We just saw some serious movements on our clients’ rankings on Google. We expect Google just rolled out a new algorithm update. I checked Matt Cutt’s blog as well as Rand Fishkin, Danny Sulivan and a few other SEO experts and didn’t see anyone talking about a new update.

Today, our clients had a significant improvement in their rankings and since improvements naturally happen over time and not simultaneously for many clients, I can only attribute this to a new Google algorithm update.

Do you see any change in your sites’ ranking results? Share your findings.

SANTA MONICA, CA — Recently we gave you an introduction to Google Analytics. We have also mentioned analytics as part of other free online SEO technique tips in the blog series of our CEO, Ali Husayni’s blog series: Google SEO Simplified Parts One, Two, and Three. But what does using this information mean for your business?

All About SEO: Understanding Where Google Analytics Fits In

When implementing all-inclusive SEO strategies and including social media, Google Analytics is the perfect tool to show you how your efforts are paying off with real results, according to Husayni. While Husanyni believes that you must be full-time with your SEO efforts, free online SEO tips like the ones on our blog encourage companies to be proactive, regardless of using our services.

Google Analytics is a powerful tool for understanding how traffic is driven to a site, which is really all about understanding how vital SEO is to a business. If no one is visiting your site, no one will link to you, and more importantly, no one will care about your site’s efforts, whether it be for koi fish advertising or for dental patient marketing (yes, we have quite the variety of clients who see results) – the audience must be driven there.

“You cannot just sit and wait for others to link their sites to yours,” Husayni says. “That simply won’t happen. In a world where there are thousands of new sites built every day, your prospective site visitors have no way of finding you to read your content.”

Simplifying Analytics: Which Reports Matter To You

In analyzing which content drives traffic, it is important to know how to generate a report that means something to you, as explained in a recent post by John Hope-Johnstone of BuzzMaster.Wordpress.com. Google Analytics is as maddening as it is amazing because of the amount of material. It is noted by Hope-Johnstone that Google Analytics can generate up to 85 different reports, so it is important to know which to use, as how you look at it is more important than what it contains.

“The bottom line is that you are going to have to create your own dashboard that has meaning to you and from which you can take meaningful actions,” Hope-Johnstone said. “It is daunting in the amount of data that can be obtained. I love to use the expression in our seminars that we’re ‘drowning in data and starving for knowledge.’”

To improve business steadily over time, a company must be willing to steadily work toward improving itself, including its shortcomings, and Master Google is no different. In a recent post, Husayni analyzed what it would take to become the best SEO Company. Husayni puts it best when he compares results to customer satisfaction:

“Any business is given value based upon its profitability as well as revenue, but I want to add customer loyalty, satisfaction and beating our competition in any market as factors into the equation of what it means to be the best,” he said.

Part of being the best comes from understanding where to find your strengths (and flaws), and in this case, we’re using Google Analytics to find these things. One of the ways to best use Google Analytics is to combine some of their reports and make a new number that makes sense to your business, according to Hope-Johnstone.

“An example might be, rather than just measure Unique Visitors, I combine the number of ‘Unique Visitors’ plus ‘Page Views’ into a new combined metric,” Hope-Johnstone said. “When something goes wrong with the website, I will look at each metric individually, but to create our own dashboard, I use combined metrics that tell me more.”

Since optimization is only about 5-10 percent of the total SEO work, according to Husayni, the rest lies with content development and popularity, vital pieces to the puzzle that cannot be ignored. Hope-Johnstone puts all of the parts of SEO together to give an analogy to making a website fly, the same way a plane would. In this analogy, Hope-Johnstone explains that you, the website owner or optimizer, are comparable to airline pilots in control of an aircraft. Airline pilots have ‘key’ instrumentation needed to soar into the air. They rely on these instruments to tell them that all is going well. According to Johnstone, the inspection checklist of those vital instruments looks like this:

1. Check the artificial horizon.
2. Check the air speed indicator.
3. Check the rate of climb or descent. (Now there are many more instruments on the cockpit’s dashboard, but those are the first a pilot will look at if something odd is going on with the aircraft.)
4. Check another row of instruments until the dashboard is exhausted.
5. After all of the instruments are exhausted, make a manual checklist of action items.

