Showing posts with label SEO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SEO. Show all posts

Monday, August 11, 2014

SEO is The Key to High Impact Brand Visibility & Meant to be turned with Care



Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the traditional way to ensure that your business is found by your core audience when they are making relevant searches. The entire procedure runs on the theory of keywords and key terms which are used by the users to make the searches. However, though the keywords play an important role in the search engine’s search for the most relevant website, there are other criteria too which are taken into consideration.

The path of modern SEO Services is one fraught with danger. A certain band of SEO's, infamous as Black Hats, have ensured that certain ways of increasing the visibility before the relevant audiences are now highly scrutinized. Let us take for example, the process of Link Building. Link Analysis has always been one of the most trusted methods for search engines to determine the quality of a website. However, Link Building has withstood so much abuse by the black hats with link buying and other unethical means of earning links, that although still important, it has become a highly dangerous endeavor. You should make it a point to beware of SEO Agencies which guarantee top spots within a week or some short duration like that.

All the major services of SEO like Link Building, Content Posting, Page Redirects, etc., are now highly specialized services, meant to be handled by experts with adequate knowledge on the subject. Look for an agency which aims for a sustained visibility rather than instant high ranks. Practicing unfair means often leads to permanent and irreparable damages and thus is a temptation that should essentially be avoided.

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Google+ Page Optimization is a High Priority of SEO / SMO Task Now.

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Google’s recent tweaks to the Google+ pages have made them an important platform from the point of view of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SMO (Social Media Optimization). Google is engaged in noteworthy efforts to increase user activity in their Google+ pages. Two of the major roll outs which were announced this year were the integration of the Google Map business listings and Google+ pages and the release of Google Insights. Both these factors will increase the importance of the platform for the SEO Professionals.

Google Map’s business listings usually enjoy high visibility in the SERPs. Integration, with the Google+ profile, means additional visibility among the circles. Another area which helps is the facility of writing reviews on the business page. Thus, optimizing, a business’ Google+ page, means providing the user with the consumer reviews also. A study, of the online behavior of the users, suggests that after seeing the online avatar of the business, users often search for reviews. This often leads them to a different page and inversely affects the chances of conversion. Google+, on the other hand, allows these reviews to be written and posted on the business page itself.

The second roll out, although done very recently, holds a lot of promises from the point of view of analysis and targeting. Google Insights will allow the owner of a page to have access to a detailed report on the number of visitors to the page, number of followers, etc. The segmentation is done on the basis of visibility, engagement, and audience. The visibility section shows the total number of visits garnered by the page, the engagement shows the number of received +1s, shares, comments, etc., and the audience provides the demographic features of the visitors.

An optimized Google+ page of your business provides one of the best ways of featuring prominently in the results of relevant searches. Google’s rapid introduction, of tools like the above, has further increased the importance of Google+ Business Pages from the SEO perspective.        

Sunday, June 8, 2014

What Does the Panda 4.0 update mean for SEO?



SEO's spent a restless last week of the month of May, 2014. Even as Google was preparing to launch Panda 4.0, a few of the prominent sites had already begun witnessing huge decline in visibility and traffic. Although this may have been due to the release of spam algorithm version 2.0, the launch of Panda 4.0 continued the loss of visibility for prominent sites.

As Google’s Matt Cuts had previously mentioned about the upcoming changes, this update maybe specific to certain keywords. Google had received complaints regarding a few keywords that particularly attracted spam. Thus, this update was in the pipeline for some time now. Though the exact manner in which the updates resulted in the lowering of visibility is still unclear, Google had declared that about 7.5% of English queries will be impacted by this update. Going by the percentage, Panda 4.0 will have the highest impact among all the Panda updates. Thus, it is time, once again, for SEO Agencies and SEO Professionals to put themselves on hot seats.

Let us start with what we know. It is seen that the Press Release sites have taken the first hits in the largest volumes. Not many are complaining about this as such sites have become infamous for becoming hubs for spam links. What it means, for the SEO's, is they have to now take extra care while posting content to the Press Release sites. It can no longer be “post it anywhere you can”. SEO Professionals will now have to put Press Release sites through careful scrutiny before hitting the post button.

