Category: Google

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Move Forward or Die – What to Embrace to Grow Your Business?

Even I get fatigued with staying on top of my business for the Web. It’s hard work to blog, write a newsletter, stay up-to-date in your field, tweak your website for organic placement, and manage your pay per click program on top of your regular business maintenance issues like billing, selling, and then actually doing the work you get paid for. But, if you don’t stay on top of your game, moving forward constantly, you WILL die. Well, not literally, but figuratively your business will, really. You must constantly be moving forward to stay “in the game” to win new clients for your business.

Too often businesses forget that to grow that they must be looking for new ways to reach out to prospects and clients. You simply cannot grow your business by being static or doing the same old things. Being a successful business person is all about being dynamic. That means actively growing your business, looking for new opportunities, and stretching to reach more people on the Web in new ways. Same old same old will not cut it in today’s competitive environment.

So what are the new things you can and should embrace to help grow your business and win new customers? Here are my top five web recommendations:

  1. Start blogging – there are too many benefits that you get from blogging to not be doing it now!
  2. Consider a monthly e-newsletter – keep your name in front of prospects with well written pieces and make sure to archive old newsletters on your website.
  3. Make sure you are using pay per click advertising – but only supplement your business by targeting the keywords where you cannot place organically. Your budget doesn’t need to be big, but consistently work on keeping your name in the marketplace in front of prospects and customers.
  4. Watch industry forums and post comments on the top forums and blogs making sure to link back to your own website. Choose websites that have “extreme authority”. In my industry for example, I routinely post on the Google Search blog, Microsoft’s adCenter and other top search blogs, and other industry expert’s blogs. Always post insightful commentary never spam. Google usually picks up these comments as links back to your website and they can really work for you to build authority and traffic.
  5. Start now with a syndicated article program. Hire a ghost writer to research and write articles for you. Post at least one a month for six to twelve months to build authority for your business and to get new one way in bound links to your website. This strategy does work, and can really help to improve your organic placement. Archive the articles back on your own website. Make sure you write to cater to a broad audience, don’t just write for others in your trade, try to write for the broadest appeal and largest syndication possible.

If you are not moving forward aggressively to build your brand through my five easy steps you should take a careful look to see if you need to resurrect your business plan for growth. Remember if you are not moving forward your business will die!

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Link Generating Articles Take 4 Months to Reach Google

I’ve been very closely monitoring links and organic activity on Google for a client that we have been aggressively been writing feature articles for directory syndication. What I have found out about the process is interesting. There is about a three to four month delay before the results hit Google. So you must be patient with the process and continue to write while waiting.

Specifically, we have been writing 800 to 1,000 word articles typically focused for this client on bringing traffic to his website through broad syndication. He is a bed bug exterminator and the articles have been focused to the real estate and property manager industry as well as providing interesting information to home owners on the topic of bed bugs.

It has taken Google four months to really show a difference in his number of in bound links. Last month he had 600 links reported by Google and this month there are over 3,000. We have written a total of just under 10 articles so far and the increase in the number of Google reported links has positively impacted his organic placement on top terms in Google finally this month.

The bottom line is that feature article writing for directory syndication is an excellent way to get one way in bound links, but that you should expect to wait 120 to 150 days or more for the results to really impact your website’s organic placement on Google.

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The Yellow Pages are Dead, Really? Well Maybe…

I have heard this more than once from clients – they have stopped or cut way back their Yellow Page advertising to fund focusing on web advertising or web placement.

When I managed a paint and wallpaper store years ago, it was not uncommon for us to spend over $5,000 each month for Yellow Page advertising. If you weren’t there (in the Yellow Pages), customers just did not find you. The $5,000 we spent (on Yellow Page advertising) was probably even on the low side. The web has changed all that. Now, the mantra is if you’re not on Google, customers just do not find you. Well, they can find you with sponsored search, but that in itself has truly changed how many firms choose to promote their businesses.

In fact, I was just searching for information and professional services today, and when I did use the yellow pages online, the results were so lame that I went back to Google for more research and review. I did find resources via the pay per click ads, but I started with the organic results rapidly scanning the descriptions for my top phrases, then used search and find to find my phrase in the actual document. Did I pick up the Yellow Page book from my cabinet – NO I was totally online.

I am just one of thousands of searchers using the same techniques. So, is it still viable and beneficial to advertise in the local Yellow Pages. I think that it depends on what you are providing and selling.

I look for beauty salons in the Yellow Page print version and not on the web as I want just local results. When local search results get better on all the search engines, I may fore go the print Yellow Pages all together. How about you? When do you use the print Yellow Page and when do you use online searching?

I think you will find yourself to be like me, for search and to find out of area resources I use Google.com. For local businesses, like hair salons, I like to see the print ads  in the print Yellow Pages and gravitate to the larger ones, bypassing the small ads. I typically do not search the local online search engines for purely local business results. As local search results get better this is sure to change which will nail the coffin lid on the Yellow Pages for sure.

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Google’s Devaluation of Link Programs

I follow a number of blogs and newsletters focused on search engine optimization techniques. It continues to amaze me when supposed experts talk about link programs and their value in getting placement on Google. If they had read Google’s patent disclosure from last year they would know that they need to be rethinking link campaigns.

Right now I am watching a client and analyzing the techniques that we are using for organic improvement on Google. The days of using link software are gone, as Google will ding you for linking to poor quality sites. In fact before you link to anyone, you should evaluate their site for how it works with your content, their pagerank, and the actual placement of your link. Getting a link for the sake of just a link is actually now a very bad strategy to take when you are focused on Google placement.

We know that linking from blogs doesn’t work anymore as all the main platforms now insert a no follow tag in the link, some forums still have a follow property in their links, and so some forums can still be good for you to post and link back to your website and blog, but not all.

We are also evaluating feature article writing as a way to get quality inbound links, and so far have found that although this tactic generates an abundance of links, but that Google is smart enough to net them out when determining organic ranking. There is some buzz in the marketplace that  it may take 90 days for Google to add the links to the site’s organic ranking, but to me from what I have seen so far this sounds like an apology for non-performance. I am watching two situations very carefully using feature articles for link generation and as soon as I can ascertain if this is a workable strategy I’ll let you know.

In the meantime, be very suspicious of webmasters and SEO firms that try to rope you in with link building programs, you may be paying for a strategy that Google has devalued.