Google: The Search

Google is the number one search engine in the world. People turn to Google to find answers to questions, seek entertainment, and provide solutions to problems and many more. Even people have been used to the general term “Google it!”, when they want to know about a particular subject.

Search engine marketing has been quite successful, with website rankings quite attainable, so long as web masters follow Google’s rules and guidelines in search optimization. When the Google Panda Update came and swept link-farmed websites, quality websites remained untouched. But when Google plus came along, some things took a turn, to what direction? It’s hard to tell.

Google Plus: The Social Network

Many perceived Google plus as a poor attempt to counter the popularity of Facebook, the most dominant social network on the web. The rumored reason why Google created its own network is because it does not have access to the data within social networks such as Facebook. And the growing tendency of people to rely on Facebook for almost every web activity threatened their status in the internet. Thus, Google Plus was born.

Google Plus is deemed to be the better social network because of its features especially with regards to privacy which Facebook has failed to address. However, it seems like there is more to it than being Facebook’s competition.

Google: Search and Social

As mentioned, “Search Plus Your World” is Google’s newest attempt to merge search and social wherein search results and both public and private content on Google plus are showcased under one set of listings. See below.

I follow Pete Cashmore of Mashable, so it was not surprising to see that they are on top of the search results since Mashable.com is a reputable source of information.

The icon on the left side beside the title indicates that the content is mined from Google Plus. Google deemed to display the reason as to why it showed on my search results (Pete Cashmore shared this on Google+).

However, Google is not really that pushy in putting their own in the forefront of search results, so strategies in search engine marketing have a chance. As you can see in the image above, Google is giving their users a choice to include content from their Google plus network or not. All users have to do is click show personal results or hide personal results, in other words only include global results.

Killing Search Engine Marketing?

Perhaps that assumption is overly dramatic and a trifle exaggerated. There might be times that websites optimized for search will be placed at the bottom of the search results, because of content coming from users’ social connections and social behavior getting in the way. However, there is still hope. You see, as long as the user is not logged-in the two icons above (in the fourth image) will not appear, all results are either local or global and without the influence of social networks in the mix.

Ergo, there’s nothing to worry about, or the need to make a fuss about the integration of search and social. In reality, if people really want to find your product or service, they are smart enough to know which methods to use. If they value personal accounts than what Google tells them is important based on SEO, all you have to do is widen your reach in Google Plus. If people opt to look without Google Plus in the mix, then please continue with your search engine marketing campaign and optimized your website. Always think that Google did this to make its users happy with the results in their searches.

An image is another form of content and is a great avenue to acquire search engine traffic. If you ever wondered how to optimize images to appear in searches, below are important details to remember when optimizing images in WordPress to rank on Google:

1. Keywords

Google is image-blind and can only understand texts, so if you want to rank on Google using your images, place keywords in the image name, alt text in the image attribute, page title and text around the image.

2. Freshness Factor

Re-upload your image to achieve image freshness and put keywords you want to rank for in the image file name. The recent changes in the algorithm emphasized on the freshness factor which applies not only to article content but to images or visual content as well.

3. Image File Size

Believe it, image size matters very much to Google. There is no specific image file size but based on observations on the Google Image Search, large images tend to rank on Google higher than the smaller ones. It is not to say that smaller images won’t rank since there are other contributing factors that influence its rankings. Most web masters and optimizers recommend image file size between 100×100 and 1200×1200. Further, using a thumbnail that links to its larger form is helpful.

4. Image File Type

An image’s file type is as important as its file size since it is a significant factor in image search results. PNG file types are top priority followed by JPG and GIF. However, when you look at image search results they don’t necessarily rank in order of file types since it’s not the only factor that Google looks at when ranking images.

5. Enable Image Search

Enable enhanced image search option at Google webmaster tool. This will render your image searchable.

So there you have it! These are the basics in image optimization to help you rank on Google and get more traffic. In fact, there are different ways to earn those clicks. Video blogs or Vlogs for one is another avenue to lure people in your website. As long as you are ingenious enough to figure out how to maximize each element on your website, then ranking and getting traffic will be much easier.

However, when they feel like these various strategic plans in the global market are not meeting their expectations, they then resort to ranking in local searches.

How does a local search work?

In 2010, Google rolled out a new algorithm that allows local business listings to rank high in priority for people who are in the same locality. Google figured that most of the searches have a “local” mark on it e.g. Ottawa SEO Company or internet marketing Montreal. These references on local areas are helping users find services in their own geographical locations which are more beneficial, when you are the nearest business listed in Google.

