Social Media Link Spam Passing As SEO
01/24/2010
I know most of you are not aware that there is anything wrong with Link Spam. This post is non judgmental.
The reason you aren’t aware of Link Spam is because, like me, you were only interested in Getting Your Message Out… you used social media the way most newspapers are using it: as a one way medium.
You post, well that’s what you tell yourself you’re doing… what you are doing is ad blasting. You’re so proud of yourself… it’s working
(well it appears to be working)
Social Media is NOT a replacement for SEO (search engine optimization)
You signed up for dozens, if not hundreds of social networks, it was no easy feat (it certainly was time consuming) you EARNED it. You’re a “glass is half full kinda person, you reframed that time spent as time well invested (it was).
So now, with a little 140 character to 350 character blurb (complete with a target url) you can press one button and an entire chain reaction of social networks is blasting YOUR message all over God’s Creation.
It is… gotta couple of quick questions for you:
Is anyone actually reading your stuff?
Do you unfollow someone who pounds you over the head incessantly with an offer you know you aren’t interested in?
Do you stay subscribed to dozens, perhaps hundreds of “friends” and “followers” only to ignore almost all of them?
When’s the last time you actually replied to an incoming direct message? Or a blog comment? Or an email for that matter (OK, you did see that one)
Are you answering your twitter? (Did you even know you *could* answer it?)
Our local Frederick Maryland newspaper The Frederick News Post sends out twitter tweets… one way
Ditto for the Washington Post
They both have Direct Message turned off, Why?
Is YOUR direct message turned off?
I’m fully aware you didn’t set out to do this… no one “tries to be an a**hole”
Here’s how it happened:
You signed up for a social network… it was cool, your friends there said “hey come sign up for this one, and that one”, before you knew it you were signed up for a bunch of em. Then it occurs to you that you can monetize this, you always wanted to start a business, with social media the entrance level is MUCH easier to meet.
Social Media Levels The Playing Field
If you get good at this, you ARE an advertising agency/ marketing wizard wrapped up in one package.
Then… you learn about a social media Aggregator!
and Man is that some kinda cool!!! You post to ping.fm and it posts to over a dozen other networks. Then you discover there’s a bunch of those cross posting/ aggregators.
Well here’s what happened: it takes up so much of your time broadcasting you stopped reading, you were like a CB microphone with your thumb duct taped to the “send” button – Your “Mike is Keyed” all the time. You’re all into sending… to hell with receiving.
(it takes one to know one… this is my penance for past transgressions)
I discovered, on FriendFeed, a fantastic graphic illustrating what I’d been doing and doing well… I just didn’t know there was a name for it.
Graphic Courtesy Daniel W Crompton of FriendFeed Fun
Now I’ve got to admit I missed a very, very, important part of this graphic’s title: Social Media Syndication Network Flowchart
I was doing this… all of it, very successfully I might add, more successfully than most social media types because I “optimized” my posts (I’m an SEO expert, the “O” is for “optimize”)
sidebar: a social media guy posts and an SEO guy posts to the same places… mine out ranks yours, all the time. Why? cause I know what I’m doing. You make a blog post and I’ll make a blog post, you put a pic on flickr and we’ll see who’s flickr gets more page views
What I’d missed is the FLOWCHART part
It just hit me like a ton of bricks, I hooked up everything to each other that I was spamming the hell out of my personal Facebook Profile. Everything I posted showed up in triplicate!
http://www.facebook.com/localgoogleadvertising
Hell, I wouldn’t follow me!
Since this dawned on me (no wonder my sales were flat, I could call people but lost many when they saw the spam fest going on with my Facebook page), I’ve been steadily removing “applications”, unhooking twitter here and there… I still kept “posting in stereo”
What I’d missed is this: hook up all your social media, that’s fine
Don’t Hook Them Together
Set up a Flow Chart (Thank You Daniel W Crompton)
Participation is what makes a blog, a blog.
Participation is the sole reason Google favors blogs over static websites.
