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Archive for May, 2012

Controversial Blog Posts: Good or Bad for Business?

May 30th, 2012 4 comments

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE – At Master Google, we’ve talked about the importance of blogging for SEO. Whether you use Google blogs, WordPress, Tumblr or Weebly, the point of it all is to gain followers, to engage readers, and hopefully to convert those readers to customers.

Master Google CEO Ali Husayni prefers WordPress for its SEO benefits. There are many options for blogging, as we’ve discussed previously. Normally we discuss content and SEO tips to move your business up to the first page of Google. But today we’re going to delve into the actual topics that you write about on your blog. Specifically, we’ll analyze the pros and cons of writing about controversial issues. There are two sides to this coin.

All Publicity is Good Publicity
Controversial posts spark comments, comments, comments. One side writes comments admiring your post, and the other side writes comments laced with sarcasm and hatred. From an SEO standpoint, a controversial blog post has the opportunity to gain lots of links. People love to share racy articles, ones that raise their blood pressure and peak their adrenaline.

These might be hate links. Your anchor text might read: “Check out this ridiculous article at Master Google.” But linking is good. Linking means more exposure.

You Could Risk Offending Readers and Customers
Controversial topics are, well, controversial. Don’t expect all your readers to agree with you. Be prepared to face negative reviews, as some of your readers may be agitated. We’ve written before about how to combat negative comments at Master Google.

Analyze how many visitors you’ll convert from your post. You might drive in a spike in traffic from a well-written controversial post, but will it really help your business? That question is asked from a public relations standpoint. From an SEO standpoint, conflict gains clicks, but from a PR perspective, you could harm your reputation.

Before You Write
Choose your topic wisely. There’s no need to write a post on Mitt Romney’s views on women if your business sells zippers. Unless you’re a small company with very personal issues tied into politics, you might want to stay away from abortion or religion. Choose an issue within your niche.

It isn’t wise to write a controversial blog post just for a peak in Web traffic. Insincere content won’t do you or your business any favors. Content should be relevant to your business or your life.

Tips for Controversial Posts
• Pretend you’re back in school writing a paper. Did your teacher let you make a claim without proof? No. Back up all your claims with careful research. Research also forces you to learn the issue backward and forward.
• Research the other side of the argument to anticipate what your readers will say. Thwart the opposite view with stable facts.
• Taking the opposite point of view than the common outlook on a certain issue might gain you even more views, but this tactic can come off as gimmicky.
• Keep your post specific. Covering a broad range of a topic can be overwhelming, especially when dealing with criticism. Choose a narrow focus for your blog post and stick to your focus.
• Try to keep opinion out of the equation. Facts are much more difficult to argue.

Remember to keep your posts tasteful, informative and professional, especially when dealing with a controversial topic. Controversial blog posts may spike your content, but you don’t want to lose loyal readers over a distasteful or poorly researched post.

Have you found controversial posts to be effective?

Google Update Means A Smarter, More Human-Like Search Engine

May 29th, 2012 8 comments

ORLANDO, FLORIDA-Google’s latest change to its algorithm is another step in their quest to make a search engine that thinks like a human, and-thankfully-it looks like bad news for the black-hat SEO companies.

Knowledge Graph was announced on May 16 and started rolling out to U.S. English users immediately. Senior Vice President with Google Amit Singhal explained, “We hope this added intelligence will give you a more complete picture of your interest, provide smarter search results, and pique your curiosity on new topics.”

Courtesy of seo4anyone.com

Essentially, Knowledge Graph will attempt to understand real-world things and their connections instead of just a string of words so it can provide better results to your search. This is the semantic search they’ve been talking about for a while. Now search results will be augmented with a set of associated facts and suggestions for further research, displaying a greater understanding of queries.

“We’ve always believed that the perfect search engine should understand exactly what you mean and give you back exactly what you want. And we can now sometimes help answer your next question before you’ve asked it,” he says.

His post goes on to list the three main ways Knowledge Graph helps searchers: find the right thing, get the best summary, and go deeper and broader in the search.

