read and useful to all of your human readers.

Have you been a victim of the Panda update or the Penguin Update?

What Google Plus can do for your Website

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How can Google Plus help your business?

It is natural for a company to favor its own products when creating other products of mass appeal. The Google search engine has long been the gold standard by which other search engines have been measured. The importance of Google to the online content industry was shown when Google changed its search algorithms in a way that rewarded good content and discouraged keyword stuffing and spamming.

The most recent algorithm update was called Penguin. With the Penguin update in place, more website owners are looking for ways to get their websites higher up on the search result pages for Google searches. One way that can be of help is to use Google+.

What Google Plus can do for your Website

Google+ is Google’s answer to Facebook, but with more  focus on creating connections between people and businesses. One of the ways that you can potentially get your website to show up higher in Google search engine results is to list your website on your Google+ profile page and then get as many people to become your Google Plus friend as possible. The more people that circulate your website address, the more improvements you will see in your search results will be. Since this is all tied directly to Google, the results can be seen in a matter of just weeks rather than months and it is an effective way of improving search results.

Another way to use Google Plus to your advantage is to make sure that you claim authorship of all of the content you post on your Google Plus page. This will help you to get your content to get seen ahead of even some of the more popular blogs on the Internet. It will help you get your name, your company name, your website and your keywords all pushed up higher on search engine results pages. It will also help you to associate your name with your website so that you can take advantage of all of the new Google Plus friends you are adding on a regular basis.

How have you used Google+ for you business?

The Seven Basic Rules of Effective Blogging

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The Seven Basic Rules of Effective Blogging

Blogs are a great way for people to get information from the Internet.

Some of the most reputable and popular sites on the Internet are, in actuality, just blogs and such websites can generate a lot of traffic if managed properly. When you decide to start a blog, there are seven basic and important rules you need to follow that will help you to be successful and generate good traffic as your blog gains popularity over time

Blog posts can be of the following type:

-Informative (about a product, service, company, tradeshow etc)
-Educational (how something works etc)
-Introductory (introducing a new product or part or attachment)
-Entertaining (a story, an anecdote or narration of something interesting or funny)
-Promotional (introducing a special offer or promotion)
-Instructional (how to etc)

Blog posts should have genuine, human-targeted content with relevant keywords – it would be best to take a topic of narrow focus (generally with emphasis on 2 keywords) and discuss that. Be sure that each keyword appears 2-3 times in the blog; the longer the post, the more you should use the keyword but remember to not over-do the keywords.

Choose One Topic

The first rule of blogging is to pick one specific topic per blog and write everything there is to write on that topic. It is best to pick a topic that you have a passion for so that you can find the motivation to write the content you will need to write. When you choose a single theme for a blog, you also make it easier for your content to be seen on search engine results.

Add Content Regularly

If you want a successful blog, then you need to add new content regularly. This does not mean that you necessarily need to write new content every day, rather, at an established frequency. You can write all of your content for one week or for a month, or even longer, save it and then post it throughout the week or setup your blog to automatically publish such content on a periodic basis. However you do it, you need to make certain that you have some kind of new content added regularly.

Tag Your Content

When you add new content, always be sure to put the proper tags on your content and put it into its proper category. That is important in making sure that your content shows up on the search engines under the appropriate search criteria.

Use Guest Writers or Authors

If you can get guest content from well-known writers that is original and not reprinted from other websites, then use that as well. It will add to the authority and credibility of your blog.

Maintain a Schedule

You need to create and maintain a consistent schedule for your content in order to gain and keep an audience. For example, if you blog about flower, then your blog should have a new, relevant, unique and meaningful article about flowers or related subjects on a regular basis. Try your best not to vary your schedule unless you absolutely cannot help it.

Have a Voice

Your readers will often come back to read your content because they either agree or disagree with your point of view. When you create your content, you need to have an opinion and a voice that gives readers something to think about. As a suggestion, end eacb blog post with a meaningful question to give your readers something to ponder over.

Make it Interactive

In every article, you need to invite comments from readers and get involved in those conversations. The more accessible you make yourself through your blog, the more people will be interested in what you have to say.

Apart from that be creative and have fun with the blog – it is a great way to engage with your audience. Remember, a blog takes several months, and sometimes years to gain traction and it is easy to get discouraged but the key is to never give up.

What has your experience been when it comes to blogging?

Affected by the Google Penguin Update?

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Affected by the Google Penguin Update?

Has your website and organic search engine rank been affected by Google’s recent Penguin Update?