In case you are one of the people who don’t “get it” a blog will beat the living hell out of a static website in Google ranking everyday (assuming both are new sites). A static website has ZERO chance of outranking a blog.
What makes social media effective is the two way participation, that IS the reason Google favors them. No participation and you’ve turned a blog into a static website.
So I’m doing my penance. I’m unhooking my twitter from most of the networks illustrated in the graphic because my facebook profile scares me (you can imaging what my FB friends must think)
When I first started using Social Media I kept finding web 2.0 properties that allowed, even encouraged posting to my personal Facebook Profile, my wall. I learned that according to Facebook’s terms of service our personal profiles are not to be used for commercial purposes, that’s what a Company Facebook Page is for.
But I signed up for everything under the sun! When I post to one, I post to a half dozen or more.
End result?
My personal Facebook profile gets all my tweets in stereo or triplicate. Effectively making many friends ignore my posts (unless of course they have a vested interest in the services I offer: Local Search Ranking for brick n mortar small businesses)
So here is my effort to sin no more.
I want people to tweet me as if it were my telephone.
Tweet Me, I’ll respond
I want people to post to my Facebook Fan Page Wall.
SEO Scammed You? What to do about it
01/08/2010
From Google’s Own Official Webmaster Central
Right from the horses mouth! Google suggests what to look for in an SEO and provides information on what you can do if you feel you’ve been taken advantage of.
Also Read the SEO Code of Ethics we adhere to at Frederick Web Promotions
====
Excerpted From Google Webmaster Central Support Page:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is an acronym for “search engine optimization” or “search engine optimizer.” Deciding to hire an SEO is a big decision that can potentially improve your site and save time, but you can also risk damage to your site and reputation. Make sure to research the potential advantages as well as the damage that an irresponsible SEO can do to your site. Many SEOs and other agencies and consultants provide useful services for website owners
- What are some other things to look out for?
- owns shadow domains
- puts links to their other clients on doorway pages
- offers to sell keywords in the address bar
- doesn’t distinguish between actual search results and ads that appear on search results pages
- guarantees ranking, but only on obscure, long keyword phrases you would get anyway
- operates with multiple aliases or falsified WHOIS info
- gets traffic from “fake” search engines, spyware, or scumware
- has had domains removed from Google’s index or is not itself listed in Google
There are a few warning signs that you may be dealing with a rogue SEO. It’s far from a comprehensive list, so if you have any doubts, you should trust your instincts. By all means, feel free to walk away if the SEO:
If you feel that you were deceived by an SEO in some way, you may want to report it.
In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) handles complaints about deceptive or unfair business practices. To file a complaint, visit: http://www.ftc.gov/ and click on “File a Complaint Online,” call 1-877-FTC-HELP, or write to:
Federal Trade Commission
CRC-240
Washington, D.C. 20580
If your complaint is against a company in a country other than the United States, please file it at http://www.econsumer.gov/.
//
updated 10/8/2009
//
Recommended articles
Help resources
- Webmaster Help ForumLearn from other users
- Search Engine OptimizationImprove your site’s performance in search [PDF]
- Third-party Sitemap ToolsTools for creating Sitemaps
- Webmaster Tools on YouTubeSee tips and tricks
- Video tutorial
Negative Reviews on Online Review Sites Causing You Heartache?
Links were currency in SEO for years… now it seems, Reviews Are Currency!
The web has revolutionized a great deal since its advent. From simply being a store-house of information, it has transformed itself into an expansive platform that facilitates interaction and knowledge sharing. Blogs and forums are a crucial part of this new-age phenomena. They are excellent places for people to talk about their business and invite other users to throw in their “two cents” worth on any topic.
While positive comments about your business are always welcome, sometimes you need to be prepared for negative remarks as well. They may come from dissatisfied customers or grumping clients or just about anyone who is not very happy with your company. Such negative comments definitely put forward a negative impression about your business to other users who read it.
However, the trick is not to evade negative comments and bury them deep so that no one can find them. Rather, you need to be confront those negative comments upright and reply effectively in order to protect your reputation in the market.
