Executive SEO Marketing Blog Blog

The big issue lately has been Googles “new” treatment of the nofollow tag and how it creates a massive reservoir of lost link juice. SEOMOZ did a good video about the whole subject the other day and everyone seems to be talking about it, including Googles own Matt Cutts.

People think about PageRank in lots of different ways. People have compared PageRank to a “random surfer” model in which PageRank is the probability that a random surfer clicking on links lands on a page. Other people think of the web as an link matrix in which the value at position (i,j) indicates the presence of links from page i to page j. In that case, PageRank corresponds to the principal eigenvector of that normalized link matrix.

Q: Does this mean “PageRank sculpting” (trying to change how PageRank flows within your site using e.g. nofollow) is a bad idea?
A: I wouldn’t recommend it, because it isn’t the most effective way to utilize your PageRank. In general, I would let PageRank flow freely within your site. The notion of “PageRank sculpting” has always been a second- or third-order recommendation for us. I would recommend the first-order things to pay attention to are 1) making great content that will attract links in the first place, and 2) choosing a site architecture that makes your site usable/crawlable for humans and search engines alike.

For example, it makes a much bigger difference to make sure that people (and bots) can reach the pages on your site by clicking links than it ever did to sculpt PageRank. If you run an e-commerce site, another example of good site architecture would be putting products front-and-center on your web site vs. burying them deep within your site so that visitors and search engines have to click on many links to get to your products.

There may be a miniscule number of pages (such as links to a shopping cart or to a login page) that I might add nofollow on, just because those pages are different for every user and they aren’t that helpful to show up in search engines. But in general, I wouldn’t recommend PageRank sculpting.

Read the full post

Microsoft’s Bing search engine has just become publicly available, allowing you to decide whether Microsoft’s latest effort has the goods to take on Google. Bing is available at www.bing.com and replaces Live Search. When you do a search at MSN it redirects you to Bing.com.

Microsoft is expected to spend $80 million to $100 million on Bing marketing which would be a nice hedge against Yahoo! because Bing will most likely take market share from Yahoo!.

Whether Bing ultimately succeeds or not, it will push Google to keep innovating search, and the new pay per click competition will ensure that Google doesn’t get too greedy.

How is Bing different from Google?

Bing is not dramatically different from Google, but some people have found its results stronger. There are some visible changes:

• Bing shows a preview of the web pages in the search results when you hover your mouse pointer at the right side of the search results.
• Bing displays fewer results if it is certain that it has understood your intent. The search for “Facebook”, for example, brings up just one result linking to the site itself.
• Some search results are divided into categories. For example, if you search for the popular musician “Justin Timberlake”, you’ll get results in the categories news, songs, movies, biography, wallpaper and downloads. In addition, the search results show images, videos and the popularity of the musician.
• Wikipedia searches can be displayed inline in the search results without leaving the Bing site by clicking the “Enhanced view” link.
• Bing features a different background image every day. The image contains special hidden hotspots that lead you to more information (soon advertising?) about the image.
• Despite the background image, Bing’s homepage loads very quickly in your web browser because the search box and logo load first. You can turn off the background image.
• Bing’s video search lets you watch videos without leaving the search engine.
• Bing offers specific health, shopping and travel search engines, as well as instant answers to travel searches. For instance, the search “Vegas hotels” displays a selection of hotels in Las Vegas, including hotel stars and prices.
• Bing’s search history lets you return to your most recent searches of the last two days. This feature can be turned off to protect your privacy.
• Some of Google’s features are missing, for example, Bing doesn’t seem to recognize misspellings and returns no results in these cases.
• f
• f

So far it looks like it has some cool features but it has the same results it always had in MSN.com. Some of the search results are better then Googles results but usually Google still has better overall results it seems but the jury is still out.  One thing is for sure, people are going to know the word BING because of the advertising MSN will do and enough people might actually use it but will they keep using it?

We have helped another company redesign their existing website and put up a new updated site that is also fully optimized for the search engines.

IT Simulations applies a simulation-based training methodology and delivers programs using the most advanced reliable on-line technology available.

The company provides hospitality training, restaurant training and retail sales training solutions.

Great post on PPC marketing for your blog.

Pay per click marketing can be very effective for getting the word out about your blog. This is especially true if you have affiliate programs you promote there. Many bloggers know what pay-per-click is, of course, but they don’t have a full understanding of the various elements of it.

