NASHVILLE, TN – Google uses lots of factors to determine search engine rankings, and one of those factors is freshness.

I’m sure you know by now that to increase SEO, blogs are essential. In terms of duplicate content SEO, efforts can be thwarted if Google picks up on identical content, even across different URLs.

Courtesy of empoweredonlineentrepreneurs.com

Here are 10 common types of seo blog posts to get your creative juices flowing. Blog posts generally fall into one of these categories:

1. How To: People searching the Web often want to know how to do something. Tutorials are great traffic-drivers, and they provide readers with valuable information. Videos can also provide great tutorials, but if you choose that route remember to include a transcript for SEO purposes.

2. Lists: You may have noticed that this is a list post. Lists are popular, as potential readers can tell from the blog titles that information will be broken down in an easily digestible form. In a list post you can quickly scan the content to see if it’s relevant to you. Not every reader will linger long enough to carefully read your post, but list posts are easily shared and frequently clicked on.

3. News: Timely information makes great content. There are benefits to evergreen content, but there are also benefits to time-sensitive posts. Posting a timely response to an issue could get you hits as users search Google for breaking news. You could write a press release on a new product or service your company is offering. You could write an anniversary post to celebrate your business’s first or fifth year. Or you could write a piece on a newsworthy event in your industry.

4. Product or Service Review: You may have experienced exceptional customer service somewhere. Or you may have purchased a product that exceeded your expectations. When a product or service has wowed you, it may be worthy of an entire post of its own. Make sure the product or service you review is relevant to your business. You also should try to be honest; don’t review a product you haven’t tried just because it’s popular. Speak honestly and write from first-hand experience. If your post is sponsored, say so. Readers like honesty and openness.

5. Series: You may have a great idea for a topic, but once you delve deeper you realize that the topic is vast. Break up that information into a series of related posts. We’ve done this at Master Google. Vonya Griffin wrote a great two-part series called Building a Site Google Loves. The topic was too much information to fit neatly in one post, but it makes a great two-parter.

6. Interviews: Interviews are fantastic for sparking debate in your industry. Outline a few questions your readers would like to see answered, and then brainstorm a good interview subject. The Q and A format is pleasing for readers.

7. Guest Blog Post: Ask a colleague or peer to write a guest post for your blog. Not only will you gain a fresh voice on your blog, the links from your guest seo blogger‘s original site will help your site climb the Google first page of search results.

Rand Fishkin, CEO of SEOmoz, gives great tips on how to jumpstart a guest blog post – just scroll down to #10.

“Find sites that have a relevant audience – it sucks to pour your time into writing a post, only to see it fizzle because the readers weren’t interested,” Fishkin says. “Spend a bit more time researching the posts that succeed on your target site, the makeup of the audience, what types of comments they leave and you’ll earn a much higher return with each post.”

He also suggests pitching a specific topic to your potential guest blogger. If you’re the guest blogger, then pitching is easier if the hosting blogger can read over your unpublished piece before agreeing to a guest post.

8. Contests: I read a few blogs faithfully, and I’ve seen a trend of giveaways. Bloggers will detail certain rules for entry, usually as simple as posting a comment on the blog post or sharing it on specific social media outlets. This is a great way to create an active community and have your loyal readers share your post with all of their virtual friends.

9. Controversial Posts: Posting about a controversial subject may get you an influx of clicks, but you also run the risk of alienating readers who disagree with your post. Don’t write a post for shock value thinking you’ll gain thousands of clicks. Instead, write about an issue that means something to you or your business. Back your stance up with facts, not exaggerations and emotions.

10. Editorial/Personal Anecdote: Your SEO efforts are for Google. Your keywords and metadata are in place for your blog post. But your content should be for your reader. Readers like a good story. Master Google CEO Ali Husayni wrote a recent post on starting his first business at 16 years old.

“I ended up making the equivalent of $16 and I managed to purchase a pair of jeans for myself,” Husayni writes. “That will always be remembered by me as the best business experience of my life, no matter how much I go on to achieve.”

This statement immediately makes me think of my first job, my first paycheck. I’m able to connect to the writer’s memory with a personal memory of my own. Your readers will enjoy a good, interesting story.

These aren’t the only types of content you can produce, but this should give you a good start for brainstorming for your future blog posts.

So once you choose a topic, write the blog post, publish it, and share it across your social media outlets, you’ll want to monitor it’s popularity. Use Google Analytics to see how your new content drives traffic. Take note of which types of post gain the highest traffic – this will clue you in on what your audience likes.

What are your favorite types of blog posts to write? What posts do your readers enjoy?