Here are some tips about how to handle negative comments posted on blogs and forums about your business
:
If You Can’t Delete it… Join In
It’s easy to manage negative comments on your company blog. All you need to do is moderate the comments before they appear on the blog so that you can delete anything that tries to throw a bad light on your company. However, what if the negative comment is on some other blog or forum of which you have no control? You may ask the webmaster to delete it, but this will serve no good if the blog is an open community. Therefore, what you can do is – join in the conversation. If you can’t delete the blog posit, make sure you counter-strike it in your response.
Respond Quickly
Don’t wait until a host of new persons have read the negative remark about your business before you decide to make your case and present your position. Rather, respond immediately! Even if you can’t think of a solution immediately, just post a note saying a customer representative will get back with an appropriate solution and that your business always adheres to the highest standards. This way, you will be part of the discussion instead of being the topic of a negative remark. Moreover, it will show audiences that your company is considerate about the issues of customers and responds to their concerns.
Make an Impression
Negative comments can sometimes be a boon in disguise. If you acknowledge a legitimate problem immediately and provide an instant solution, it will strengthen your reputation in the market. This will not only earn you the respect (and adoration) but also a whole lot of fans! People appreciate candor and honesty and how you respond back to a dissatisfied customer could be your chance to get more people to become your customers.
Open a Discussion
Positive comments are nice to hear but they hardly make people stand up and take notice. Instead people tend to taken more notice of a negative feedback and a subsequent reply! Negative comments about your business and your counter response to that comment open up the gates for a full-blown discussion and encourage other users to join it. With social media networks in place, this can make you popular overnight. However, do make sure that you win the battle and establish yourself as a business who has not only solved a customer concern but one that has in-depth knowledge about the industry and markets.
Disclaimer : Sabra Easterday is the owner and founder of MatchB2B. Sabra is also a lawyer with a special interest in business issues and e-marketplaces. Notwithstanding that Sabra Easterday is a lawyer, nothing in this article and no services of MatchB2B or its website are legal services
and no attorney-client relationship exists between any reader of this article or user, customer or potential customer of MatchB2B, and MatchB2BArticle Search, its website or Sabra Easterday.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sabra Easterday is the founder and managing member of MatchB2B, an online trading and online bidding platform. The website is also an excellent platform for business networking and business advertising.
The newest Game Changer is a Googlemaps Listing. For some reason people trust a Googlemaps listing because they think it’s a trusted body deciding who gets to rank #1. Very Few, and I mean VERY FEW Seo firms are providing improved ranking in Googlemaps
I’m happy to say I’m one of the very few that can deliver that service.
Maximize your ROI (return on investment) with Expert Keyword Analysis from Frederick Web Promotions
Call David Bruce Jr @
240 644-7530
Schedule a consultation today!
Keyword Research Analysis Fee for your small business: $500.00
Become Our Fan On Facebook and Get Half Off: Keyword Research Analysis for Facebook Fans: $250.00
Frederick Web Promotions
6688 Canada Goose Ct
Frederick Maryland 21703
240 644-7530
davidbrucejr@frederickwebpromotions.com
http://www.frederickwebpromotions.com
I’m pleased to discover my newest prospective clients are established web design firms seeking a ghost writer for SEO services.
All new SEO clients are nervous, they either don’t really understand what they’re paying you for OR they’ve done a lot themselves and just came to the conclusion it is productive to outsource this to a professional… those clients are REALLY skeptical to see what it is they’re paying you for.
For reasons that can only be explained by advertisers not keeping up with what works and what doesn’t… small business owners think a web designer or a “web developer” is going to get their site ranked in the search engines.
They don’t.
They can’t.
It’s not what they do (some do a little, but it’s not their strong suite)
The small business owner thinks that’s what they’re paying for.. and it isn’t.
For this reason, we’ll call it ignorance (and I don’t mean that in a demeaning way, it just “is what it is”, ignorance means you don’t know… or perhaps, you don’t know that you don’t know)…
Web Designers can command higher fees than SEO contractors… and they get it. Not because what they do is more effective than SEO, but because of misconceptions that small business people and corporate business types operate under.