Local businesses gain more trust

It’s common knowledge that the majority of the people trust products and services that are local. It gives them the reassurance that they will be provided with the services as it was promised. Besides, they know where to go when problems arise.

Create business pages on major search engines

Make sure that you list your business on google.com/places/,Yahoo Local and Bing Local. This way, your possible clients are assured that your business is legitimate and is easily accessible.

Relevance, Distance and Prominence

Google ranks websites based on three factors, relevance, distance and importance. These three factors are crucial in providing the best result to users.

1. Relevance – is measured whether your business is what users are looking for and this is determined in the Google places profile description. So in order to rank higher in terms of relevance, make sure that you include what your business is about and what it does.

2. Distance – is basically dependent on geographically how near or far you are from the person searching for your type of business.  Thus, be sure to list your complete physical address.

3. Prominence – is measured on how prominent your business is across the web. Simply put, list your businesses on local business directories like yell.com to verify your prominence on the web.

NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number)

In order to rank in local searches make sure that you identify an accurate NAP (name, address and phone number) all throughout your website. Below are tips to get ranked on local searches with regards to on page element.

1. Place your location in the Title of web pages.
2. Build links using your city or state as keywords (e.g. Ottawa SEO Company).
3. Put your physical location in the footer of your web pages.
4. Provide your local number on every web page.
5. Get your business reviewed by encouraging customers to leave reviews on your place listings.
6. Link your address to Google Maps and Yahoo Maps.

These tips and information on how to rank a website in local searches are the tip of the iceberg. In order for you to be truly valued by Google as the best business in your locality, you have to optimize your website taking into account keywords, links and content creation. Maybe you need to avail of some SEO companies to do that for you. If you are based on Canada, then try these keywords: Ottawa SEO Company, Internet Marketing Montreal/Toronto, SEO Canada, or SEO companies Canada. Do your best to be found by local customers and earn your ROIs. Start now and get your business on the map.

This knowledge is often forgotten and disregarded by most web masters and online marketers. The more people seek out Google to give out the best results in searches the more it earns money from its services like Google AdSense, Google Partners sites except for Google analytics which is entirely free.

So basically, Google makes money if people are satisfied with the search results they clicked on the first ranking position. If a person searched for “how to fix a washing machine” then Google will only present the best website that can help the most. What does this tell us?

The User-experience

It’s all about user-experience. It’s not quite a puzzle to figure out how to rank in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page), you only need to be the one. The one that can help people resolve their problems, provide their needs and answer their questions particularly on your niche.

However, with the competition getting tougher, web masters and online marketers are swift to get ranked for quick monetary returns. Hence, they employ keyword research, link building and content creation strategies and look for loopholes. These can be considered manipulation of Google search engine as oftentimes websites get ranked because it passed the search engine metrics and not because the people deem it the best website.

The Google Panda Update

How did Google resolve that?

Google introduced the Panda Update which has remarkably shifted every websites ranking position on the SERPs. Simply put, the Google Panda Update looked at the overall user-experience, which means that a web master needs to consider metrics on-page other than keywords as much as the off-page.

The Google Analytics

What are the other on-page metrics other than keywords (placement, density, distributions) or the technical aspects of the website?

Look at your Google analytics. With this tool, webmasters can take a look at how people are interacting with their website.  In your Google analytics you can see how people found your website; the links that get the most traffic, pages that are most visited, the time they spend on your website, etc.

How Google Analytics can help your rankings?

There are three metrics that you need a close look at. These metrics are what Google uses to gauge user-experience on a website.

1.  Bounce Rate – a bounce rate measures the percentage of users who bounced back out after visiting a website and the rate at which they bounced. For example, a searcher would click on a link of your website, visit your site for 3 seconds, found that it is not relevant to his search then bounce back to the results page to look for other sources. Thus, if you see a +50% bounce rate in your Google analytics, it means people are not finding your site too useful.

2.  Average time on site – this indicates how long people stay on your website and read your content. If your web content provides value to them, then they will most likely stay on your page for a longer period of time.

3.  Number of pages visited– a webpage contains different links that could lead to deeper pages on the site. If a user finds the first webpage visited useful, most likely he will click on several links to visit more pages of the site and find related content.

