Saturday, August 27, 2011
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Monday, May 30, 2011
Capitalizing on Google's Algorithm Change
Capitalizing on Google's Algorithm Change
In February 2011, Google made big news on the Internet earlier this year by publishing an algorithm change for search engine relevancy. This was designed to punish duplicate content farms that re-purpose the same written content over and over on different sites.Facebook
LinkedIn
In February 2011, Google made big news on the Internet earlier this year by publishing an algorithm change for search engine relevancy. This was designed to punish duplicate content farms that re-purpose the same written content over and over on different sites.
The losers in this game were those that aggregate informational content and are now scrambling to learn what has happened and re-strategize ways to defeat the Google changes..
Keyword positioning has increased their relevance in the world of Google. Take a look at the following portion of a spreadsheet, taken from wisetartupblog.com and originally compiled by Systrix:
This is only a partial snippet of an extensive table. What you need to focus on is the percentage win column. Some sites according to Google got their butts kicked and the better, content rich sites like the sampling above benefit in SEO rank as a result. Take a look at the social media sites that are ‘X’d’ on the chart. So why are these important to you?
Because, you can participate in those sites at literally no cost if you can spare the time to commit to a social media strategy. Remember, a rising tide lifts all the boats and these “boats” are free to use, but to effectively capitalize on the use of them, you need to dedicate some time or assign or hire someone to do it. I’d strongly advise that you include this social media strategy as a part of your overall marketing budget, even if it means reducing your traditional media like print or radio advertising. You will see a payback that will be higher and grow over time.
Facebook is the biggest player. Make sure you have a personal listing and a company listing, and post your updates and upcoming events on your Facebook page and also promote your company Facebook page on your site. Soon you will build a following that you can bring with you as you grow your business.
This works very well for businesses with a local model, like retail or specialty stores, resorts, etc. Facebook is rapidly becoming the number one online means of organizing events like socials, customer appreciations, learning seminars and the like. People set their calendars around stuff they ‘Like’ on Facebook.
The table above also shows that LinkedIn is becoming more relevant in the eyes of Google, the biggest search engine of all time, with a 15% boost in keyword dominance.
You should:
- Put your profile on LinkedIn and that of your top company personnel
- Put up a company profile for your business on LinkedIn
- Assign someone to enlist your people in target LinkedIn Groups and participate
- Enhance your basic profile with Applications especially posting video to your profile(s). Google loves video.
YouTube
You saw in the table that YouTube is also doing well under the new Google rules of the game. This is not surprising, as Google owns YouTube.
Get some quality video content on your website, Facebook and LinkedIn pages. This does not have to cost a lot.
Post your videos on YouTube on your channel. This is free. Let YouTube host your videos and embed them in your site as discussed above. This gets the video on your site and takes advantage of the relationship between Google and YouTube, including the obvious search engine optimization gains.
The world is changing and you can ignore it or try to exploit what it is given to you. Social media sites such as Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn are all rising in popularity by an extraordinary degree. These are solid strategies to promote yourself or your business. You can’t run your business based upon the whims of Google, but you can take advantage of what Google has done. If you’re not on board with these social media outlets, start thinking about it now. Begin with one of them, get it right and then move onto others.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Why you should register your business with Google Places!
When you sign-up for Google Places you can provide a lot of information such as the geographical location of your business, the products and services you offer, as well as adding a business description, images, opening times etc. People who do business with you are then able to leave reviews of your company which are visible to others (and of course visible to search engines).
All business should sign up to Google Places and claim their local business listing. Keep it up to date, encourage your customers to leave reviews and get ready to add in your new postcode when (and if) they come.
When Google detects a search based on a physical place, it will return a set of place based results. This may be in the form of a small map of the area, with local businesses highlighted.
These are promoted within and alongside other organic search results, so it is a desirable position.
Google puts a lot of emphasis on local search, and has a comprehensive Google Places programme that covers it all.
If your business is location specific and you want your business listing to appear in Place related results, you have to register your business and verify with Google Places.
When you register you’ll get the chance to upload up to 10 photos for your business – make sure you load your best photo first, as it may start to appear in the result pages along with your page listing.
Once your business is registered with the search engines, you should also register with relevant directories that record a local address for your business.
Be sure to see our listing in Google Places and leave a review
http://maps.google.ie/maps/place?hl=en&georestrict=input_srcid:58984ed7d5c8cf9c
If you leave a favourable review for us we’ll be sure to reciprocate.
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