Following is a brief overview of pay-per-click, and three key factors that go into making up a successful pay-per-click ad.

Definition of Pay Per Click

Pay per click is simply a paid way of driving traffic to an online presence (blog, website). The marketer pays a fee every time a web surfer/visitor clicks on their ad.

The overriding goal of pay-per-click campaigns is to drive “qualified” traffic to a site. Once there the visitors are then asked to do something, ie, make a purchase, subscribe, call for more info, ask for a free quote, etc. You, the marketer, determine what action you want the visitor to take.

While these ads are small, they can be extremely difficult to write – if you don’t know what you’re doing. Following are three key areas every pay-per-click ad should pay attention to.

3 Key Elements of a Successful Pay Per Click Ad

Keywords: This is where you make or break your pay-per-click ad campaign. Your keywords should of course be highly relevant to your niche. This should be reflected in your landing page (the page visitors land on when they click on your ad).

You should spend a good amount of time doing extensive keyword research before you write your pay-per-click ad because what you think may be a popular keyword or keyword phrase may not be.

Headline: Your headline is what potential visitors see first, so it is yet another vital part of your pay-per-click ad. Some internet marketing experts say that you have less than three seconds to grab a prospect’s attention — and you have to do it in 25 characters or less (the headline of a pay-per-click can only be 25 characters (not words, characters)). Hence, each character is a precious space.

Pay Per Click Ad Writing Tip: If you don’t remember anything else, remember this – get your main keyword(s) in your headline. Remember the goal is “targeted” traffic. Your keywords drive targeted traffic.

URL: Your URL should also contain your keyword where possible. For example, if you have a site selling antique dolls, an excellent URL would be antique-dolls.com. This not only tells the potential visitor what your site is all about, it tells search engines too – and this is what pay per click is all about – making it easy for search engines to properly categorize your site so that they can deliver “targeted” traffic to your site.

source

One of the best tools that Ive found is at www.semrush.com and if you plug in your domain name, it will show you how many top 20 rankings you have at Google, how much traffic your getting from Google and they also put a value on the monthly traffic you are receiving from Google.  There are many other uses as well, including seeing the google adwords information for a site.

SEMRush.com was designed by the developers of SeoDigger and SeoQuake to satisfy your needs in advanced SEM and keywords research. We use all your comments and suggestions and the huge experience of ten thousand webmasters in Search Engine Optimization to create the ideal product.

SEMRush uses the 25 million most popular and expensive keywords to analyze Google search results and we do this regularly. SEMRush can show you keywords for any domain that ranks high enough to be in the top 20 search or Adwords results. We use the US version of Google.com

WHY YOU NEED IT

• Discover competitors’ sites with common Google keywords
• Get list of Google keywords for any site
• Get list of AdWords keywords for any site
• Check your competitors landing-pages for SE and AdWords traffic
• Investigate long-tail keywords for any domain
• Get estimated SE and AdWords traffic for any domain
• See sites’ spending for AdWords
• Get hidden related (and low-cost) keywords to optimize your AdWords campaign
• Find potential advertisers for any site
• Find potential traffic sellers for your site

This is an excellent tool, one of the best of all time!

Google continues to pull back the reins on some of its product and service offerings, today announcing that they’re shutting down Google Audio Ads and Google Radio Automation.

In a post on the Google Traditional Media blog, Google’s Susan Wojcicki explains the service wasn’t as successful as they hoped:

In 2006, we launched Google Audio Ads and Google Radio Automation to create a new revenue stream for broadcast radio, produce more relevant advertising for listeners and streamline the buying and selling of radio ads. While we’ve devoted substantial resources to developing these products and learned a lot along the way, we haven’t had the impact we hoped for.

Advertisers can continue using Google Audio Ads until May 31st. The Google Radio Automation software will be sold. Google will instead focus on developing a service that delivers ads for online streaming audio.

Google says this decision could lead to the loss of up to 40 jobs.

It was just a few weeks ago that Google shut down its newspaper advertising program. And shortly before that, Google announced the closure of several other products/services, too.

Formerly known as “Research Assistant,” Yahoo is starting to introduce (to selected users) what it’s now calling “Search Pad,” an application that automatically collects sites and content as users conduct online research. By contrast, Google has shuttered (for new users) its similar, but less developed, Notebook service.