Link building, keyword research and content creation is very much part of Google search engine metrics. Only that they are not the only metrics you need to look out for on your Google analytics. Try to see how users behave on your site and whether they find your content useful and relevant. Besides the main goal you have at ranking your website in the search engines is not only to get found but to get sales conversions. Think of this, you may rank at the top 5 of the SERPs but people who visit your site don’t find value in it, thus, they won’t likely convert. In the end, it will be your loss.

Owning a website entails expertise in various online fields. There is search engine optimization (SEO) that enables a website to be found by its target market (online users) and there is website design which is a separate entity altogether. Or is it? The dynamic evolution of the internet has pushed web masters to be experts on not one skill but multiple skills in order to get ahead of the online competition. Thus, it can be said that website design is not as clean cut as it was before and the lines that separate it from SEO is almost nonexistent. There are a lot of SEO tips for web designers all over the internet from experts to learn about SEO Web Design.

What Clients Want Today

It’s a sad reality, but the truth is… a beautiful website design is useless in its pure essence if no one gets to see its splendour. Clients, nowadays, want more than a fresh and creative web design. They want it to get them leads, sales and referrals. In this digital age, it’s a prerequisite for web designers to have some knowledge and expertise on SEO.

For those who wish to educate themselves more about this topic, here are some SEO tips for Web Designers:

A brief introduction on SILO

In SEO, SILO is a structure that builds highly optimized blocks of content that are grouped into classical website categories. Utilizing silo is equally important to web designing as it is to SEO. According to Bruce Clay, an internet marketing optimization strategist, “the silo is a living, breathing document that is used before, during and after the design of a new website” Simply put, silo is the information architecture that determines a website’s sitemap. It is what web designers use to create the navigation structure and determine the design-related element on each web page of a site.

In addition, it is unwise to create a design without knowing what the website is about. Thus, a web design should complement the marketing goal (i.e. sales) as well as the SEO goal (i.e. ranking through keywords).

Example of a Basic Silo

Get Help from a Silo Document

A silo document is a spreadsheet containing the plans for every change on a particular attribute of a web page.

(Image source: http://www.tinyandmighty.com/)

A silo document contains the different field elements of a website. For example the ID is the field that the design team looks at when they refer to a specific page. It lists the home page, the first level pages and its subpages. While the Page Name is utilized in determining the navigation of a page. Further the Keywords 1 and 2 are words that will be targeted on a certain web page. Other silo fields that must be ascertained prior to a new web design project are Title tags, URLs, Meta descriptions, Headings, Image File Names, and Image Alt Attributes.

These SEO tips for web designers detail how SEO is connected to the web design process and that two should communicate with each other for better search engine results.

In a Nutshell, a Silo is…

A guide for everyone (web designers, web masters, stakeholders, SEO specialists, etc.) involved in the website optimization process. It is a smooth and organized web redesign process by uncovering loopholes and putting all those that are involved in the same page of the plan.

The Results of Using Silo

A solid website, with stable page navigation and strong authority on related niches of a market industry through focused category pages. In addition, it aids search engines to quickly assess the value of each page for ranking.

However, to save the newbies the trouble of scanning through chapters of an SEO book, what I have here is a brief introduction on common on-page SEO technical terms that a web optimizer must remember.

1. Keywords – keyword/s or key phrases are words that are commonly searched by people in Google and other search engines. This is a very important on-page element since it describes what a webpage or a website is about. Through keywords, Google can generate results to provide to users. The most relevant keyword will have the opportunity to be found as well. Keywords can be found everywhere, in the Title tag, Meta description tag, body of the content, URLs, images etc.

This is how a keyword-optimized web page appears in the search results page:

2. XML Sitemap (URL Inclusion Protocol) – used by web owners to guide search engines to crawl and index URLs of a website.  It is beneficial to have a sitemap so search engines will be informed of what, where and when to index a particular webpage.

3. Robots File (Robot Exclusion Protocol) –the opposite of XML Sitemap. Its file format is “/robot.txt” and is used to tell the search engines not to index certain webpages of the site. Below are three examples:

(Image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robots.txt)

4. Rel No follow– is used by web owners to stop a linking site’s page rank to affect the site. This is what you use when you don’t want to have your site affected by outbound spam links especially in the comment section.

5. Rel Canonical–is used to settle duplicate content and multiple URLs. It allows a web owner to specify a preferred version of a URL or web page content for search engine to index. It also ensures that link popularity is contained to the same URL.