Most of the small business owners that come to me for SEO think they’re buying an ad.
They are not.
They don’t know that… it’s part of the reason I call myself a consultant.
What you’re paying me for is to educate you.
…and I don’t accept all the customers that come my way.
If you are: intransigent, stubborn, stuck in your ways, you think you know what you want and you don’t want any one suggesting otherwise… go elsewhere.
I don’t need you, you need me more than I need you.
Sorry to be so blunt about it…umm, no, I’m not.
it is what it is.
Don’t take my word for this… see for yourself here:
Why Advertising Fails.
My particular solution to this disconnect between what my prospective clients want, what they think they want and their lack of uptodate knowledge of what it is that’s going to do them any good is…
Ghostwriting.
I am now partnering with web design firms and offering my services wholesale to them (with the prospect of them giving me enough volume to make it profitable for both of us)
Web Designers can charge enough, and get their price to cover what it is that I do.
My client base doesn’t: understand, have the patience to learn, get’s confused, their “eyes glaze over”, are reluctant to buy something they didn’t even know existed… and have their heads so full of the daily running of their business to have room enough in their heads to learn that conventional advertising is dead and buried.
So… now that most of my new inquires are from web design firms, rather than me shunning them as potential competitors, I now welcome them as potential partners.
What I do is a separate skill-set, I concede, you can make a prettier website than I can… mine make the clients phone ring, yours does not. Mine rank in Google, yours does not.
I can’t do what you do and you can’t do what I do.
We need each other it seems.
Improve ranking in Google Local Business Listings
Frederick Web Promotions
240 644-7530
What Makes People Buy From You?
01/04/2010
Do you know what people are typing into that miraculous little box in the center of a Google page?
Do you know what people are typing in as a query?
That is what drives sales in today’s economy: Queries.
Search Queries. Not print ads, Not newspaper ads, Not yellowpages listings… but Google searches drive sales, and in the very near future: Cell Phone Mobile Searches
That is what determines if your business increases sales or decreases sales.
He who knows what the customers are typing makes all the money
Find out what people are REALLY typing into Google to find what it is your company sells. The difference between what you think people are typing and what they really are typing could cost you a lot of money.
If you think your company is *in Google* because you can type your company name in and Google shows you that you are “there”, you are not looking at what your customers are looking at.
What do you sell? A product or a service? What do your prospective customers search for? Your name or the product/ service they’re looking for?
Frederick Web Promotions can do a search audit to find out what your potential customers are typing in to Google’s search box in order for you to discover what your website SHOULD be shooting for.
Maximize your ROI (return on investment) with Expert Keyword Analysis from Frederick Web Promotions
Call David Bruce Jr @ 240 644-7530 to schedule a consultation today!
Keyword Research Analysis Fee for your small business: $500.00
Frederick Web Promotions
6688 Canada Goose Ct
Frederick Maryland 21703
240 644-7530
davidbrucejr@frederickwebpromotions.com
http://www.frederickwebpromotions.com
Frederick Web Promotions recently performed an empirical test to see what, if any effect the use of an external blog would be to improve the ranking of a main website.
What We Tested:
Our team created one single blogspot.com blog and one single wordpress.com blog to act as “supporting blogs” for one of our local seo clients. At the time of the test that client, a Frederick Maryland General Contractor, was currently ranking very well for the keyword phrases: Maryland Home Remodeling, and Maryland Custom Painting. Which was fortuitous to our client as home interior painting was the most profitable service BT Martin Contractors performed.
Targeting a New Keyword Phrase:
When you’re marketing on Google from your companies perspective you are hawking a product or service… from a human’s perspective. I mean the end result we’re all shooting for is to precipitate a human response, which is a sale. Towards that end, you first have to have an inquiry, a lead, someone has to inquire, ask questions… all of that has to happen to lead up to a sale. Using Google as a marketing weapon however, your path to that inquiry is to target Non Humans.
