Monday, May 30, 2011

Duplicate Listings and Local Search

lI have discussed in the past my disdain for the local search algorithm that Google has yet to master. Unfortunately, there are a lot of problems with the algorithm itself that can lead to any number of headaches for business owners and online marketing companies managing local search campaigns for their clients. And while there are a number of things that can be done to prevent these issues, unfortunately, a lot of the time they are out of our control; rather, we simply have to roll with punches and make do with what we are given. I am going to explain why.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

The Importance of Keyword Research in Search Engine Optimization

I see it all too often - aesthetically appealing and well designed websites that are generating no traffic, and as a result, are not realistically serving any purpose. I agree that there are some companies that have chosen not to market online and as a result, their website serves as a reputation and legitimacy tool. For example, someone walks in to your store, you hand them your card (that has your URL on it) on the way out, and they return home to check out your site to make sure you are "legit." On the other hand, if you are attempting to use online marketing as a primary medium to reach potential customers, designing a beautiful website can be all for not unless that website can be found in the search engine results pages (SERPs). The first step to ensure that your site ranks for relevant search queries is conducting sound keyword research.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Anchor Text Links and SERPs Rankings

The key to ranking high in the search engine results pages (SERPs) is having a high quality backlink profile. The more websites that link to your website, the more of an authority Google's algorithm will perceive your site to be. The algorithm was constructed to solve a complex problem - how do we return the best possible information to an online user that is searching for something? Links are the exponential factor that help Google partially solve that problem.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Have Blog Commenting Links Lost Their Value?

Last week I discussed the process of purchasing links from blogs, what webmasters who are considering buying links need to look for, and what the risks are of buying links from websites that are entirely unrelated in content. Ideally, webmasters should be working hard to acquire non-paid, high quality links from other webmasters that maintain sites that are in the same niche or industry as their own. As Google's algorithm develops and becomes smarter, acquiring high quality unpaid links has inevitably become increasingly difficult. One tactic that most relied on, the acquisition of valued links through blog commenting, may not be as sound of an approach any more.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Buying Links from Blogs to Increase Rankings

There will always be two sides to the story of whether or not buying links is an effective strategy to increase your rankings in the search engine results pages (SERPs). All things being equal (quality of content, on-site optimization etc.), it is necessary to understand that a website that has a large number of high quality links will outrank a competitor that has a less impressive backlink profile. As a result, I don't necessarily think that whether or not you should buy links is the appropriate question to ask.