For example, a search for Singhal pulls up the search results you would have found before Knowledge Graph, but now in the panel on the right-hand side is additional information. There is a picture of him and basic biographic information like job title and education, a snippet from his latest post on Google+ and other search queries that may be related to Singhal, including Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s spam-fighting team, and Danny Sullivan, the editor-in-chief at Search Engine Land.

If you’re interested in an in-depth look at Knowledge Graph, Sullivan did a great summary that posted just a couple hours after Google announced the change on their Inside Search blog.

What Knowledge Graph Means For SEO
This is yet another-albeit large-step toward a smarter search engine, a Google that mimics human behavior of reading, analyzing and organizing content. Mastergoogle CEO Ali Husayni has said this all along: SEO must be done with humans in mind- not just the search engine.

Knowledge Graph just made that even more relevant. He says it places a greater emphasis on getting links from trusted websites since low-quality links from off-topic sites will continue to be devalued or disregarded completely. This update won’t eradicate spammy, paid link campaigns from black-hat SEO companies by any means, but hopefully it will discourage them.

So this doesn’t change SEO much for the companies that already stick to white-hat SEO. Basically, keep pumping out great content on a regular basis and building relationships with the subject matter experts and your audience to rank higher on Google. Links from blogs and other trusted websites specifically related to your area of expertise can be very helpful in increasing traffic.

SEO is still no magic formula for small business owners looking to get to the top of Google overnight, but it will increase traffic steadily with hard work and good ideas. We offer lots of information on how to generate the type of fresh content Google search wants and copywriting SEO techniques for that new content. The blog is also full of other free website optimization tips like seven on-page techniques to make your website more search engine friendly.

© 2012 Master Google. Authorization to post is granted, with the stipulation that Master Google is credited as sole source. Linking to other sites from this press release is strictly prohibited, with the exception of herein imbedded links.

Why the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act Should Scare You

May 28th, 2012 4 comments

NASHVILLE, TN – In this age, most of us have information all over the Internet. Facebook knows way too much about me, Amazon knows what I buy, and Southwest knows where I fly. Barnes and Noble knows what books I read, and my bank knows all my purchases. That said, I think we’d all agree that Internet security, in theory, is a good thing. But some legislation that creeps around Congress seems to do more harm than good.

The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act passed in the House of Representatives on April 26. The vote wasn’t even close; it was 248 to 168. CISPA now waits for debate in the Senate.

Courtesy of leaksfree.com

So what’s this bill all about? You may remember our recent coverage of SOPA and PIPA, which dealt with copyright infringement. CISPA deals with privacy, and it could mean that the government has the authority to track our every move. It’s proposed as an amendment to the National Security Act of 1947, and it attempts to combat cyber threats.

One vital difference between the current bill – CISPA – and the older bills – SOPA and PIPA – lies in how the companies are treated. SOPA and PIPA put the burden on businesses like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to stop their users from sharing copyrighted information. In contrast, CISPA doesn’t threaten these companies. Instead, these companies can hand over our information to the government without a warrant. And further, we as individuals won’t know what information is being shared – it’s proprietary.

Time Magazine published a breakdown of those who do and who do not support CISPA. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Financial Services Roundtable, Facebook, Microsoft, AT&T and Verizon Wireless are among the supporters, although Microsoft later voiced concerns over the bill’s language. It’s no surprise that these companies are for the bill, as it’s not threatening their business. Imagine sending a text to your friend. AT&T will have the right to send that text directly to the government, and someone somewhere is aware of your actions and thoughts. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.)- the author of CISPA- many Republicans, and some Democrats also support the bill.

President Obama has threatened to veto the bill if the time comes. The bill’s biggest opponents are Ron Paul (R-Texas), the Obama administration, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Congressional Privacy Caucus co-chairmen Reps. Joe Barton (R-Texas) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.).

Barton and Markey proposed an amendment that would have restricted the government from using the bill’s powers for anything other than thwarting cyber threats, The Hill reported. The amendment did not pass.