ORLANDO, FLORIDA– Link removal strategies? The very thought gives me goose bumps, too. For years, online businesses invested plenty of time in working out effective link building strategies. Today, they’re talking about “link removal.” In fact, many companies that offer search engine optimization service have already begun to offer link removal services.

This situation must give you an idea about the panic that the last few Google algorithmic updates have caused among online marketers. SEO consultants, webmasters and Internet marketers are all worried, because there is no way of knowing what Google updates may have in store for your website or blog. Very scary, isn’t it?

Courtesy of seomoz.org

A single major update by Google may send your site plummeting in terms of search results.

If the percentage of your site’s keyword traffic from Google is considerably high, you have every reason to worry. If a Google update causes your site to drop in organic search rankings, it may take weeks or months to recover. Worse still, your site may not get back its lost Google rankings at all.

Things at Google are changing at lightning speed. And there are no signs that it will slow down anytime soon. Take that as a wake-up call.

Panda Attacks vs. Penguin Bites
First rolled out in February 2011, Google’s Panda uses artificial intelligence to distinguish between poor quality sites and high quality sites. In short, the fat Panda strongly detests thin content. As of this article’s writing, Google has updated its Panda as many as 16 times. The rumors of the next one are already spreading all around. Many say it’s been launched already.

On the other hand, Google’s Penguin is created to target those sites that indulge in keyword spamming or low quality link building. This penguin bites those that participate in dubious link schemes. In addition, your site may also be penalized for having too many spammy outbound links.

Tips You’ll Love to Use
Should you wait to take action until you get hit, if you haven’t already? Of course not, because prevention is always better than cure. Recovering from a Google algorithmic update can consume plenty of time (read money). So the best idea is to act right away and save your site. It can help you now, as well as in the future.

Below are some of the most essential SEO techniques and tips that you can use to future-proof your site against any Google search update.

#1. Put Up a Constant Fight against Plagiarism
It’s time to say no to plagiarism if you haven’t already. Duplicate or copied content is a very serious issue with Google. Whether you have duplicate content on your domain or have your content cross-posted on other sites, you need to pay careful attention. If the amount of duplicate content crosses the line, no one will be able to save you from getting penalized by Google. So get rid of duplicate content as soon as possible.

#2. Don’t Write Only to Rank Higher
If you’re producing content only to rank at the top of search engines, you’ll be seen as a content farm. This will only mean you are obsessed over keywords, and worry little about the user. Excessive use of keywords (in Meta tags and the content body) can get you in serious trouble.

#3. Get Rid of Bad Links (Outbound & Inbound)
Bad or spammy links are detrimental to a site’s good health. Keep a close watch on who you link to or who links to you. Linking to bad sites is as bad as getting linked by spammy sites. Though you’ve little control over which sites link to yours, you do have full control over who your site links to. Any link (whether inbound or outbound) that’s unrelated or irrelevant to your niche is not a good signal for search engines like Google.

#4. Add Variety to Backlinks Profile
There are different categories of sites from where you can acquire backlinks for your site. If your site has too many links coming from a single source, it’s something you should get rid of quickly. Try to get links from different sources including .edu, .org, .net, .com, country-specific domains (.ca, .au, .co.uk) and wiki directories, among others. The point is to make your site’s backlinks profile look natural to Google. In any case, don’t buy them or build them too fast.

#5. Create Social Signals
Social signaling and online searches are fast getting intertwined with each other. Search engines like Google are smart enough today to understand people and relationships. If you want to enhance the SEO of your website or blog, you should use several ways to create a strong social presence. Publishing press releases, writing whitepapers, blogging, sharing videos and creating webinars are some of the proven techniques to use, A good SEO company can help you to achieve your goal in a short time.

#6. Learn SEO
Keep on learning SEO as it evolves.

I really hope you’ll utilize the above-mentioned tips so that you can prevent your site from getting penalized by Google.

TAMPA, FLORIDA- We’ve all been there. Out of town on a business trip in a city we’ve never seen. It’s dinner time. How do you find a good restaurant? Let’s say you own a barbecue restaurant and you want to make sure anyone in your town searching for barbecue finds you. You’re up to date and have a Web presence. How can you make sure your restaurant shows up at the top of the list?

Master Google’s Saeed Khosravi says there are four steps you can take to put your business at or near the top in a local search:

Step 1- Set up and verify your business listing on Google Places.
“Without a doubt, Google Places combined with search engine optimization is the most important Google service for small businesses,” says Master Google CEO Ali Husayni. “Why? If your site is among the top five listings on Google Places, your customers will find you.”

Step 2- Make sure your business addresses and phone numbers are properly listed in your site. This needs no explanation.