Non Humans Are The Audience:
You can’t generate a human response without “getting eyeballs on your site”. To focus your efforts on humans too early is putting the cart before the horse. When you’re hawking products or services on Google your product is a keyword or keyword phrase. That IS your product
Keywords ARE your product, from Google’s perspective.
Googlebot is my intended audience/ target, at first anyway. I’m not writing to attract human attention, I’m writing to attract Googlebot’s attention. Once we occupy the “real estate”, “take the hill” so to speak, THEN and only then should you begin to worry about performing for a human audience. To do it any other way can result in Shakespearean prose that is buried deep in Google search results… no one is ever likely to see your well crafted website.
Back to the test…
The keyword phrase we were shooting for was one that we were not ranking well for before the test, it wouldn’t have been empirical any other way. We wanted to rank for Maryland General Contractors. At the time of the test our client was ranked 271 in Google.
External Blog as Ranking Booster
After one blog post each to one blogspot and one wordpress blog (and the blogs were linking TO our main target, the main website) the ranking in local Google search results went From: 271 To: 171
Where’s it ranked now?
Frederick Maryland Home Remodeling Contractor BT Martin Contractors
7130 Rock Creek Dr
Frederick Maryland 21702
301 253-1068
Local Google Advertising Consultant David Bruce Jr
Frederick Web Promotions
Do you want a website that PERFORMS in Google?
240 644-7530
I’m often asked why SEO costs so much, for one thing if I take on a client in one industry, I can not take on another client in the same industy. If I accept a home remodeler, I can not represent a home painter, a home drywall contractor, a home improvement contractor, a general contractor because of conflict of interest.
I say accept a client because demand exceeds supply, there are lot’s more customers where you came from, and some of them have deeper pockets than you do. For a small business, one that does not command a corporation sized advertising budget, Ranking In Google Local Search Results is hands down the number one most effective advertising option available to (almost) any small business in the US (and probably the UK and Europe as well).
Bottom Line: you need me more than I need you, even if you aren’t yet aware that you need me at all, or if y0u are just now discovering that it is possible to improve your companies ranking in Google organic listings and more specfically improve your ranking in Googlemaps. Sorry if that sounds brash and arrogant but it is what it is.
Many of my Maryland clients have cancelled their costly YellowPages advertising because quite frankly, the advertising I offer is better, faster and cheaper. I *should* raise my fees to more than the Yellowpages charge ($500.00 a month for some clients).
What exactly IS SEO?
To the uninitiated it seems like a simple proposition once you learn what Google likes, what Google Does NOT like and Give Google What It Wants.
The complex computer program (algorithm) that makes the decision as to who gets to be number one and who is ranked number two and so on is a closely guarded secret within the hallowed walls of Googledom. Google is an advertising company. This fact is often overlooked by people assuming Google is governed by the same FCC laws that regulate the TV airwaves, it is not.
If I take a doctor as a client, I can make them dominate the local google search results for the county they work in I am ethically obigated to not take any other doctors (for that county anyway). I can make a Frederick Maryland optometrist rank in Google and a Frederick Maryland podiatrist or a Montgomery County Maryland optometrist but for Frederick County Maryland I’m done.
Businesses that operate in more than one county are more problematic. You have to pay me to get you to rank in each county, some counties are harder to rank than others.
More coming…
David Bruce Jr
Apex Predator SEO Mercenary For Hire
Local Google Advertising Consultant
Frederick, Maryland
240 644-7530
Effective Use of External Blogs for SEO Test
11/22/2009
External Blogs as Supporting Blogs for SEO
Frederick Web Promotions is in the business of raising the ranking of our clients company websites in Google.
Companies pay us to get their website to show up in the top 10 search results of Google (and other search engines). We have a team of professional bloggers, experts in social media, web design professionals, off site promotion staff and so on.
The ranking strategy currently used at Frederick Web Promotions is constantly evolving with each update of Google’s complex ranking algorithm. I say “currently” because every 6 months or so Google changes what it favors and does not favor.