“If this piece of legislation had a privacy policy, it would be ‘You have no privacy!’” co-chairman Markey said in a statement. “In its current form, this legislation would allow companies to share personal information about consumers with other companies, even if that information has nothing to do with cyber security.”

What people are concerned about is what the bill does not say. The bill doesn’t say clearly what a cyber threat is. The bill doesn’t give many limits as to how or when the government can watch our browsing history. Many people worry that this bill may intend to thwart cybercrimes, but instead it will give the government and corporations free reign to monitor our every cyber move.

The hacker group Anonymous uploaded a YouTube video calling American citizens to action. The video urges us to protest CISPA and its supporters. Between May 1 and June 30, Anonymous blocks off dates to protest specific companies. Protestors are asked to go to the business’s closest location or the busiest location in town. Walmart, Target, Intel, Microsoft, Verizon, AT&T, Chase Bank, Visa, Bank of America, CVS, Coke, Pepsi, American Express, MasterCard and McGraw-Hill are among the businesses targeted for their support of CISPA.

“Remember, you have the right to protest if you care about your freedom of speech, your right to privacy, and your government censoring you,” a computer-animated voice reads in the video. “Supporters of CISPA, you should have expected us.”

Do you agree with CISPA? Do you feel the basic idea – to thwart cyber threats – is important, but that this route isn’t the answer? Let’s talk

The Best Free and Paid Directory Submission List

May 24th, 2012 143 comments

Originally posted on Jan 21, 2010 – The list here is now up-to-date.

Adding your site’s link to directories is the first step you should take in gaining link-popularity and therefore search engine ranking. My team spent hours testing hundreds of directories and prepared this list so our subscribers can easily find and submit their sites to the best directories.

Here is the excel file for your download: Best Directory-List for Back-Links.

Book mark this page for your future references.

Also, place a link to this page on your site, so your friends can benefit from this list as well.