Google Analytics is an excellent automatic tool for telling you where you traffic is coming from. To make an accurate Google Analytics checklist for your own records, though, it is important to note what is not there as much as what is.

Filling in The Blanks of ‘Not Provided Data’ in Google Analytics

Courtesy of PayoffMarketing.com

At the end of last year, we couldn’t help but note that there was an item labeled “Not Provided” on Google Analytics traffic reports under the “Traffic Sources/Google Organic” section. We found that this section was “protecting” Google users who were using their account when conducting the search, as Google wants to further protect their users’ privacy by encrypting their search results pages. Google seems to have support from the general public, according to the Pew Research Center. Seventy-three percent of people said they would “NOT BE OKAY with a search engine keeping track of your searches and using that information to personalize your future search results because you feel it is an invasion of privacy.”

While we appreciate the privacy, we have thus far missed thousands of organic Google search keyword insights, and it accounted for 19.6% of our total Google organic search traffic last November. Husayni has not been happy with this function of Analytics:

“My opinion is that Google needs to find a way to fully show the keywords people use in finding sites,” he said. “Otherwise, we may have to use other software to monitor our clients’ traffic.”

Still, the changes are a challenge that Husayni has risen to, and the Master Google team has remained successful at optimizing websites. Husayni encourages other businesses to use the same strategy to stay on top of SEO.

“The only thing not changing with SEO is that it’s always changing,” Husayni said. “Be diligent in keeping up with those changes as [you handle your] site’s SEO, or partner with a qualified SEO provider to handle that task.”

To increase the likelihood that Google Analytics will work for your website the way it should, Contact Us to see if we can provide SEO services for your website.

NASHVILLE, TN – It’s no secret that Internet usage has increased dramatically in the past decade. In 2004, 30 percent of Internet users conducted search engine queries on a normal day.

In the present, that number has shot to 59 percent, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. When Google released Search Plus Your World, we reported that Web searches would start getting personal. A study released on March 9 by the Pew Internet & American Life Project shows the results of a very interesting test. Pew wanted to know how Internet users feel about search engines gathering and saving their past histories to use as a guide for future search results. The survey asked approximately 2,000 participants questions about their Internet use, their feelings on targeting advertising, and their knowledge on how to keep their information private. The survey was conducted from Jan. 20 to Feb. 19. Overall, participants did not want search engines to gather that information.

A whopping 73 percent of people said they would “NOT BE OKAY with a search engine keeping track of your searches and using that information to personalize your future search results because you feel it is an invasion of privacy.” The Internet users that accept search engines tracking their searches feel that the material gathered allows search engines to customize their results, better guessing what they’re searching for.

A chart from Pew’s research shows a breakdown of how Internet users feel (either “good” or “bad”) about personalized searches based on users’ age and income level. The study found that the older one is and the more income he receives, the more he disagrees with this method of gaining tailored results.

Personalized searches are certainly controversial, but sometimes they aren’t all bad. If you search for “Indian food takeout,” your past search results could mean that you don’t have to enter your location in each search. If you’re searching for “oil change,” it might annoy some people to get results in other states or regions.

What This Means for SEO

It can get cutthroat in the SEO world, but try to keep your client in mind. If your client values privacy, and most people do value privacy, refrain from deceptive practices. Don’t share their email addresses. Don’t clog up their inboxes with irrelevant content.

There may be a backlash from Internet users due to the way search engines and websites like Facebook treat their personal data. Keep your customers and readers happy by treating them with the respect they desire.

The best way to get readers to trust you is to give them valuable content on a regular schedule. Master Google’s CEO Ali Husayni believes that focusing on the customer’s needs is the way to achieve success.

“Ultimately, humans are more important than the search engine because they are the ones who buy, the ones who will share the content, and the ones who will get you the backlinks to the content, so always strive for a natural tone and relevant topics,” Husayni says.

Contact the Master Google search engine optimizing team to see how we push to get you results while staying true to your customers.

TAMPA, FLORIDA — It was this statement from Matt Cutts that instantly made me perk up and take note: “Normally we don’t…pre-announce changes, but there is something that we’ve been working on…to try to level the playing ground a little bit.”

