Archive for the ‘Google’ Category

Apr 3rd 2010

Common SEO Mistakes

Unfortunately, the “if you build it, they will come” mentality doesn’t necessarily work when setting up a website. You can have the most beautiful website in the world, but if it’s not optimized for search engines, you won’t have very many visitors. Search engine optimization (SEO) is a complex subject that is constantly evolving. What works to get visitors to a website today may not work next week!

People who are not SEO experts commonly make the same type of mistakes. Mistakes in optimizing a website will affect the number of people who find your site when using Google or Yahoo or some other favorite search engine. Here are some common SEO mistakes that could be hurting your site:

Not Having Titles and Descriptions

When you use a website builder or blog software to create your website, often the title and description html tags are not automatically filled in for you. If you don’t go back to each of the individual pages on your website and include a page title and description, the search engines have a much harder time labeling your site and “understanding” what the website is about. Search engines literally read the title and description, then match the words found in those html tags with the phrases people are typing into search engines to find information.

Using Too Many Keywords

It used to be that websites needed to have keyword optimized content to have a chance at appearing in the search engine results when people typed those phrases into a search engine. Web developers and SEO experts would strive for their primary keywords to appear for a certain percentage of the total page’s content – like 5% for example.

Now, when creating content for web pages, it is not necessary to fit keywords into the content in any specific place or for a specific percentage of your overall content. When you provide information on a topic, you’ll naturally use keywords without forcing it. In fact, it is thought that using too many keywords in your content will actually result in lower search engine rankings than if you just write the information naturally.

Confusing or Difficult to Read Content

Another common mistake website and blog owners make is posting content that is confusing or difficult to understand. Content that is stuffed with keywords don’t make sense. Content that uses extremely long sentences and complicated vocabulary words will make the average reader click off your page in a hurry!

Keep your information easy to read with short sentences and every-day vocabulary. Experts say you should aim for content that reads at about an 8th grade reading level.

Creating Fancy Websites Without SEO

Probably the most confusing and expensive mistake people make is to have a website built that is beautiful but has no search engine optimization at all! If a website has all the bells and whistles, amazing graphics, fancy navigational menus and video features people may be impressed by it – if only they could find it. If you search for some of the fanciest looking sites in Google with keywords about their topic and don’t find the website – that’s a problem. A website without search engine optimization is pointless. When putting together a website or blog, you need to consider search engine optimization as part of the design.

Mar 30th 2010

The Keyword Quotient Question

One topic of interest for site owners has always been the use of keywords in their web page content. Keywords are the terms and phrases site owners use in their text that helps ranking through the search engines. These words or small phrases are selected carefully and relate directly to the business and industry of the web site content. Competition is fierce for keywords in online marketing. As a site owner, you need to not only have a list of strong, workable keywords/phrases ready to go for content, you should also have some room to exchange a few to see what is working and what is not in your marketing efforts online.

In the past, the key question was how many keywords to use to make significant different. It used to be that as Google and MSN changed their algorithms used to rank pages, the amount of keywords varied greatly from one day to the next. Now, keyword density (the number of keywords on a page) is no longer the big deal. Because Google has the most traffic in all of search engine-land, it is important to optimize for the way Google works. They have finally give up on the keyword wars and have incorporated new methods for page rankings.

How To Do It Google-Style

Site owners no longer need to concern themselves with the density of keywords in content. Instead, what is important is how you use the words and where. You should create your page content as you normally would write using at least 250 words. The next step is to add in your keywords or phrases at least once in your opening paragraph and not more than twice. You may also choose to include your words or phrases a couple of times within the body of your text but only if the writing warrants it. Otherwise you end up with content that doesn’t naturally flow.

Optimizing for Yahoo

In addition to the steps for optimization for Google specifically, it is worth noting that at the end paragraph, the keyword or phrase also be mentioned once in the case of Yahoo who does place priority on the ending paragraph.

Content has always been important for website rankings and quantity is indeed important as well. In order to get the most from your site, you need to constantly update materials and add new content to the site to keep relevant to rankings. The better you are at providing useful and relevant material to your core audience, the more likely you are to see traffic pick up. With more traffic, you are looking at the potential of more profits for your online business and rewards for your savvy marketing efforts.

Feb 23rd 2010

Should You Worry About Local Search and SEO?