Yahoo describes Search Pad in the following way:

Search Pad is a note taking application built into Yahoo! Search that automatically assists you in saving websites you visit and taking notes as you search. Search Pad helps you collect, edit, organize, save, print, and email your notes for immediate or future use.

Search Pad uses various cues to discern when users are doing research (time spent on sites and other factors) as opposed to other online activities (e.g., site navigation, business address lookups, etc). When it decides a user has indeed initiated a research session — say travel planning — it prompts a user to “take notes”:

As users go through their sessions, Search Pad automatically collects the sites visited, together with thumbnail images of those sites. Users may cut and paste text from any site into Search Pad and Yahoo will locate the corresponding page and URL where that text appears automatically. For example, if one copies and pastes text from Wikipedia or Amazon, Search Pad will find the link to the page on which that text appears.

It thus minimizes the labor involved in saving the results of online research.

Search Pad sessions or “documents” can be saved (after log-in), printed and shared. Individual sites or content entries can also be reordered or deleted on the Search Pad document. Users can also annotate or compose notes independently in Search Pad documents. There are no storage limits and files will be saved indefinitely.

The system also saves recent searches. Here’s a video demonstration of Search Pad’s chief features.

Note From Danny Sullivan: I hope to revisit the new tool myself in the coming weeks. I’ve been tracking it for several months, as Yahoo has developed it, and it really struck me as having potential to pull in new searchers. In particular, I can recall seeing it for the first time shortly after having done a lot of online research to purchase a new TV. I had a piece of paper scrawled with notes and URLs as I went into the store — then I saw Search Pad, which would have far more easily created the exact same type of summary for me.

Note from Greg Sterling: This story appeared prematurely, before the embargo lifted, because of confusion on my part about the specific timing of the embargo. I apologize to Yahoo for the confusion.

source

LinkedIn works for business because it was designed for business. In the last year this more business focused social media site has added some features that really help give businesses that serve other businesses an edge.

LinkedIn brings some of the most popular software forums together. Their LinkedIn Intelligent Applications (InApps) platform offers a truly creative environment for presenting your business to fellow members. InApps also promotes internal connectivity.

Connect with other Businesses and Customers with LinkedIn

Use Google Presentations or Slide Share to embed a visual display of recent accomplishments. Do you want to stay on top in your field? Add Reading List (from Amazon). You will find out what others are reading. Are you promoting an eBook or print media? Reading List is a promotional tool as well.

LinkedIn offers two blog options: WordPress App and Six Apart’s BlogLink. If you have a WordPress blog, it is easy to sync it with your LinkedIn profile. Special LinkedIn tags allow you to filter your posts, and you can display your personal WordPress Gravatar. Automatic updating is included.

Do you already use a different blog platform? Then use Blog Link instead. It supports WordPress and TypePad, Movable Type, Vox, Blogger, LiveJournal and more.

LinkedIn also offers an Outlook Toolbar. Now every person you contact, or who contacts you, can be added easily to your Outlook Contacts. It also lets you know when you have contacts that aren’t part of the LinkedIn network. We all know that the best way to grow a network is to invite someone to join it.

Have you ever wanted to take advantage of a long layover? Now you may be able to. Tripit lets you and other members post travel itineraries. When connections will be in the same city, you can arrange for the personal connection. Nothing builds rapport like actually meeting people.

Connect your employees with LinkedIn

Huddle Workspaces creates secure online workspaces. Collaboration and sharing tools are part of the package. Box.net Files let members share and manage files online.

LinkedIn offers its own feedback tools

Company Buzz is a great tool for finding out what people are saying about your business. You can identify topics that you want Buzz to track. Buzz stores historical data so you can look for trends. You can also use Buzz to drill for related tweets on Twitter using the top words associated with your topic. If something is being said about your company, you’ll find out.

LinkedIn Polls lets you create polls. You can poll within the community for free, or expand your poll to include specific groups of professionals. For example if your business targets medical professionals, Polls can deliver your poll to that group. There is a pay-per-response fee for polling outside the community.

LinkedIn doesn’t take a daring approach to adding services. When they put a new service on their site, you can know it works for business. The CEO of LinkedIn, Dan Nye, is committed to offering “applications that enable people to more effectively collaborate with their networks on a wide range of daily professional activities. We choose to work with leading companies whose services make sense for how our members use LinkedIn – for collaboration, information sharing and developing opportunities.” They intend to keep improving their offerings.