What’s Hot Right Now Could Be Paseé in 6 Months
Our current ranking strategy can be summed up in a sentence:
Ranking High in Google is 20% on site optimization and 80% OFF site promotion
Towards this company philosophy we’ve enjoyed quite a bit of success getting our paying SEO clients to rank in Google where they want to be ranked. Untill now I’ve been doing this solo, now I’ve hired a crack team and trained them. In essence I’ve cloned myself:)
I employed a variety of tactics that provided excellent results for the small business clients we handle the online promotion for but I’ve not done “split testing” until now.
Effective immediately we now empirically test each method and will be reporting back on the main company blog (Frederick Web Promotions) what works well, what works OK, what doesn’t work, how well it works and so on. Actually I’ve begun a “Do it Yourself SEO” section. More on that later.
As stated above, we are of the opinion that the first thing needed to improve the ranking of a company website is to “optimize” or alter the existing website to “make Google like it better”. Often companies come to me with a pretty website that they paid a web designer to build and said pretty website does not “perform” in Google search results.
The most common error I see web designers make is:
You’re writing to the wrong audience, you’ve got to RANK first! Write for Googlebot before you write for humans
Towards the Off site promotion we tested adding a single blogspot blog and a single wordpress.com blog with one post each to see how much the addition of these extra websites improved the ranking of one of our clients. That’s right I just described OFF SITE promotion as the addtion of what for lack of a better term I’ll call “extra websites“.
We have a client that is a Maryland general contractor serving Montgomery County Maryland, Washington DC, Northern Virginia, Howard County Maryland and Frederick Maryland (where we are). Suffice it to say they cover Mid Maryland and Washington DC metro area. We got them in the top ten of local Google search results for the keyword phrase: “maryland home remodeling” (lower case on purpose because Google’s algo converts upper case to lower case)
So we wanted to improve their ranking for Maryland General Contractors, because our clients not only can do a single kitchen remodeling job but can also do large jobs as well (and they have the resume/ portfolio / testimonials to back that claim up).
Without altering a single thing on the main website, we added 2 blogs hosted on the 2 most popular free blog platforms and added one post each… checked their ranking before and after.
Results of our empirical test of local Google advertising?
Before the test ranking:
#271 in Google
Which is to say they were found on the 27th page in Google when you type in the keyword phrase: Maryland General Contractors, you had to click “next” 27 times, for all practical purposes they were buried deep in the bowels of Google search results
After the test ranking results:
#171 in Google
OK, OK so I’ll grant you that’s no where near the first page of search results but as a test I think it demonstrates pretty dramatically the effectiveness of adding extra websites, external blogs, supporting blogs to improve an existing company website’s ranking.
After one post to the blogspot blog, it is currently ranked #141 in Google,
Frederick Web Promotions
Local Google Advertising Consultant
6688 Canada Goose Ct
Frederick, Maryland
240 315-1515
Some advice on Search Engine Optimization
11/12/2009
Some advice on Search Engine Optimization
Author: Scott Johnson Date Created: Aug 26, 2009 – 8:43:28 AM
To set a successful search engine optimization strategy you have to maintain several key elements. Proper keyword selection, website content, on page search engine optimization, link building etc. are some of hem. Here we will discuss about these strategies. Proper keyword selection is a very important job to target a section of people who will search your website to gather information and do business. So the success or failure of your site is dependent on the very factor that how appropriate key words and phrases you are setting for your content.