Step 3- Add your site to the online yellow pages sites. Some of these sites are data providers for Google Places.

Step 4- Encourage your clients to place reviews for you on your Google Places page and empower your Google Places listing by adding images and videos.

When you list your business with Google Places, customers, friends and family can then rate your awesome food and excellent service for all on the Web to see.

Google says 73 percent of activity online is in one way or another related to local content. What’s more, according to ComScore Networks, Americans conducted 15.4 billion searches in March. If 35 percent of all searches are local- half of what Google says- then more than 5.3 billion local searches were performed in March. That doesn’t mean they were all looking for smoked ribs, but you can bet a lot were.

With more than 70 percent of local consumers using the Internet to find good local businesses, the time for having an expert search engine optimization team on your side could put your business in front of thousands of potential customers each month.

Increase your bottom line with SEO and Google Places.

Since most people find the companies they support through Internet searches, making sure that your business website stands out above the competition is very important. Although many purchases are done electronically these days, the time of brick and mortar business hasn’t come to an end (At least there’s no mention of that in the Mayan calendar.) MIT Technology Review says for every one dollar U.S. consumers spend online, more than five are going to offline purchases that are influenced by online research.

Having an SEO expert on your team just makes sense for many reasons- most of all, your bottom line. The time your SEO team spends optimizing your website is more time you can put into your business in other areas to make it successful.

The rise in popularity of Google Places also means attention must be paid to making sure your Places listing is optimized and easily found by people searching for your type of product or service. We can help you with SEO for your website and your Places page. Contact us for guaranteed results.

ORLANDO, FLORIDA-You’ve built a website with high-quality content that is search-engine friendly, done the on-page optimization and invested the time in a link-building campaign, but your site still isn’t getting the rankings you want.
According to our CEO Ali Husayni, the site may be missing one of the essential parts of ranking well on Google: fresh content.
“There is a strong correlation between frequency of posting and a site’s rank on Google,” Husayni says. “Websites that are doing well will have the original content, on-page SEO and link profiles, but they will also be posting fresh, high-quality content on a regular basis.”

Courtesy of alltechbuzz.in

The majority of our site’s traffic each month is generated through the content we post on the blog. If we fall short of our goal for number of posts in a month, we can expect to see a significant decrease in traffic within a week or two as Google begins to place other sites with fresher content on search results.

How Panda Made Fresh Content More Important
Freshness hasn’t always been as big a part of Google’s search algorithm as it is now. Their ultimate goal is to provide their users with the best search results, so they are constantly adjusting the algorithm. The freshness factor was one of those changes and now it is essential to rank well.

“We’ve always believed that the perfect search engine should understand exactly what you mean and give you back exactly what you want,” says Amit Singhal, who is a senior vice president at Google.

They made 52 changes to the search engine algorithm in April, according to a blog post summary from Matt Cutts, who is part of the search quality team at Google.  Three of those specifically related to content freshness and made minor adjustments to promote content that appears to be fresh while excluding what is fresh but low-quality. Last year’s big update named Panda made the biggest difference, though.

Panda was Google’s way of assessing website quality and penalizing low-quality sites using black-hat and gray-hat SEO practices like cloaking, content scraping and keyword stuffing. Panda and its subsequent updates were bad news for black-hat SEO. Cutts said Panda affected about 12 percent of queries to a significant degree, meaning a regular user might notice.

How Google Determines Freshness
Google never reveals the exact algorithm used to rank pages, but Husayni maintains that the key to SEO success in general is a combination of quality content, popularity and relevance.

“Those same characteristics-the ones that drive the most traffic to a website on Google, generate the most conversions and invite the best engagement from users-are just as important in determining freshness,” he says.

But just because content is freshly published doesn’t guarantee it is going to be on the first page of a Google search results page. Clearly Google will look at more than just a time stamp or they didn’t solve any spam problems at all. Businesses should keep time stamps and their XML sitemaps up to date, but content still has to be high-quality to make it to the top.

“The best way for small businesses to keep their site fresh-and therefore relevant in Google’s eyes-is with a blog, an excellent way to distribute the high-quality content they created,” Husayni says.

How To Find The Lucky Number
Unfortunately there is no magic number of times a business has to post to stay fresh. It just depends on too many factors for a one-size-fits-all answer, including the competitiveness of their market and their type of business.

“Fast-paced industries like SEO require very frequent updating, but others may be able to post twice a month to stay fresh,” says Husayni.