I heard this during a podcast from SXSW in March, and Cutts, the head of Google’s Web spam team, was talking about SEO techniques that Google views as “over-optimization.” You can listen to the podcast at Search Engine Roundtable.

Earlier in the session, it was explained that all SEO experts weren’t bad; that a good SEO expert was like a coach who helps you figure out how to present yourself better via your website. That’s when Cutts, whose job is to hunt cheaters, showed his hand.

In the coming weeks, Google plans to start identifying sites that are overdoing it when it comes to SEO, compared to the people who are just creating great content and trying to make a fantastic site. This is a particular area to which Cutts’ team continues to pay attention.

“It’s an active area where we’ve got several engineers on my team working right now,” he said. “We want to sort of make that playing field a little bit more level. And so that’s the sort of thing where we try to make the Googlebot smarter, we try to make our relevance more adaptive.”

That way, people who don’t use SEO techniques won’t suffer from having their sites buried in search results by people who abuse SEO- whether they throw too many keywords on the page, they exchange too many links, or whatever else they may do to “go beyond what a normal person would expect,” Cutts said.

There are lots of people who seem to think that Google hates SEO, but that’s not the case, he said. It can be helpful by making a site more easily crawled, which increases the site’s user-friendliness.

Still, there are people who take it too far; black hat SEO techniques that do too well.

“We’ve been working on changes where if you’re a white hat or you’ve been doing very little SEO, that you’re going to not be affected by this change,” Cutts says. “But if you’ve been going beyond the pale, your site may not rank as highly as it did before.”

Matt Cutts warns over optimizers: changes are coming.

Google isn’t the only search engine that recognizes the need to address the SEO-on-steroids techniques that some people use. Duane Forrester, senior product manager with Bing’s Webmaster Program, also took part in the SXSW session and reiterated “over-SEO is always a problem.”

Ali Husayni, Master Google’s CEO, welcomes the change to Google.

“When Matt described an ethical SEO professional who makes sites user-friendly and more crawlable, he could have been describing us,” Husayni said. “We use only white-hat techniques because we understand that SEO is a marathon, not a sprint.”

“What’s interesting in Matt’s approach is that he mentioned two of the most common black-hat SEO techniques: keyword stuffing and link-exchange,” Husayni said. “So by over optimization, he means black-hat SEO. Unfortunately, Google has recently lost its handle of such practices as I explained in our recent post. So, Matt is on the right track here.”

Husayni predicted that this next Google change will further weed out bad SEO providers and enhance our clients’ rankings on Google.

“When you’re doing everything above-board, you don’t have anything to worry about,” he said. “But when you’re trying to cheat the system, Matt’s team at Google has shown time and again that they will catch onto you eventually.”

EVERGREEN, CO — I’ve been a fan of white-hat SEO for many years. After all, Google likes white-hat SEO, and from its early years, I have promoted Google for its accurate search results. In my opinion, the main reason for Google’s success has been that its team of engineers in the anti-spam department, headed by Matt Cutts, has worked tirelessly for many years to prevent spammers from exploiting SEO techniques in order to rank themselves above the competition, when those types of tactics don’t deserve Google’s approval.

Matt and his team’s work has been no small task as new black-hat techniques are created on a daily basis by websites looking to shortcut their way to the top – at the expense of quality websites on the Internet.

However, it surprises me that Google is still unable to detect old black-hat SEO techniques. For example, a few days ago, I was shocked to see one of our peers’ sites securing a #5 rank on Google organic results for “Best SEO” using (for the most part) black-hat SEO techniques. Interestingly, Google has known most of these techniques for years. So, I’m wondering how they get away with tricking Google.

Image Courtesy of SeoBook.com.

Matt… if you’re reading this, please write a post and let us know how this website slipped through the cracks of your genius team – especially that they’re affiliated with SEOmoz.org, which I’m really proud of for their great SEO software development.

The site in question is: www.localseocompany.net.

The keyword I searched for is: Best SEO

The page that comes up #5 is: http://www.localseocompany.net/best-seo-company/

And now the main black-hat techniques they’ve used:

1.  Keyword Stuffing: the site mentions “SEO” exactly 40 times. The term “best SEO” has been repeated 20 times.
2. Excess use of H1 tags: there are seven H1 tags throughout the code of this page.
3. Self-linking anchored texts: there are 21 links on this page using anchored texts that are linking to the page itself – thus sending Googlebot in circles.