Many factors might play into your search engine rankings. It can be difficult to determine which are important and worthy of your time and attention and which are passing fads that don’t need your immediate concern. One of the things that is becoming more prominent in search engine rankings is local search. So do you need to incorporate local search terms into your SEO strategy or are you just fine without them?

Not long ago, your physical location didn’t seem to matter much unless they were specifically included in the search terms typed into Google. With the advent of local search, however, you may be noticing that local search terms are showing up in SERPs whether you request them or not. So does this affect your SEO strategy? It just might, so you need to do a little research. The problem is local search results may be showing up at the top of the SERPs when someone types in your keywords- whether they are asking for local results or not. Because a computer’s ISP provides the location to the Google spiders (and everyone else’s) geography is a factor and those local business might just show up ahead of yours automatically- and this can cost you customers.

Google Maps, and other search engine mapping software, has become very efficient and accurate. Your business will be mapped according to where your URL is located, regardless of where your service area actually is. This is great news for a brick and mortar business that services local customers, but if you are an online entrepreneur who works globally, local mapping can cause you problems. As an example, let’s consider a web design company located in Topeka, Kansas. You may specialize in trendy, hip, urban designs perfectly suited for clubs in huge cities like L.A. or New York City, but regardless of your keywords, you may not rank at the top of the SERPs in those areas because Google thinks you work in Kansas. In fact, you could have trouble even if you do provide service to local companies. If you are located in the suburbs or even away from the main business area of a major city, your rankings may drop based on your address.

There are a couple of fairly easy fixes that can significantly help you in the local search rankings. One is to make sure your business is categorized carefully and properly. Appropriate categories can jump your listing from # 5 to # 1, so check yours and make sure it is correct. Another thing that will help is making sure your keywords are in the title of your business in the local search listings. While not everyone can just change their business title to make sure your keywords are included, you can make great improvements by using the keywords in your tagline.

Local search is important in SERPs and SEO and these two quick fixes can help your business battle against the automation of Google Maps and local search results.

Feb 15th 2010

Social Media Expands Again- But the Buzz Isn’t All Happy

One of the most popular ways to build a network and get to know new partners and prospects for your business is through social media. While most marketers and online entrepreneurs are very familiar with some of the social media standbys like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, there are some new players in the game, including one entry from none other than the gurus at Google – Buzz.

While it’s clear that FaceBook and Twitter enjoy uber popularity in the world of social media, we all know that when it comes to innovation and prolific invention, Google rules. They have once again raised the stakes in recent days with the introduction of Buzz- Google’s latest social media contender. The verdict is still out on Buzz- in fact it is so new that most of us are still trying to figure out exactly what it is- and how on earth we became a part of it without even trying.

If you make use of any of Google’s technological favorites, like Gmail, for example, you’ve likely seen the icon and label for Buzz suddenly show up in your list of folders on your Gmail page. The familiar red, blue and yellow balled icon popped up and led millions of Gmail users to click onto Buzz to see what all the fuss is about. What a surprise when you get there and see that you have followers and are in fact following others. Your contacts who use Gmail are now your fellow buzzers and you are automatically following them. Like other types of social media, you will see blog posts and other posts, with the organization that only Google can consistently obtain. You have several (maybe dozens or more) threaded conversations, so you can all keep up with each others’ conversations.

You can share photos, updates and your Google Reader information, Picasso updates and Google Chat talks all right in Google Buzz – and in fact, you will do so automatically, unless you opt out. This little feature is creating a stir amongst users, who aren’t used to having these kinds of decisions simply made for them. We are all quite used to double opt-in, permission based marketing, so to have the Google Giant take it upon themselves to share our stuff in a whole new app without our permission is upsetting plenty of people.

Other Google users are feeling a bit of overwhelm in the social media world. After all, how much time do we have to continually socialize when we’re trying to earn a living with our blogs and websites? It appears that Google’s motivation is to spare us some time, with their automated participation.

There is a link on the bottom of Gmail’s page to opt out of Buzz, but from some appearances, the application will occasionally add you back in, even after you opt out. So what is the consensus about Google’s latest product? The jury is still out, but don’t be surprised if the Buzz wears off rather quickly.

Jul 8th 2009

Google Chrome OS takes on Windows

Google plans to unleash Chrome OS later this year, directly taking on Microsoft Windows.  According to Google, “It’s our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.”  Chrome OS follows up the Chrome browser, released last year.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html

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