     URL PR    Price options            Published time
     dmoz.org 8    free            more than 6 month
     dir.yahoo.com 7    free            more than 6 month
     joeant.com 6    $39.99            2 days
     operationuplink.org 6    free -$9.9            1 day for paid
     botw.org 6    $149.95 1year            2 days
     linkscraze.com 6    $24            2 days
     dirscorpio.com 6    $28            2 days
     linkspocket.com 6    $28            2 days
     dirvista.com 6    $27            4 days
     aussi.org 6    $35            2 days
     smsweb.org 6    free-$69.90            2 days for paid
     aaaagencysearch.com 6    free -$9.5            2 days for paid
     abilogic.com 5    $15            2 days
     arakne-links.com 5    free            4 month
     cyberteddy500.com 5    $8            2 days
     directoryworld.net 5    $29.95            2 days
     theredtree.com 5    $8            2 days
     wateriskey.org 5    $5.99            1 day
     takrawworld.com 5    $5.99            2 days
     basinfutures.net 5    $5.99 lifetime            1 day
     skoobe.biz 5    free-$15.90            2 days for paid
     hrwebdir.org 4    $9.95            2 days
     prolinkdirectory.com 4    free-$19            3 days for paid
     webdir.biz 4    $17            2 days
     searchsight.com 4    free            4 month
     directoryvault.com 4    $3.9 lifetime            2 days for paid
     the-free-directory.co.uk 4    free-£10            2 days for paid
     viesearch.com 4    free-$5            2 days for paid
     1906quake.com 4    $5            2 days
     mygreencorner.com 4    $19            2 days
     a-flat.org 4    free-$2 liftime            1 day for free
     buysll.com 4    free-$2.98            2 days for paid
     digabusiness.com 4    free-$19            3-4 days for paid
     askmatrix.com 4    free-$5.99            3 days for paid
     umoz.org 4    free-$5.99            3 days for paid
     cyborginfo.com 4    $5.35            2days
     logo3w.com 4    $14.95 lifetime            1 week
     rdarestructuring.com 4    $4.99 lifetime            2 days
     allthelook.com 4    $10.95            1 week
     icfmt.org 4    free-$4.99            3 weeks for free
     fastlisting.org 4    free-$4.99            3 weeks for free
     fastlisting.net 4    free-$4.99            3 weeks for free
     addaurl.co.in 4    free-$4.99            3 weeks for free
     addaurl.org 4    free-$4.99            3 weeks for free
     free-listing.org 4    free-$4.99            3 weeks for free
     listurl.co.in 4    free-$4.99            3 weeks for free
     bestdirectory.co.in 4    free-$4.99            3 weeks for free
     upmyfans.com 4    $14.95 lifetime            2 days
     unscol.org 4    $14.95 lifetime            2 days
     ilwg.org 4    $14.95 lifetime            2 days
     delmarmol.com 4    $4.99            2 days
     koroglutv.com 4    $4.99            2 days
     xennobb.com 4    $4.99            2 days
     vcwdnet.com 4    $4.99            2 days
     domaining.in 4    $7.99            2 days
     indiangiftsbazar.com 4    free-$4.99            1.5 month for free
     quber.org 4    $4.99            2 days
     jacquelineklosek.com 4    free -$4.99            2 days for paid
     diroo.org 4    free -$1 lifetime            2 days for paid
     alistsites.com 4    $3.99            2 days
     bygmagazine.com 4    $4.99            2 days
     captusnetworks.com 4    $4.99            2 days
     ctapda.com 3    $4            2 days
     bahiacar.com 3    free-$10 lifetime            2 days for paid
     piseries.com 3    free-$10.90            2 days for paid
     classicdirectory.info 3    $15            2 days
     alookwebdirectory.com 3    $4.99            2 days
     gioponti.com 3    $5            3 days
     nometrix.com 3    free            1 day
     directorydice.com 3    $12.95 lifetime            3 days
     publimix.net 3    $9.94            2 days
     fxtwits.com 3    free            2 weeks
     numero-projecta.com 3    $9.95            1 week
     indexking.net 3    $5.99            2-3 days
     zaaylo.co.uk 3    $6.40 1 year            2-5 days
     474.sytes.net 3    $5            2 days
     aogin2011.in 3    free-$4.99            1 day for paid
     callbuster.net 3    free-$4            2 days for paid
     elitesitesdirectory.com 3    free-$3            3 days for paid
     tikifind.com 3    $7            2 days
     grholds.com 3    $3.99            2 days
     vzacc.org 3    $3.99            2 days
     kiskanmakfilm.com 3    $3.99            2 days
     m4project.org 3    $4.99            2 days
     jtdalyart.com 3    $3.99            2 days
     permacharge.com 3    $4.99            2 days
     alive-directory.com 3    free            1 day
     italywebdirectory.net 2    $4            2 days
     savps.com 2    free            1 day
     yellownumber.com 2    $8            2 days
     dmoz4u.com 2    $2.99            2-3 days
     fourseek.com 2    $9.95            3-4 days
     addgoodsites.com 2    free            1 day
     a3place.com 2    free            1 day
     ebglive.com 2    $5            2 days
     interesting-dir.com 2    free            1 day
     jayde.com 2    free            2 month
     bing-directory.com 1    free            1 day
     upsdirectory.com 1    free            1 day

Why Black-Hat SEO Is A Waste Of Time

May 24th, 2012 10 comments

ORLANDO, FLORIDA-Google has made a lot of changes to its search engine algorithm over the last couple of months, which had many SEO companies scrambling to keep up while their clients’ rankings felt the pain.

“If you made it through March without an email from Google or a penalty from Google or a drop in Google organic search traffic due to Panda updates or paid link-related issues, you should give yourself a high five,” says Kerry Dean, an SEO expert and columnist for Search Engine Land.

Courtesy of bloggingshiksha.com

According to our CEO Ali Husayni, none of our clients’ rankings in Google search results were negatively impacted by the latest Panda updates or the newest update from Google that has been coined Penguin.