Interestingly enough, this page has ZERO inbound links (however, the root domain is very popular getting links from sites such as Adobe and SEOMoz.org).

Leave your thoughts and comments; I’m interested to know what you think of this.

Please note: I’m not going to report this page to Google for SEO malpractice – because I honestly think Google should have been able to detect it by itself.

Our notes have been made only because we love Google and we want it to stay at the top of the game in regards to being the best search engine out there.

SANTA MONICA, CA — It’s refreshing to alleviate dread when it comes to the beginning of the work week, especially where our clients are concerned. For our clients who formerly had ineffective SEO strategies in place, the week often looked bleak when assessing the week’s SEO goals with a company that just wasn’t working for them the way they had hoped. For Shawn Sandifer and Timothy Booth, this was their experience until they came to Master Google wanting more than unfilled promises for their website, TenList.com. TenList.com is aiming to be the go-to source for home improvement and construction-related services, and they are well on their way.

Shawn Sandifer and Timothy Booth of TenList.com.

Last week, TenList reached a daily record that had not been crossed since Aug. 15, 2011: organic search results that brought in 5,690 visitors. This week, the site has already reached another record high for 2012 of 6,048 visitors, a number that the website last experienced on Aug. 1, 2011. Sandifer shared his relief that Mondays mornings are no longer going to be a major source of dread.

“Mondays were dark days for sometime and it’s nice to start the week off once again on a bright note,” Sandifer said. “We could always determine how the rest of the weeks’ leads and traffic would be depending on the Monday’s numbers.”

Living on the TenList roller coaster ride was not the track that the website wanted to stay on, and that’s where Master Google came in.

Why Google Rankings Fall With the Wrong SEO Company

While Mondays used to be one of the TenList.com team’s favorite days of the week, as SEO efforts with other companies always started out well, the inevitable drop was hard to take. After all, trusting the wrong SEO company can leave you feeling more lost in the shuffle than found at the top of Google. What makes a good SEO company is often misunderstood, according to a post by Master Google CEO Ali Husayni. Husayni said that most of the SEO companies claim to be SEO experts, when the truth is that they only know a few small aspects of SEO.

“They read a few articles, make some changes to the site’s meta tags and claim that your site is ready for Google,” Husayni said. “Then, a few months later, when you are frustrated at the lack of progress, your so called SEO expert tells you that you have to wait as it takes longer for Google to rank your site.” And the wait is all in vain.

Don’t Be Afraid to Switch Up Your Normal SEO Efforts

At first, Husayni’s ‘clean-house’ approach to TenList’s SEO strategies felt like a big overhaul, but by taking on the broken parts of their current system, TenList was really able to make drastic improvement that they appreciate now, according to Booth.

“By challenging our current culture, they have helped us develop a greater understanding of our business and help us map out our goals and take steps to achieve them,” Booth said.

Sandifer seconds the relief that Booth shared about TenList being headed in the right direction this time, happy that Master Google is on board and exceeding their expectations.

“With the drop we had in traffic due to bad direction by consulting companies it is nice to finally see a growing trend,” Sandifer said. “This means we can finally begin to plan for the future and growth of our company and stop trying to figure out how to dig ourselves out of the hole we were in.”

Always Look Toward the Future and At Your Ranking Reports

Master Google Editor-in-chief Lorrie Walker looks forward to seeing what the next writing campaign will do for the success of the site, and knows that the site will grow as its quality content does.

“We’re embarking on a three-month content writing campaign to really get the word out about the relevant, useful information the site provides to those who need the services,” Walker said.

“It is rare to find a company in the SEO space that will go month to month, in their business relationship with you and to continually prove their value to your site,” Booth said. “Our traffic is growing at a quicker pace than their original estimate. Their value to our company at this stage cannot be overstated.”

SANTA MONICA, CA – The Master Google team is proud to announce another Top of Google Places announcement. The foam insulation company Retrofoam of Arizona has reached #1 on Google Places for “Phoenix Insulation.” Having an active SEO strategy is a vital part of the equation in the formula for business success, according to Retrofoam of Arizona Co-Owner Paul Kariniemi.