(Image source: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com)

These on-page SEO technical elements are commonly encountered by web masters and SEO experts. If you want to undergo a more in-depth information about these five on-page SEO terms then better opt to buy an SEO book or download Google Search Engine Optimization Guide.

–Danny Sullivan, Editor-in-Chief of Search Engine Land

Advantage of Social Shares

Social media is the new hype of this generation. It helps businesses build online presence in a location predominantly visited by millions of people worldwide. In addition, it takes out the factor of being found through ranking positions which is a tough challenge for most websites, especially with the constant shift of algorithms. However, it does not imply that holding a dominant place in social networking sites is much easier to achieving a top ranking position in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page). In fact, with all the brands in Facebook, Twitter or Google Plus, it’s getting more difficult to stand out and impress the target market. However, experienced SEO resellers have overcome this obstacle with their own network of social manpower, so all is not lost.

Social media provides search engines a much contained area of picking out brands with trust signals. Sharing website content through links in social networks is perceived by Google as the people’s vote to quality content. Add to the equation the fact that more and more online users are opting for these social networks when looking for answers to queries. Just about every form of information can now be shared through social media which can be also be detected on search engines.

Social Media Shares is the new Link Building Strategy

Danny Sullivan, the Editor-In-Chief of Search Engine Land is an authority in SEO has owned the belief that social media sharing has already taken over the role of link buying, link reciprocity and even spam links. As mentioned, the quality of the links has been degraded by these black hat SEO users, that Google has repeatedly developed algorithms targeting websites that practice such methods. But it does not mean that SEO resellers must get rid of their link building strategies and solely focus on their social media link strategy. Like SEO and Social media, it is important to perceive traditional link building and social sharing as partners. Each are pieces of both SEO and Social media that must always be found hand in hand.

Impact of Social media shares in Search engines

Google President, Eric Schmidt confirmed that Google has been taking into account social signals in determining the rankings of websites during the 2011 LeWeb conference in Paris. In short, social networking sites are being indexed and social signals like social links are now considered to be one of the ranking metrics. Even before Google confirmed its inclusion, Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz.org has already hinted on this happening based on his data correlating Facebook shares and Google rankings.

It is greatly assumed that social signals will have a stronger influence in searches in the future compared to other existing ranking metrics. This leaves websites and SEO resellers to reconsider their long term SEO strategy to have more room for social media strategy. In conclusion, it can be said that social signals have not only changed the game in link building but rather for the whole SEO industry as well.

This brings us to contemplate on the SEO changes that web optimizers must adapt to get back on the good graces of Google.

Thick sites are valued

Due to the Google Panda update, a website can no longer rely on having great content as stability to remain in the ranks. A website needs to have several pages of relevant, useful, unique and info-packed content to be considered a great website rather than be defined by a few great ones. That means you need to write more and add more webpages to your site. However, do so without compromising the content quality or all will be for naught.

Longer posts matter more

Longer article posts to Google means an info-loaded web page that might be useful to their searchers. If you settle for 300 words per post before the Google Panda update, it’s time for you to level up by adding a hundred or more words this time around.

Article marketing, not that great anymore

Article marketing still works, no question about that. It is one of the most prevalent SEO strategies in getting links. However, it is better if you are more discerning on the article directories you submit to. There are article directories that have been devalued by the Panda Update for some reasons and you don’t want to be dragged down with them.

Fresh updates are top priority

This places emphasis on creating more web pages. Now, not only will you be back in the good graces of Google through the additional web pages but one of your recent posts might even be ranked high in the SERPs for the “freshness factor”. If you have noticed, Google presents the freshly written content. Some are even ranked in the search results just a few hours of its writing or creation.

Simplicity is best

This basically refers to websites and banner ads. The more ads cluttered on a webpage, the more Google looks down on it. Remember that Google wants to please its clients and presenting annoying banner ads in the forefront of the webpage is not the way to do it. Instead, opt for simplicity and functionality for your web pages.

Be the best friend a user could ever have

Bottom line, all you have to put into perspective is what your visitors will want to see when they visit your site. Know what they want and how they want it and give it to them quickly. Be the best friend of users and you could become a search engine’s best buddy.

Google Panda update, despite what most website owners think, is not a total overhaul of the whole Google algorithm. It merely strengthened the search engine’s filtering system to identify “low quality web pages” from “high quality web pages” and give these websites a push to improve and better provide the needs of clients or else remain invisible. So if you have been hit with the Panda update and are still struggling, you know now what to do.

