Category: Search Engine Optimization

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The Color of Your Money Does Not Determine Your Organic Placement

This is a truth that you should remember especially when you get contacted by search engine optimization firms from a cold call. You cannot buy organic placement on Google!

Google placement is not for sale! This is not the first time that I have heard this story, a client calls and says for $xxxx a month this firm guarantees top placement on Google and Yahoo because they have a special partnership with the search engines. Just these statements alone should put up a red flag for you and you should not buy into the scam. That is what it is, a scam to separate you from your money.

Google has over 150 different factors that determine organic search placement and the color of your money is not one of them! Google does not partner with SEO firms to provide organic placement. Actually that is one of the best things about Google. A small firm can actually compete with a large firm for great organic placement through great content, regular updates, and slow link building strategies. The playing field is leveled by considering what really matters to readers – targeted and great content.

Now, notice that I have not said the same about Yahoo. This democratic mentality does not apply to Yahoo. You may possibly be able to buy your way on Yahoo. We know that Yahoo preferentially will show websites in organic placement results that have bought into their local non-PPC programs sold through advertising agencies, but Yahoo is closed mouthed to even us, professional webmasters, on the real details here and how to participate. So you may be able to buy your placement on Yahoo, but be very careful over what you buy in to.

The bottom line is, if a firm says we can guarantee top organic placement on Google, you should question the program as they CANNOT guarantee this, Google is not for sale!

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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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Why Using a Hyphen Is Better Than An Underscore

I use hyphens only in all I do. I’ve done this for years both in content and in the naming of links, creating website architecture, and for search engine optimization. Specifically that is only using hyphens (-) instead of an underscore (_).

Here’s a quick note from Webmaster World forums on that issue:

Key-word

A hyphen (as is probably consistent with language use) returns a mix of results for the words both used separately, and joined together – somewhere between [key word] and [keyword]. It’s the preferred word separator within website URLs, since other punctuation characters that are treated as a word-separator have specific functions within a URL.

Key_word

Underscores are treated as a letter of the alphabet, which is why you can [url=http://www.google.com/search?q=_]search for an underscore directly[/url]. Use underscores in content if your visitors include an underscore when searching (e.g. if you had a programming site).

 

Note the important information on hyphens here that search engines will return both the separate and joined together word. So if you want to match more searches it is hyphens all around. I even use this same technique when it comes to selecting a domain name where writing it out and keeping it short are not important.

It actually used to be that underscores in URLs were considered stop characters by search robots. Google did announce this past year that they have surmounted that obstacle and were not equally indexing underscores AND hyphens. For me, I simply use one syntax and for ease of use only use one way which is hyphens on everything. You’ll find no underscores on websites that I design or optimize for that matter a stronger match to more keywords is just simply better policy.

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Hey, Are You An SEO Expert or Just Pretending to Be One?

Are you an SEO expert?Are you one or are you pretending to be one? Don’t monkey around when it comes to your website and search engine optimization. If the person who you are interviewing to help you with your website cannot answer these questions or share with you their approach and process then you may be working with the wrong firm.

Here are the top questions you should ask:

  1. How long have you been doing SEO?
  2. Where is your own business website in the results page for your keyword phrases you are targeting?
  3. What client results can you share with me?
  4. Why do I need to pay a monthly maintenance fee and what exactly will I be getting for that?
  5. What is the process you will be using?
  6. What is your thought on Google’s devaluation of links as part of their algorithm?
  7. What will you be doing to the code of my website?
  8. Do you believe in using doorway pages and hidden content?
  9. Will you be creating special pages just for search engines?
  10. Can you share with me the statistical data on searches and competition of the terms you will be using to optimize my website?

If the firm you are speaking with is wanting you to pay a monthly fee as in number four, find out EXACTLY what you are paying for. When we do optimization, we do not need to go back and lay hands on the site pages each month. This may be a ploy to build a sale or pad a project.

If they do not have a good answer for number 6 and 7, you really should not use the firm. If they will be using tactics as in 8 and 9 you really should run away as these tactics may actually get you dropped from the Google index.

Don’t monkey around with search engine optimization get real professional help!