The Penguin update was released in late April 2012 and has impacted a significant number of web properties.

Read the official blog post on Google’s Webmaster Central Blog.

Google is continually working to create a relevant and credible search experience for its users and this update continues the tradition. The main goal of this update is to penalize websites that are “spammy” and attempt to “cheat” the search engine by utilizing techniques that are considered to be unacceptable. The focus is on what is being termed “over-optimized” websites: those that are targeted more toward search engines and not human readers.

Dubbed “Penguin“, this is an “algorithmic” update and if your website has been affected, you need to take corrective action immediately. After corrective action is taken, and once the Google bots re-crawls your website, there is a good chance that it will start to rank again – as long as the offending items are corrected as needed and your approach is genuine.

Watch out for the following:

-Website content with excessive number of references to your main keywords
-Website content that appears to be developed for search engines and not for human visitors
-An unnatural link structure where the link distribution is perceived as spammy
-The bulk of your inbound links come from blog comments or forums
-Website content that is duplicated, copied or scraped from other sites or pages
-An excessive number inbound links that originate from your own site
-An unnatural distribution of anchor text tags
-Website content is stale as in old and not regularly updated
-Duplicate content across more than 1 domain(s)
-Not having enough content “above-the-fold” ie before having to scroll down
-Multiple domains with substantially duplicated content
-Doorway pages that were created just for search engines

“Spammy” Techniques – if your website is over-optimized, immediately take steps to remove as much of the over-optimization as you can. Avoid techniques such as cloaking or keyword stuffing like the plague – such techniques are sure to get your site removed from the Google Index. And, if you have an excessive number of keywords (high keyword density) in your content, Google will see this as keyword stuffing. Use synonyms if possible – the Google search algorithms are smart enough to understand synonyms and establish relevance.

Quality – focus on quality – the key is for existing customers to share your content across their properties. So take immediate action to correct spelling mistakes, typos, bad grammar and other readability problems with your content – show Google that you are interested in genuine content and do not want to be mediocre.

Content – Publish genuine & meaningful content – if you don’t have a blog, add one in short order. Establish a regular blogging frequency and no matter what, stick with it. Add a FAQs page and update it often. Add an educational content where you provide meaningful content to help your visitors.

Video – Use video strategically to publish even more relevant and meaningful content – syndicate video via sites like YouTube, Vimeo, Smugmug and others.

Social Media – Give social media the attention it actually deserves: update your social presence regularly and do it such that you really mean it and don’t be perfunctory. At the very least, build a complete Facebook and Google+ profile. And look into Pinterest, currently the 3rd largest social media network, behind Facebook and Twitter.

Google+ – this one is a given – since Google+ is a Google property, it would make sense if it received a bit more interest than Facebook, Twitter and others so create a G+ profile and regularly post content on it

Meta Tags – do not repeat keywords in your title tag, enforce the 65 character limit and enforce the 150 character meta description limit.

Think outside the box – you may not feel that social media is a good fit for your business and for the life of you, you cannot imagine how to leverage social media. Believe it or not, 9 times out of 10, there is a fit; and it generally takes some thinking outside the box. So, take the time to come up with ideas on how to be different with social media, especially within your industry.

And more than anything, if Google-got-you, don’t fret. Take genuine corrective action and before you know it, your website will be back where it was. Don’t take this as a negative update, rather, take this as a challenge and make your organization stand out even more than before by focusing on meaningful, relevant and great content!

So, was your business affected by the Google Penguin Update?

SEO Pricing Explained

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SEO Pricing Explained

SEO pricing is a complex issue to tackle as it depends on many factors and needs a comprehensive seo analysis. Based on your industry, your competition, your organization’s geographic penetration, SEO can cost anywhere from hundreds of dollars to tens of thousands of dollars or more.

Furthermore, the cost of SEO also depends on the project model followed by your SEO vendor of choice.

TYPES OF SEO VENDORS

Let us first look at the various types of SEO providers that are available to you:

Freelance SEO Experts – Thanks to the high-speed internet, many people now can perform these 25 best online jobs on the Internet and make a living. Most Freelancers are good but again, we suggest that you do you homework before signing on the dotted line. Remember, it is the overall approach – the team approach – that counts and most freelancers are not team oriented given that they are freelancers. Hiring a freelancer can be the most economical option.

Offshore SEO Companies – The ones that offer to “do” your SEO starting at $199 per month – a lot of these are link building factories located outside the USA. Proceed with extreme caution and make sure you check previous work and references extensively before engaging. It’s not so easy to find a good service.