If you tried bring up New Zealand in Google Maps yesterday, you would be surprised to see, Google lost all the map data for that early bird country.

A Google Maps Help thread have reports that are confirmed from Google, that Google had a bug that indeed knocked parts of Google Maps New Zealand off the map.

Google’s Mike CH confirmed the issue saying:

We messed up – very, very sorry about that. It’s fixed now and we’re busy drawing up a list of things we can do to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Once again, apologies for the inconvenience.

He did not say exactly what went wrong, but the issue seemed to be somewhat manual, being that they want to make some policies to prevent it from happening in the future.

The map details for New Zealand were not available, but the satellite images were. Now everything seems to be working now.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Social media marketing is the process of promoting your site or business through social media channels and it can be a powerful strategy that can get you links that can increase your organic search engine rankings and potential traffic to your web site.

Social media marketing for businesses will only work if you have some kind of useful content that you create on a regular basis. If you have a good article that has useful and interesting information, then it is a great idea if you promote it via the social media websites.

Developing articles and successfully getting them popular on various social media websites like Digg and StumbleUpon will lead to multiple benefits for any website:

· Primary and Secondary Traffic. Primary traffic is the number of visitors who come directly from social media websites after reading your article. Secondary traffic is referral traffic from websites which link to and send you visitors, after they come across your content through the social sites.

· High Quality Links. Becoming popular on social news websites like Digg or Reddit will get you a large number of links, some of which may be topically relevant, some not. A good story can realistically acquire a large number of high quality editorial links, most of which cannot be easily bought.

Now let’s translate this into tangible benefits for your website:

1. Links = Better Search Engine Rankings.

When a website receives a large number of natural, permanent links from trusted domains, it develops authority. Search engines trust it.

A new website may find it difficult to gain links from a critical mass that is not familiar with it but a trusted social news resource makes it easier for links to come in, because the community and buzz has somewhat ‘certified‘ the value of the site.

2. Primary & Secondary Traffic

General sites or blogs in the same niche will link to a story that’s popular on social sites, because it adds value for their readers or users. This is done naturally on a daily basis for many. So this is valuable for getting a link but also the visitors that come from those links, will probably be interested in your service.

What Makes Social Media Marketing so Important?

Social Media connects people through technology, affordably, and comfortably. When people connect, information gets shared! If you have a service or product that you are promoting, you really can’t afford to ignore the potential of social media marketing.

Most people think of social networks like Facebook and MySpace and have no idea that they can be used to promote a business or a product. Absolut Vodka has a page called Top Bartender on Facebook. Acura has a fan club, Acura TSX Connect, as well. If the big companies see the benefit of using social networks, you should, too.

Facebook and MySpace aren’t the only social networks. Do you want to connect with the business community? LinkedIn is the site for you. It is the perfect place to promote services and products that meet the needs of business. Would you like to integrate video, pictures, and blog? Then Bebo is a top competitor. All these social internet communities can be tapped to market services and products.

Some sites give you exposure because people collaborate on them. The most famous, always at the top of the search engines, is Wikipedia. You may be less familiar with social bookmarking. Delicious and StumbleUpon are the most popular. These bookmarking sites let members store and organize bookmarks to their favorite sites in categories that they choose. These bookmarks can be kept private or made public. Members can give feedback on the sites, too.

How Do You Make Social Media Marketing Work?

The first thing is to let people know who you are. On Facebook use your profile to say who you are, what you do, and where you are. On a blog, your about us pages tell the story and your posts provide unique content that can then be distributed via social media sites.

The main thing is that you have to create good solid content on a regular basis because it can then be used to get more people to your website and as a bonus you can usually get a number of high quality back links pointing to your site, that you normally would have never gotten and this increased link exposure usually will lead to higher organic search engine rankings.

Social media marketing offers a number of low-cost ways to promote your business. Create a blog, post video clips on YouTube, create articles and submit them to Digg and Reddit and start building your site up through social bookmarking.

Social media marketing is becoming very popular and is something that should be part of your overall Internet marketing plan. Now is the time to start utilizing social media marketing in order to promote your business.

Contact us for Social Media Marketing and other SEO Marketing Services.