“SEO is something I always want to have. We also do radio and TV advertising [and other forms of advertising], and I will always have SEO running in the background,” Kariniemi said.

After all, it takes an active campaign effort to get results. Citing the sometimes maddening truth that there is no way to know exactly which part of your SEO efforts will take you to the top and exactly how long it will take, Kariniemi shared his humorous equation for Internet success:

A strong Internet presence is 1+1=3.

This joke is a great example of why it is so important to understand that Kariniemi’s success didn’t happen overnight. As with past clients, SEO results  took time, and were a part of an intricate plan by Master Google CEO Ali Husayni and the Master Google team. Still, the results happened relatively quickly, and Kariniemi’s comments echoed those of Doug Cooper, the VP of marketing for CariniAir.com, when their site hit #1 on Google Places.

“In a matter of about one to one-and-a-half months, Master Google helped us reach the top spot in the Google Places listing for the air conditioning keywords, while still retaining our #2 spot for heating,” Cooper said.

Reaching the top spot in Google Places is a good example as to why it is important to consider the full SEO picture to evaluate the return on investment, according to Husayni.

“We can precisely measure the increase in site traffic within the time the client signs up for SEO,” Husayni said. “The bottom line is higher ranks on Google result in more targeted traffic, which translates to more sales.”

Husayni continues to enjoy seeing these tangible results for each one of his clients. He advised Kariniemi to continue to work on his Google Places reviews, as the number and quality of the reviews matters for SEO efforts, according to Husayni.

Comic Courtesy of Kayzoe.com.

To learn how to list your business on Google Places, watch this video for instructions. Once you’re listed, ask your returning customers to write a positive review for your business as Husayni advised Kariniemi to do. After all, the more your listing is rated, the higher your business will place in Google Places rankings. When done well, the combined efforts of an ambitious SEO team and the patience and trust of the client is what makes all the difference, according to Husayni.

“SEO takes the following three things: expertise, hard work, and patience. On average, our clients see the best results within six months to a year after we start a project. When we see results, it proves to us the fact that what we do actually works,” Husayni said.

Having an SEO company on your side that you can trust has been a refreshing experience for Kariniemi, who shared: “With all the used car sales types out there pushing SEO on business owners, I must say it’s been refreshing to deal with true SEO professionals who deliver real, quantifiable results.”

Contact Us to see if your site qualifies, and we look forward to continuing to work with Kariniemi and our other clients.

SANTA MONICA, CA – As a writer and administrative assistant to the CEO of an SEO company that provides its customers with the tools for landing a top spot on the first page of Google, I have had the chance to meet many experts in the fields of search engine optimization and social media marketing. By working with them, I have learned that to master google, you must understand the many different factors required for effective Google SEO. Blog optimization is one important factor, but so is making sure that the online audience engages in the conversation, hence our constant examining of social media importance. After all, I have found myself repeatedly seeking new answers to these two recurring questions: how effective is social media marketing (SMM) for the bottom line and why does it matter for SEO?

Seeking some fresh insight, I decided to talk to an expert with a writing and marketing background similar to mine, Aaron Smyk, who is the Director of Web Marketing for Transparent Corporation. Before I delve into the details of what Transparent Corp. has done with SMM, I must first join with Smyk in issuing a disclaimer regarding my ‘new’ findings. Setting out to prove the effectiveness of social media marketing is nothing ‘new’, and has actually been the topic of countless debates over the years. One of the earliest and most public discussions took place at the Search Marketing Expo in Seattle, where moderator Danny Sullivan introduced the importance of SMM to SEO efforts.

Image Courtesy of Kirkmktgblog.com.

“Search engine optimizers really need to understand social media. Social media traffic is great for a site. A lot of people are going to social media sites and are doing a basic behavior of discovery,” Sullivan said.

Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz.org pointed to YouTube as an example of the power of Social Media Marketing.

“What can viral media marketing do for you? Do you remember when there was no YouTube? In December of 2005, YouTube became more popular in a month. What did that? Lazy Sunday from Saturday Night Live was put there, and now YouTube dominates the market. Viral media gives you the ability to brand. Viral media causes search rankings through links. Viral media means that you are growing your fan base. RSS subscribers go up,”  Fishkin said.