Google’s Keyword Suggestion Tool is a kind of tool which will help you to find out what phrases people are actually searching for, and then choose the terms that will bring your site the most targeted visitors. This tool provides top searched keywords from Word tracker. Another keyword tool is Keyword Density Checking Tool This tool analyzes your chosen URL and return a table of keyword density values for one-, two-, or three-word key terms. Its useful for helping webmasters and SEOs achieve their optimum keyword density for a set of key terms. If you are not targeting the proper phrases and keywords then your all efforts can be wasted. Balanced website content is a vital element to acquire a higher position in the searching engine. It should be balanced in that sense that both the search engine and websites visitors get attracted to this content. So your content writer should understand this criterion. He or she has to have the both abilities to write proper for human readers and for search engine. If she or he so much obsessed with the fact of ranking in search engine index like Google or yahoo then he or she is not completely a seo writer in that sense. He or she must know how to write for the human beings and how to attract the common people with his pr her writing and with the subject of that article. There is no use of writing nonsensical text and article and having acquired one of the top positions of a search engine index without the popularity and understanding of the visitors of your website or blog. Your content must be well written and thus you can get your desired higher ranking by the search engines. Writing proper titles, Meta tags and tags will boost your websites search engine ranking. Search engine friendly code and navigation selection is important and desired. Once your website is primed in this area, you will be on the path to big success. Link building is also very important factor for getting a quality position for your website. Relevant links are required. There are two tools which will help you in this purpose. They are Broken Link Checker – Which hyperlink does not work, for example because the target file is missing or has been moved or has no public read permission. Xenu’s checks websites for broken links. Link verification is done on “normal” links, images, plug-ins, frames, backgrounds, style sheets, local image maps, java applets and scripts.
Link Popularity Checker – This tool provide instant online reports of a webpage’s link popularity rating in 3 top search engines; Google, Yahoo and MSN.
Besides being one of the leading seo company providing seo service India we offer you the best link building service. Article Source: http://www.123-seo.com/
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This short article underscores the importance of discovering what keywords people are REALLY searching for rather than you guess what you think people are searching for. The author is from India and English is a second language to him, so please over look the awkward grammar.
Maryland Search Engine Optimization
Observe how many pages Google is saying that it found with the keyword phrase: maryland search engine optimization:
 |
| From Maryland Search Engine Optimization |
Google is reporting that it found 2,250,000 pages all trying to be #1 for this keyword phrase
Now Google the same phrase BUT this time put quotation marks around the keyword phrase (keyword combination):
“maryland search engine optimization”
 |
| From Maryland Search Engine Optimization |
So now we know the true number of other webmasters all trying to take my coveted high ranking.
Google offers a free business listing to small businesses at the top of most local search results pages. Local Google Advertising is what we’re after when we talk about Google’s local business listing center.
Anatomy of a Google search result page:
•Listings on the right side bar are paid advertisements, often called “sponsored links”
•The main body of a search result page are called the “organic” or “natural” search listings
•At the very top in a colored text box are also paid advertisements, sponsored links
•Above the organic listings are “Google Local Business Listings“
This wiki deals with only with the Local Business Listings
You will notice a map associated with each listing, this is because Google used the existing infrastructure of Google Maps to implement the free business listings. It’s generally thought that Google offered this free service, and gave its location on a search result page prominence above the organic listings because of the popularity of Google’s Adwords program.
Adwords is a PPC (pay per click) advertising system where keywords and keyword phrases are bid on in an auction like system. The immense popularity of Adwords priced smaller Mom n Pop stores out of the market due to the ever escalating costs of certain keywords. Google became fearful that it’s search platform would be return search results of the “rich and famous” thus reflecting only what the rich and powerful wanted seen on Google search results.
How does Google determine which website should rank higher than another?
Google uses a computer program algorithm based on hundreds of factors as the vast size of the internet precludes any human capability of keeping the listings accurate or current. That algorithm is a closely guarded trade secret within Google. Search Engine Optimization Consultants learn what Google apparently likes and doesn’t like from the observable behavior of search results.
Local Business Listings IS Googlemaps
Google Maps algorithm is different from the algorithm that anoints one site over another. It’s also slower to update.
If your customers leave glowing reviews of your product or service on the link provided your site will climb in rank.
You are permitted up to 10 photos of your product or service, use as many of those slots as possible. Fill out as much information about your business as space allotted provides, being verbose is better than being succinct when it comes to Google Local Business Listings
Many small businesses get leads and interested inquiries from a local business listing even if they don’t have a website url. Still other small businesses find it unnecessary to have their company listed anywhere other than the top local business listings. If your listing falls in ranking or is bumped out of it’s spot by a newcomer and you find your company losing sales because of it, you may want to outsource your rankings management to a local search engine optimization firm.