“Our commitment is to stick 100 percent to Google’s webmaster guidelines. We aren’t involved in any of the black-hat or gray-hat SEO practices that Google is trying to avoid being a victim of,” he says.

Black-hat techniques are essentially webspam: deceptive, malicious or manipulative behaviors used to trick the search engine into placing a website higher in rankings even if the content isn’t relevant to the search. It’s really only a matter of time before Google finds out and penalizes the site for using them, which is why they are a waste of time.

“Although many people are doing damage control after the updates, trying to get back to pre-update rankings, we have had several clients set new high records for rankings and traffic,” says Husayni.

The SEO campaign for Gabriel Carini, who owns Carini Heating And Air Conditioning, has racked up some big results, both with the number of qualified leads and with his company’s Google rankings.

Other clients’ SEO campaigns are setting new traffic and ranking records like Tim Booth and Shawn Sandifer, who own a referral site for local contractors across the nation, and Don Gerig Jr. and Matt Gerig, who run a website for Santa Cruz real estate and homes for sale.

In all three instances, the clients expect to see even better numbers in the coming months. Husayni reiterates that businesses just need to stay away from SEO companies that resort to black-hat or gray-hat SEO practices for the long-term success of their SEO campaign.

“It’s not like Google is changing their approach to search engine ranking with these updates,” he says. “They’re just constantly trying to weed out spam.”

Google will continue to take aim at one spam technique after another. Businesses that haven’t done so yet need to clean up their act or suffer the consequences in their websites’ ranking and traffic.

Instead of using black-hat SEO and duplicate content to get to the top of Google, focus on beefing up the site with original content, information and resources the business’s target audience is actually interested in. An easy and effective way to add that information to the site is on a WordPress blog. Regularly posting the latest news about the business, promoting specials and upcoming events or articles keeps the site fresh, customers informed and rankings high.

It is also imperative that businesses be aware of new tools Google uses to rank sites. Google+ is one of the latest ways that the search engine is determining the popularity and relevancy of a page, which is why Husayni urges businesses to jump into social media.

“But you must do more than simply ‘be present’ to win the social media game,” reminds our Editor-in-Chief Lorrie Walker in a recent blog post about using social media to improve search rankings. “You have to actually be social.”

That means doing more than just setting up the business’s Google+ page or Facebook page and posting links back to the website’s content. Social media should be a way to start a conversation with potential clients by sharing the high-quality information being generated about the company, which naturally improves rankings without spamming Google. But by all means, make it easy for website visitors to share the information they find by having the +1 sign for Google+, the Tweet button for Twitter and the Like button for Facebook.

The rest of 2012 will no doubt hold another slew of updates to Google’s search engine algorithm, but businesses that want to maintain their rankings instead of seeing numbers drop after major updates would do well to heed Husayni’s advice: stay away from spam techniques and stay updated on the latest tools Google’s using to decide relevancy.

We want to hear what your experiences with social media and the latest updates have been. Did you see rankings drop after a recent update? How have you implemented Google+ and other social networks into your search engine optimization marketing efforts?

New Master Google Website

May 22nd, 2012 25 comments

 

Thank you all for reading our blog and posting useful comments. We always appreciate our clients’ and audience’s feedback to improve upon the SEO services we offer.

Our current site is a couple of years old and we have now finished designing a new look for our site. Please take a close look at the finalized designs (by clicking on this image) and give us your feedback. We will start building the new site within the next few days.

Please note that the images are just place holders and will be replaced by correct ones.

The changes on the new site include:

1- New logo;

2- New Homepage layout;

3- New Consulting and Coaching services;

4- New Case Studies section which will feature industry specific clients and their stories;

5- New Blog design (to be posted soon);

6- A mobile version of our site (to be introduced in a few weeks).

Best,

Ali Husayni

 

 

 

 

Will Google’s Project Glass Change The Face Of SEO?

May 20th, 2012 4 comments

ORLANDO, FLORIDA-It seems that Google sees hands-free as the new frontier-first the debut of their self-driving car and now Project Glass, a prototype of augmented reality glasses that replace the need for a smartphone, camera or GPS.