New Money Making Opportunities With Social Media Marketing Platforms

Over the years, the effectiveness of SMM has lead to a plethora of online opportunities that just didn’t exist before, and they range from gaining clients and readers to finding a job. Sites that were once used primarily for link bait are now bringing job opportunities to the attention of qualified applicants.

Reddit is how Smyk became the Director of Web Marketing for Transparent Corporation, a developer of software aimed toward neural stimulation, mental training and biofeedback. Serving over 100 countries, Transparent’s products are used by therapists, businesses, M.D.’s, teachers, academic researchers and the masses. Smyk was immediately interested in the position and was happy to talk about the value of sites like Reddit.

“There is a sort of common culture that unites people on that site, and I think having that common base of interests carried over really nicely into this role,” Smyk said.

The Overlap Between SEO and SMM: Getting Results By Combining Them

Smyk has witnessed the overlap between SEO and SSM and said that while it has been hard for him to tell which set of techniques is more effective on their own, good content will always provide better SEO results.

“It’s a hazy area… is a site ranking well because they have lots of ‘likes’ on Facebook? Or is it ranking well because that content is good, has been linked to extensively, and as a result, has also picked up a bunch of positive social stats?” Smyk asked rhetorically, adding his opinion. “If something does well on a social platform, that shows you that you’ve created something that is actually meeting a need and getting attention, and also increases the exposure to that content.”

Jumping on the social media bandwagon is a topic that Master Google has been addressing from the beginning, and this fact remains the same: you need to have a Facebook account and a fan page for your business, says Master Google CEO Ali Husayni.

“You need to encourage your friends to ‘like’ the page, and you must post useful information, videos and photos to it on a regular basis,” Husayni said.

Of course, Google+ has come into the picture and provided another social media marketing platform.

Google+ Brings New Opportunities

In a recent blog post about Google+, we talked about how the benefits of Google plus are many, and if you don’t have a Google+ account, you are strongly advised to get one.

“It’s a real step in the right direction. They needed to have it from the get-go,” Husayni said.

Smyk sees the value in Google+ for business, but notes that Google+ has its limits.

“Google+ is a completely different story… a single +1 can have a huge impact on how that page is presented in Google SERPs, but that is only if you’re signed into Google,” Smyk said. “Safe to say, if your audience appears to be using Google Plus, you need to have a strategy for it by now.”

Smyk also made an important note about the role of SMM in his line of work, stating that everyone in the SEO industry should be keeping an eye on social media marketing, as best practices in the area are constantly evolving. Husayni agrees that SMM is evolving just as SEO is.

“As SEO continually evolves, so does the need for a dedicated team ready to meet the demands of an ever-changing market. After all, getting to the top of Google takes determination, hard work and a little bit of patience,” Husayni said. “You may not have the budget for a full-scale SEO campaign if you’re just starting out, but having an SEO consultant to get you started may very well be within your budget and well worth the expense.”

TAMPA, FLORIDA — Perhaps Charles Dickens said it best in A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

That is how many business owners feel about Google Places and other sources on the Internet that enable people to write reviews or leave comments about businesses. Favorable comments about your product or service can be one of the best ways to build your reputation. Negative comments can have some of the worst repercussions.

Let’s get this out of the way first: your chances of removing a negative review from Google Places are slim. Check out Google’s information on that popular question here. One way to combat the bad press is to use the “flag as inappropriate” option, in which case Google will look into the review to determine whether it violates Google’s guidelines.

So what else can you do when someone slams your business in a review? Growmap.com has a great example of how one business handled it. In short, a company that sells woodworking tools and educational materials got a negative review from a disgruntled customer. The CEO sent out an email blast to its customers that outlined the circumstances surrounding the disgruntled customer and provided a link to the negative complaint, which he answered, the Grow Map article states.

Additionally, he included a link to his company’s Google Places page so satisfied customers could leave their own reviews “so others would have a more balanced view” of the company, the article states. It wasn’t long before the negative review was buried by dozens of favorable reviews.

“No company is perfect, and an occasional negative review should be anticipated,” says Ali Husayni, CEO of Master Google, which specializes in marketing medical practices. “This CEO took a proactive approach to this discouraging situation and I would say he turned a negative into a positive.”