The fees involved for a local business listing may be less than the fees for improving your company website’s organic listing.
What Determines Rank?
Ever wonder why your companies listing in Google does OK in the main body of Google’s search results page but is not in the top 10 of those pesky Google Local Business Listings?
Ultimately what you want is to be found in BOTH sets of listings, the net effect of which would be to drive home in your prospective customers Mind’s Eye that Google apparently thinks pretty highly of your company if Google is displaying YOUR company listing in the Local Business Listings and in the Organic Search Rankings.
Well, people’s perception and Google’s reality are far, far apart.
Google didn’t *pick* you to be #1 and your competitor to be #11
A computer program picked you over the hapless fella you compete with. A person did not visit your site, take notes, compare notes, make a decision, hear the belly aching and whining of the poor fool who got bumped off of his front page listed by a website that ranked better than his…
nope, an algorithm picked you over them.
Think about it… there are what? a Gazillion webpages already indexed in Google? And how many tens of thousands of new webpages being created as we speak? Some of those tens of thousands are being “generated” by a “bot”.
There is no way on God’s Green Earth a staff of humans could possibly keep up with that kind of volume. An algorithm did it. The robot that scours the Internet (in the SEO industry we call that “spidering”) is titled GoogleBot
GoogleBot Can’t Really *Read*
GoogleBot can NOT read… but it CAN count
Googlebot counts the words on your webpage, it counts the keywords and keyword phrases you use in your copy. Is y0ur company website a little light on copy? Too bad for you.
It matters little to Googlebot if the fancy flash graphic and dramatic digital photos depicting your most important product are… well the damn thing can’t decipher a photo! but it CAN read text.
What ever makes your photos good, better or best and likewise your competitors photos crappy is subjective. Art is subjective, math is not.
Either the keywords are on your webpage (Prominently placed at the top of the page I hope) or the keyw0rds are not.
He who has the most keywords (elegantly, tactfully and deftly constructed with proper enough grammar for the spell checking programmed Googlebot to index).. Wins that coveted top spot!
But… the Google Local Business Listings are a different story. The algorithm that runs it is different.
What Google is looking for and rewards when it sees it for the organic search results page (the body of the page) is one thing. What Googlebot is looking to see in the Free Local Google Advertising Listings is quite another.
I’m not about to reveal the entire loophole in a “Google Secrets Revealed” post, not even for a hefty $1000 fee for an ebook (I’d do it for that price if it were ticket sales to a seminar and I got a couple dozen of you to buy $1000 tickets to eagerly learn how I do what it is I do) (that’s in the works by the way)
No, I’m not telling, not the whole thing but I will give you a hint, and I’m giving said hint in the form of my own Maryland search engine optimization results. This is not theory, This is not alleged, What follows is battle tested.
I’m competing against the best of the best, the top guys and gals in Maryland: other SEO professionals. Link building technicians like me:)
If your customers leave glowing reviews… and they leave them USING a gmail account, and that Gmail account is associated with a Google Profile, and the person leaving the review has a picture or avatar uploaded to that Google Profile… Your Google local business listing will climb in ranking.
There are other ways to improve your ranking in Googlemaps, the purpose of this blog post is not to tell you EVERYTHING Frederick Web Promotions can do to improve your ranking, the purpose of this particular blog post is to:
- Educate you about Google Local Business Listings
- Let you know there are things you can do to improve y0ur ranking
- Help you improve your ranking for free
- Once you see that this works, you’ll begin to see that I know what I’m talking about and you’ll subscribe to this blog
- Tease you enough want to learn more and subscribe to my main website’s mailing list at Maryland Search Engine Marketing
Many of you know you have to do something, you’re reading this to research if there’s anything you can do to “make the phone ring” in this challenging economy. More than a few of you will learn that you know you want to do something about SEO (search engine optimization) but simply don’t have the time… and you’ll hire me to get YOUR company website dominating the local Google search results!
David Bruce Jr Search Engine Optimization Apex Predator
240 315-1515 davidbrucejr@frederickwebpromotions.com