Dedicated Internet Marketing Agencies – Dedicated marketing agencies will have the most expertise and will have multiple teams in-house to handle all aspects of your SEO but they can be pricey and the majority of these agencies generally prefer to work with larger clients. A lot of these will not be able to offer related and/or required services (such as performance optimization, code adjustments and similar) in house.

Web Development & Internet Marketing Companies –  Typically midrange pricing – that offer the best of the breed in expertise in design & development as well as digital marketing and are usually able to provide most, if not all, related and/or required services in-house.

SEO PROJECT MODELS

The following pricing models are common in the SEO industry.

Fixed Cost – A fixed project cost includes a specific set of activities and generally lasts a finite, pre-determined time. The cost of the project may be payable in several installments. Upon conclusion of the project, you have the option to extend, or engage in a new project.

Fixed Cost plus Monthly Retainer – Generally, a fixed, one-time cost for work such as onsite optimization followed by a monthly cost for ongoing optimization with a pre-determined duration of the project so there is no abuse such as “your rank will drop if you stop SEO”.

Performance Based – Where the charges apply once your website starts to rank at a certain predetermined position on a search engine(s) of choice and these rates go up as the rank of your website increases from the 20s to the top 3s.

Hourly – A fixed hourly rate is charged for work performed; this rate depends on how your vendor of choice is positioned in the SEO playing field.

Individual Services – Some SEO vendors will split a project into several chunks: initial audit, on-page optimization, keyword research, link building and charge either on an hourly basis, or on a fixed-cost basis for each chunk. This allows you the flexibility of engaging in one or more of the “chunks”. The type of vendor you select further adds to the pricing equation.

SEO PRICING

In most cases, SEO starts with an audit (or assessment) of your website, followed by keyword research & selection. One-time on-page optimization such as updates, changes and modifications to your website and content updates come next – these are all part of on-page (on-website) optimization. Off-website work focuses on ongoing link building and may also include ongoing social media/profile optimization. Ongoing work also includes monitoring and reporting.

Please note that the pricing model presented below is specific to our company, however, it should give you a good benchmark. Let us look at the steps of SEO one by one:

SEO Audit

Typical Effort Type
8 to 32 hours One-time

A typical SEO audit can take anywhere from 8 to 32 hours to complete and depends on factors such as the complexity of your website, competitiveness on search engines, how well the website is designed/developed and whether it has been optimized previously or not…it is also affected by the regularity of content updates, social media presence and many others.

Keyword Strategy, Research & Optimization

Typical Effort Type
8 to 40 hours One-time

A solid keyword strategy is critical for the success of SEO. Keyword research is a time-consuming affair; time should be invested in this part of the process given the importance of selecting proper keywords. Coming up with the proper keywords can take anywhere from 8 to 40 hours.

On-page (on-site) optimization

Typical Effort Type
0 to 60 hours per month Ongoing

Depending on the outcome of the SEO audit and keyword research, this step can take anywhere from 0 to 60 hours to complete. On-page or on-site optimization refers to structural updates or changes that need to be made to the website itself, hence the term “on-page” or “on-site”. Not all websites need the same amount of updates; in rare cases, zero updates may be needed.

Off-page (off-site) Optimization

Typical Effort Type
18 to 80 hours per month Ongoing

Off-page optimization depends on the number of keywords being promoted; the geographic reach (i.e. local, regional, national or international) and competitiveness of the keywords and the industry. Ongoing off-page optimization can take anywhere from 18 to 80 hours per month.

Monitoring and Reporting

Typical Effort Type
6 to 12 hours per month Ongoing

Without monitoring and reporting it would be difficult to assess the effectiveness of the effort(s). It is important to monitor visitor traffic, behavior and search patterns on a regular basis so that SEO efforts can be adjusted as needed and keywords can be changed when required. Ongoing Monitoring and Reporting generally requires 6 to 12 hours per month.

CONCLUSION

Typical Effort Type

Typical Effort Type
16 to 120 hours One-time
24 to 92 hours per month Ongoing

SEO pricing varies and is highly dependent on the agency or company you choose to work with. As an example, top SEO agencies can charge tens of thousands of dollars just for their SEO audit and an annual SEO contract can run in the low 7 figures.

There is no hard and fast rule to SEO pricing – but remember the old adage – cheaper is generally not better and at the same time, the most expensive option may also not necessarily be the best.

What pricing model has worked best for you?