Looking at the situation strategically, you want to drown your negative reviews with positive ones. Essentially, having 50 favorable reviews to one negative one will work in your favor, according to Matthew Loop, a social media and Internet marketing expert.

Multiple experts say it is wise to respond directly to a negative review, which you can do if you’ve claimed your Google Places listing. Be careful how you reply, though. Pop off a response in anger and you’re likely to do more harm than good. A professional, courteous response is what you want to shoot for.

In addition to knowing how to respond to a negative review, it’s important to understand just how important good reviews are to your business and more specifically, your website. Favorable reviews paint a favorable opinion of your business when potential customers find your Google Places page, according to Alex Eaton at Energypro.com. In terms of businesses’ overall SEO plans, the more reviews there are, the better businesses do in organic search results.

It’s also important to note that your Google Places page will list reviews from sources other than just Google places. It pulls reviews from sites including Yelp, Urban Spoon and Insider Pages, to name a few.

“I view this as yet another example of how Google constantly works to make user experiences better,” says Husayni, who works to achieve top SEO results for clients by offering guidance on how to manage their Google Places listings. “Pulling in reviews and comments from multiple sources gives those in search of information a broad picture of the company they are researching.”

I think Chris Robinson over at Giantseed Creative says it best when talking about negative reviews: “We can’t control the conversations taking place on social media platforms, but we can monitor and respond to what is being said.”

In closing, remember these key tips:

• Monitor your reviews
• Truly take note of what is being said
• Respond professionally and compassionately
• Take action if you believe a review is spammy or malicious in nature
• By all means, reach out to your happy clients and customers and ask them to give their honest feedback.

I’m convinced if you take this approach, you can’t go wrong.

SANTA MONICA, CA — I know that we all thought we were done with hearing about “making a list, and checking it twice,” but when considering either having or being a guest blogger, ’tis the season to make a list of steps and goals along the way. What should that list look like? From targeting a market, to joining a group that shares blogging opportunities, planning ahead of time will make it easier to decide what to post and where to spend your time maximizing link building, an important search engine optimization tactic.

1. Understand the Importance of an Inbound Link. Inbound links are one of the key components to quality SEO, because it tells Google that your website is trusted and important. More links make you an authority. To further understand the anatomy of a link, see the full explanation in a recent article by Andrew Pitre on HubSpot’s blog. And remember, not all links are created equal.

“If you were to get an inbound link from a domain with lots of its own inbound links, like the New York Times, for example, you would get more authority transferred to your domain than if you got a link from my friend Brian’s blog,” Pitre says.

2. Target Blogs With Keyword Research. If you’re looking for a guest blogger, please skip ahead to the next step.

For the writers: what do you want to write about? Think of words or phrases that you currently want to be found under in a Google search. Search for these keywords on Google and determine the list of websites that you wish to write for. To further expand your horizons, use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool, which will give a thorough list of the keywords from the previous month that relate. Another Adwords column also displays those keywords’ popularity for the last month, a very valuable tool in deciding which sites are worth your time.

Another option is signing up for a service like WordTracker.com, according to Ali Husayni, the CEO of the SEO service company, Master Google. WordTracker’s function is like the Google Adwords Keyword Tool, in that it helps you find and evaluate keywords.

3. Join a (Free) Service Like Blogger Link Up. BloggerLinkUp.com is a website that connects blog writers with website owners who need blog content. Each week, a newsletter is sent out with lists of requested blog posts, and writers wanting to be a guest poster. The form is the same, whether you are a prospective guest blogger or a website in need of a guest blogger.

4. Make Yourself Uncomfortable With Your Guest Blog Efforts (Within Reason). What makes you uncomfortable about writing or hosting a guest blog post? Change can be scary, but we need to try every serious idea we have at least once, urges Cathy Stucker, the founder of BloggerLinkUp.com, in a recent post.

“The problem is that too often we don’t try a second or third time (or even a first!) with marketing activities which seem difficult,” Stucker says. “I was terrified the first time I gave a speech. But I got up and did it anyway. You can, too.”

So, forget your fears, and remember, the worst thing that can happen with new content is that, well, you don’t receive any at all. Go get it.

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