Figuring out your individual needs can be done by looking at reports in Google Analytics and checking the data for Google+ with Webmaster Tools. You should be able to tell if you are posting often enough if your traffic and rank remain steady.  The reports from the analytical tools can also show you what people are responding to the most, based on social media signals like +1′s, Likes and Tweets. This is a quick tutorial on how to find out what pages on your site have been +1′ed. (link to blog post about checking +1 information-not published yet)

If deciphering Analytics’ reports is something you don’t have the time to do or something you want a little training in, you can also schedule a free SEO consultation with our SEO expert, Ali Husayni .

Quality Matters As Much As Quantity
A common objection heard from small businesses is that coming up with high-quality content on a regular basis is too time-consuming, but good content doesn’t have to take a long time. It helps to start with a good understanding of exactly what Google deems high quality content, which we’ve talked about in many of our previous posts. You may be surprised to find that choosing topics for articles and press releases is easier than you think. These posts not only fulfill the freshness component they also give you an opportunity to optimize anchor text for search engines and build up backlinks to your site that contribute to overall ranking.  Just be sure that you’re not hurting rankings by making the most common mistakes in generating site content.

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE – There are plenty of variables that go into SEO. You’ve probably spent time honing your metadata for search engine optimization, and you certainly know the value of good links. Now the best way to further optimize your website for search engines is through new content.

Courtesy of jezweb.com.au

Google likes fresh content. However, creating new content for your company’s blog can be daunting. You may start with a good list of topics, but once those are exhausted, it can be tough to find other topics to write about.

Test your knowledge of your industry by making a list of hot-button issues that double as keywords. Those keywords are important. Are they the same keywords that your potential customers are using to search Google?

Use Your Resources
Make Internet marketing work for you by compiling a running list of good industry resources. Medical professionals might subscribe to RSS feeds from medical journals. Learning what’s going on in your field will help you use more timely SEO keywords.

When we say “stay current,” we mean stay fresh. Learn new things. Ask new questions. Search for popular blogs and websites that feature news in your industry. See what other people are writing about. Knowing what the buzz is in your industry does two things.

First, it allows you to join the current conversation. You’ll know what other businesses like yours are discussing, what methods they’re trying, and what’s working for them. From the number of comments on competing websites you may even be able to gauge how effective certain topics are.

Second, knowing what people are talking about also tells you what they aren’t talking about. You may see an opportunity to start an important conversation about changes in your industry. Content that is fresh and unique has the potential to attract lots of viewers.

Comment on articles from your industry that appeal to you. Link to them on your website or social media outlets. You’ll learn a lot by being an active member of the discussion.

Do Your Own Research
Imagine you’re a baker, and you’re testing a new cake recipe. We don’t want you to share proprietary information, but sharing your journey developing a new product makes an honest, compelling story. Ask your customers for feedback when they try your new cake. Ask how the new cake compares with another one they’ve sampled. Record how many times the new cake flavor is ordered compared to the old ones. Spice up the name of the cake and see how sales are affected.

You’re probably doing this anyway, but think of a way to incorporate your journey into a blog post. All the research you do to increase your business is important, and sharing the results you’ve seen could be informative and engaging for customers and other businesses in your industry. Competition can be cutthroat, but gaining contacts in your own industry is a good thing. A friendly rivalry with another local bakery could yield excellent marketing and SEO benefits.

Remember all the Google SEO secrets we’ve shared along the way as you cultivate your content.

Know Your Keywords
You should be able to create a list of keywords from all your research. Staying in tune with the industry shifts can pay off. Grab some paper (or open a “note” on your phone) and list 10 keywords that are important to your industry. Bakers might list: “baking a cake, cupcake decorating, wedding cake prices, Dr. Seuss cake, and gluten-free desserts.” Already you’ve got a list of possible blog topics. Within each topic, think of specific things users would want to know about that topic. Pretend you are the one searching for the information on Google. What keyword phrases would you use to find gluten-free desserts? Maybe you’d use: “gluten-free cakes, recipes without gluten, baking without wheat, and flour alternatives.”

A column by Trond Lyngbø at Search Engine Land discusses the importance of keyword research.

“Powerful keyword research tools that can help automate and speed up many repetitive processes include Google Keyword Tool, Market Samurai, Google Insights for Search, and Google Trends (that can help reveal seasonal and other trends),” Lyngbø writes. “Analytically reviewing the consolidated data they throw up puts into startling relief many hidden opportunities just waiting to be exploited.”

Visit the resources mentioned above and see if the keywords you brainstormed have low or high competition.

Make your blog topics specific. This gives you more opportunities to diversify the content and the keywords within each post appearing on your company’s blog.

Keeping up with your industry will certainly boost your SEO efforts, but it also will trickle into your everyday work. In the SEO game and in life, there’s always room for improvement.