Danny Sullivan, the editor-in-chief at Search Engine Land, calls them “Google’s Siri for your eyes” and an article on www.forbes.com went so far as to say that iPhone maker’s days are numbered.

Courtesy of bostonherald.com

“We believe technology should work for you-to be there when you need it and get out of your way when you don’t,” Google wrote in a post on April 4, shortly after they announced the project.  “One that helps you explore and share your world, putting you back in the moment.”

One of the people heading up the project, Google Fellow Sebastian Thrun, has taken a prototype out for some real-life research. In a Google+ update on May 8, he posted an image and video he took during his test.

Google is using the Project Glass page on Google+ to start a conversation about the product, asking for feedback and questions people have about the design photos and video they released demonstrating the concept. There were more than 500 comments, including questions about integration with prescription glasses and how they plan to handle battery life obstacles.

Not only does the video attempt to show how a steady stream of information about weather, mass transit schedules and turn-by-turn directions enhance the quality of the wearer’s life, it demonstrates potential ways that the glasses help him connect socially. Using only voice commands, he takes a picture that posts directly to his Google+ page, sets up a meeting with a friend, checks in at the coffee truck outside the bookstore, accesses and responds to text messages, and shares his view from a rooftop during a video conversation.

While Google has working prototypes and lofty goals for the concept, the technology may or may not be able to deliver. The International Business Times pointed out five obstacles that Project Glass would have to overcome, including a way to filter messages, allow for multi-tasking, and get away from Internet reliance.

The release date isn’t set, but like Steven Levy at Wired.com says, “The video has more than enough information to open up a conversation about the potential effects of having the digital world unbound from the confines of a hand-held gadget and more or less integrated into everyday reality.”

It also raises other questions about how it would impact search engine optimization marketing. As technology becomes more advanced, SEO has to advance with it, but our CEO Ali Husayni says it is too soon to tell what changes it might bring.

“The potential for this product is exciting, but right now concrete details are sparse and no release date has been set,” he says. “What this does emphasize is that Google+ is only going to become more and more important.”

Google+ is already a factor used in the search algorithm to determine the popularity and relevance of a website. The push to make it the go-to source for Google’s news and announcements about new technology seems to be Google’s way of telling companies that to organically improve rankings, they will have to get on board.

Do you think this technology will become a reality? And, if so, how do you foresee this impacting search?

How to Optimize Your Anchor Text for Search Engines

May 15th, 2012 13 comments

TAMPA, FLORIDA – Google is constantly launching search ranking updates to separate the wheat from the chaff. Google wants to give users high quality results and leave low quality results miles down the results page.

Courtesy of chumsit.blogspot.com

As a result, webmasters face bigger challenges as SEO evolves. The last few Panda and search algorithmic updates pulled down many sites while others climbed up the organic ranking ladder in SERPs.

When I stepped into the field of SEO, I understood the role that anchor text played in ranking a site. The times are changing at a tremendous speed, forcing every good SEO pro to use only the most ethical SEO techniques.

We all know that links pointing to your site are good for Google rankings. We’ve talked before about the dangers of black-hat link building and why you should avoid it. Let’s examine the anchor text links, which makes a difference in how Google uses your link information.

First, what is anchor text?
Anchor text is the actual phrase or word that links to a URL. In the above paragraph, “black-hat link building” is an anchor text. Most sites have easily recognizable anchor text, as it’s normally blue and underlined. You can use anchor text either internally (on your own site) or externally (from other sites).

Usually, anchor text includes keywords relevant to the page they’re linking to. If you want to rank a page for certain keywords, try to create as many anchor text links as possible with those keywords. This will help improve your site’s rankings for the targeted keywords. Anchor text remains one of the SEO practices you can use to climb to the top of Google.

Anchor text linking has always been a critical part of any SEO campaign, but there are some practices to avoid. Google now penalizes sites that indulge in excessive use of exact-match anchor text for ranking at the top of search results. If your anchor text linking looks unnatural to search engines, you can lose your site’s rankings just as quickly.