SEO tips for WordPress blogs are everywhere in the internet but not one has made it simpler to understand the strategies underlying its success. These free SEO tips are for newbies who have yet to fully familiarize themselves with Search Engine Optimization. Read on, if you wish to learn about SEO better.

1.Create unique and human-friendly content

Search engines love websites that care for their clients, which are the surfers/searchers. Believe that search engines can detect whether your visitor likes and dislikes your page design and content. There are a variety of factors to consider such as site speed, readable text, comprehensible content and so on. So make sure that your content is unique and delivers precisely what it promises its readers.

2. Use keywords wisely and appropriately

Keywords are the best friends of search engines. Keywords are specific words that people on the web enter on search engines. If you want your clients to find you and your service online, then you must make sure to have the keywords right. How? Keyword density must be close to accurate in ratio to the number of words in the content. For example, a 400-500 word article must have at least 3-5 keywords so as not to look like a spam. However, if the keywords are difficult to use like long tailed ones, better not force it. Placement of  keywords are on: hyperlinks (anchor text links), post titles, description, post tags, alt tags, and titles of images.

3. Enable and encourage comments

It is essential to enable comments in your WordPress blog because this will be your ticket to appear “fresh” in the eyes of search engines. New comments will give search engines reasons to come back to your website as this is considered to be an on-page engagement, which is an important SEO metric.

4. Install SEO plug-ins

SEO plug-ins allow a faster and more expedient way for websites to achieve online exposure. If you already have an SEO plug-in installed in your WordPress blog, continuously look for newer and better SEO plug-ins. If you have not installed any, you can opt for the All In One SEO Pack, Yoast or Platinum SEO Pack. Among the SEO tips for WordPress blogs, this is one you should invest money on.

5. Establish presence everywhere in the internet

In short, be sociable. It does not simply mean that you engage in social networking sites alone. You can spread the word about your presence to forums, comment sections on related blog posts as well as on social bookmarking sites.

These SEO tips for WordPress Blogs are not options but are rather a must-have for your WordPress blog if you intend to be found by search engines. However, do not misconstrue these tips as everything you need in SEO. There are a lot more techniques, methods and strategies that must be learned in order to be ranked in a dominant position on the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page). So, keep working hard on your blog, follow the White Hat SEO rules and be as user-friendly as possible and you are on to the right path.

But how do you play nice with Google? Simple, perform the white hat game as an SEO business. As long as you and your SEO firm play according to the rules then you are safe and might even be rewarded.

For the sake of the newbies, let’s make it clear that white hat is not a kind of hat that you wear outdoors. In the SEO business, it means web optimization strategies that are friendly to both search engines and the people (searchers/surfers).

White Hat, Search Engines and the People

As I have mentioned, white hat SEO is a friend to search engines because it obeys rules on how to optimize a website or a web page. This includes meta tags, image alt text, high quality backlinks, keyword density and other technicalities in SEO. These are necessary for search engines to know exactly what a web page is about and determine if it is suitable to be recommended to their users.

The best way to define what white hat means to people is to define its complete opposite, the Black Hat SEO. Just think of the Black Market or Black Mage character in a MMORPG PlayStation games and you will understand what this means. It is a crooked SEO strategy that plays dirty with search engines. Web owners and optimizers who practice black hat SEO are forever looking for ways to go around the rules through loopholes. You will know if a website practices White hat when it doesn’t have these following:

1. Keyword stuffing – unnaturally placed and repetitive use of the same words (keywords) in a short article post.

2. Invisible texts – making keywords appear the same color as the background. This is meant for search engines alone and is hidden to people.

3. Doorway pages – these are dummy pages to make search engines think that a website contains several pages pointing to a main page. Apparently these pages are also hidden from site visitors.

There are more to the Black Hat SEO business such as spam links, unrelated keywords, duplicate content etc. and even more are being invented today. Unlike the search engine nemesis, white hat SEO places more importance in pleasing visitors through useful and informative content rather than use tricks that will only rank high in a short term basis on search engines.

The SEO business is all about the right fit. Search engines collect every detail of your website and match it to the needs of their users. If you hit the right mark and Google consider you worthy to be presented, then your website will be placed in the top search engine results page (SERPs) for people to find and use. Simply put, white hat SEO is the clean and legitimate way to go about optimizing a website. This makes way for quality, useful and informative content that your website visitors and search engines are looking for. Be reminded that when you please the people, you will please Google as well.