The SEO Agencies should also be ready for more changes as and when more effects emerge. What they should also remember, is that a quality website with quality content is the only characteristic that will remain untouched by these changes. For all the other factors, the game of cat and mouse will continue.

Thursday, April 24, 2014

SEO Needs to Take Into Consideration the Customized Search Results



One of biggest ways that Search Engine Results have changed is the Customized Search Results. This specially comes into play when the user is logged-in to a particular profile. For example, if a user is logged into his Gmail account, then the search results will depend a lot on the previous searches made with that login. The same applies with Yahoo and other major accounts. The variation is so intense that SEO Personnel need to consider this in their optimization strategies in order to ensure that visibility is not lost.

Most of the online users prefer to remain logged in while spending their time online. This is especially true of the interactive users, as a logged-in account is necessary to interact on most of the platforms. Since such active users form the prized audiences for SEO, what they see in their search results cannot be overlooked. One of the most fruitful techniques that SEO professionals employ to tackle Customized Search Results is by maintaining an active Google+ profile. This is because, it has been found that searches, made while logged-in to Google, throw result pages that are dominated by posts from Google+. In fact, the first page includes posts from users that you follow on Google+, if they contain content that matches the query. Thus, more the followers your brand’s Google+ profile page has, better is its chance of appearing in Personalized Search Results.

Since Google rules the roost among the search engines, ensuring an active Google+ page takes care of a large share of online target audiences. However, any SEO worth his salt knows the perils of putting all the eggs in the same basket. Similar steps should be taken to feature in the other prominent Search Engines as well.

Monday, April 14, 2014

Building Conversations is the New SEO Mantra



One of the newest techniques, to which SEO Services or Search Engine Optimization Services are moving, is building conversations with the readers. This includes, but is not limited to, the comments that follow a blog post or any other write-up. The tone of the write-ups itself is changing from a straight tone of a one way channel of information to one which is conversational in nature. The conversational tone helps build a relationship between the write-up and the readers, which leads them to feel involved.

It is true that the traditional process of earning business has been a very straightforward exercise. The user searches with keywords, finds a write-up that provides relevant information. If his queries are satisfactorily answered in the blog, he often goes ahead to do business, leading to the sales conversion. However, with the number of write-ups that are available on the internet now, it is no longer possible to read everything that can be found. Internet readers notoriously brought the term “skim reading” in vogue. It is thus, not just the businesses that compete with each other for attention, but the related contents also compete for the readers’ attention. A conversational tone immediately raises the interest of the readers and is more successful in catching their attention.

The Search Engines also see user engagement as an important way of judging the quality of the write-up. The user engagement is most commonly measured by the comments, likes, and number of shares and they are taken into consideration while ranking the page too. SEO Experts now make optimum use of the comments section. Prompt replies, further points and counterpoints are used effectively to start and retain user interest. Apart from the part they play in SEO, such conversations also bring newer viewpoints and facts into the equation and increase the efficiency of the write-up.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Latest SEO Task Involves Removing Duplicate Google Map Listings



With the newest upgrades of the Google Map Business Listings to the new Google Places Dashboard, removal of any duplicate listings has become the latest urgent work for the SEO Agencies. Every time Google updates something in their systems, SEO's pull up their socks and prepare to leave everything else that they are doing and make the necessary modifications. The updating of the Google Map Listings has brought on such times for those that have multiple login ids verifying for the same business location on Google Map.

The latest updates cannot complete in the cases where they find more than one account linking with the same business listing. When this happens, Google sends an automated mail to the ids asking them to remove the duplicate accounts. The mail instructs them to remove all but one account from the Business Listing. This problem is very likely to happen in partnerships where multiple parties claim to the same business listing. In that case, Google advises restoring the rights to only one account, before which, the updates cannot be completed.

This development has necessitated an action that may have been kept pending by a few service providers. Google continues to ensure that its guidelines are maintained through later updates and changes in its system. For any SEO Agency looking for unhampered and sustained quality in their services, it is a good idea to follow the guidelines before they become mandatory.