How to Use Anchor Text Effectively
It’s best to diversify the words or keywords used in anchor links. Follow these:

•  Use your brand name or a short description of your company in the anchor text
•  Use long-tail and short-tail keywords to hyperlink
•  Use different synonyms of words you want to use as anchor text
•  Use the desired URL as your anchor text

Notice the difference between these two anchor links:

1. Master Google provides free SEO tips.
2. Click here for free SEO tips from Master Google.

In the first example, the anchor text includes a keyword that potential clients could be using as a search query. In the second example, “click here” is the anchor text. Clearly this isn’t informative for Google. The first example uses a keyword and lets Google know more about the linked-to site. Shoot for the first example when link-building organically.

Another important point is the placement of the link on the page. Let’s look at the example above one more time. Both hyperlinks point to http://www.mastergoogle.com/, but if multiple links on one page point to the same location, Google will only credit the first link. Therefore, the “free SEO tips” anchor text will be counted, but the “click here” is irrelevant.

SEOmoz CEO Rand Fishkin gives a quick but comprehensive anchor text lesson in an edition of Whiteboard Friday. The biggest challenge is that in most instances, we can’t control inbound anchor text.

“If you’re earning links and you can’t control the anchor text, maybe at least you can get them to mention what you do somewhere near the link,” Fishkin says.

As Fishkin says in the video, links that point to your site from your site help a tiny bit, but links pointing to your site from an outside source help a lot. Think of ways you can control the anchor text pointing to your site. Guest blogging on another website is an organic way to make this happen. Use relevant keywords in your anchor text whenever you have the opportunity.

Remember that Google focuses on the user’s experience. The best practice is to make the anchored links relevant to your user. Google punishes bad practices, but good, relevant links and descriptive anchor text will be rewarded.

What You Need To Know About Magento: How To SEO E-Commerce Websites

May 14th, 2012 5 comments

ORLANDO, FLORIDA-Ebay’s promotion of Magento Go is an excellent opportunity for online merchants to explore the SEO benefits the open-source, e-commerce product offers.

According to eCommerce Bytes, an independent news source for online retailers, the users of eBay’s ProStores were urged to switch to Magento Go, which eBay acquired last year, in a recent email newsletter from ProStores.

Courtesy of sumoheavy.com

So, what is Magento exactly? And why has eBay turned its back on the older platform? Our operational manager Saeed Khosravi theorizes that eBay has lost interest in promoting ProStores because it is outdated and lacks the required flexibility to become a full-fledged, customizable Internet store.

“Out of the box, Magento Go is very search engine friendly since the open source community version gives you the flexibility to configure your website to perform better on search engines,” he explains.

What You’re Getting
The product is a feature-rich online service that allows entrepreneurs and small businesses to quickly build an online storefront to sell products and services. The main thing the website describes about Magento is the unprecedented flexibility and control over the look, content and functionality of stores that features powerful marketing, search engine optimization and catalog-management tools.

The product may be more flexible than its predecessor, but that doesn’t mean the SEO guidelines change. The rules are the same no matter what platform they are on, says Khosravi. The crucial thing to know is how to apply these rules properly to get the most out of the platform and make the site easy for search engines to interact with.

SEO Tips For The E-Commerce Platform
The biggest SEO benefit of Magento, according to Khosravi, is how out-of-the-box search engine friendly it is. They make many standard SEO techniques easy to implement, which he recommends taking full advantage of right away.

  • Use the full control they offer over page names, titles, URLs, headings and meta tags for product and category pages as well as CMS pages to optimize each page for your targeted keywords.
  • Search engine optimize the configuration of the site’s HTML head. The elements inside the <head> section of a website can include scripts, provide the browser with the location of style sheets, provide meta information and have tags such as <title>, <base>, <link>, <meta>, <script> and <style>.
  • Set the preferred domain version, for example www instead of non-www, and create an XML site map.
  • Install the product’s free extension, the one that uses a canonical rel link, to eliminate any instances of duplicate content on the site.

How To SEO To Beat Out Competition
No matter which platform companies choose for e-commerce after they implement the SEO basics, our CEO Ali Husayni advises that they stick with targeted writing on a WordPress blog to climb SEO rankings.

“If you are competing with strong rivals, you can have an advantage over them by simply writing and posting articles on your site’s blog on a regular basis,” Husayni emphasizes.

Posting once a month may give smaller businesses that advantage, but the reality is that for most e-commerce sites, even writing once a day may still not be enough. The quantity depends on the market but the quality should remain the same. High-quality content, which means well-written, fresh and relevant articles and press releases, is exactly what the Google search engine wants. Consulting with an SEO expert can help determine how often websites need to post to be competitive in their market.

Can A Magento Store Be Integrated Into A WordPress Site?
Combining a Magento store and WordPress site is simple to do by installing it on a subdirectory; however, Khosravi says it would be better the other way around with Magento installed on the root directory of the site with WordPress as its sub-directory blog. For merchants looking for the ultimate flexibility for SEO needs, he suggests going with Magento Community Edition, which is the product’s self-hosted option.

“As a SEO expert I always prefer to go with a self-hosted shopping cart as opposed to hosted solutions,” he says. “It doesn’t limit you in any way and you can custom-make it or configure everything in the way that best suits your SEO needs.”

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Finding the Right SEO Company: Reviewing TopSEOs.Com

May 3rd, 2012 4 comments

TAMPA, FLORIDA- When you’re looking for a company to improve your Web presence, you have many choices. So where do you start? A company with a proven track record of results is a good place.

You could find a company that fits that bill through TopSEOs. But there’s a catch: TopSEOs charges a standard fee for companies to be included in their evaluation.

Courtesy of topseos.com

TopSEOs was established in 2002 and has been identified as an independent authority on vendors who supply Internet marketing products and services, according to their website. Their proprietary analysis tools and methodology, developed over multiple years, include an extensive, rigorous evaluation rating system that is applied to each company that is identified and researched.

“Our evaluations save businesses time, money and stress of using a trial and error system to find the best Internet marketing agency or tool for their Web marketing needs,” says TopSEOs Managing Partner Jeev Trika. “At the end of the day, our ultimate goal is to recommend the absolute best tools and companies based on merit.”

There are five key areas identified by TopSEOs as significant for a successful SEO campaign:

• Needs analysis
• Keyword analysis
• On-page optimization
• Off-page optimization
• Reporting methods

Reporting methods are a highly important part of the relationship between an SEO company and its clients. Do the reports provide clear and concise content that is valuable to the reader? Does the firm offer suggestions on where to go next?

We have not registered with TopSEOs.com because we already get enough interest through our own reputation, says Master Google CEO Ali Husayni. However, we do follow what TopSEOs is looking for, and we view TopSEOs as a reputable and honest firm.

“That’s what we’re looking for in a company that evaluates others,” Husayni says.

But he goes on to say because of TopSEOs’ pay-per-evaluation policy, it doesn’t give a clear picture of which companies truly rank the best.

“They’re only looking at those companies that pay for their services,” Husayni says. “They’re missing out on really good SEO companies such as ours and their audience doesn’t get to see and compare our company with the rest.”

As in any transaction, it’s buyer beware.

“The mere fact that TopSEOs is referring a company doesn’t mean they will provide top SEO services,” says Husayni. “We’ve had incidents where individuals have left a company recommended by TopSEOs because they were less than happy with the results of their work.”

TopSEOs maintains their independent status by accepting no advertising from Internet marketing agencies or software developers that provide services or products in the categories they evaluate. Time is spent gathering information from a number of clients of Internet marketing services to supplement their direct testing of information provided by and of Internet marketing providers and professionals. They gather the experiences of users of Internet marketing tools and of the services provided to clients through their extensive referral questionnaire, as well as talking directly to clients to receive the client’s informed opinion.

Husayni adds, “If and when we feel the need to expand our exposure, we will certainly consider TopSEOs.”

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