Christmas lights, shopping bags, and endless family gatherings… it is a season full of fun, and distractions. Here at Master Google, we think that the end of the calendar year is the perfect time to plan your marketing budget for the new year. So, what’s the smartest budget choice in 2012?

Since marketing is all about getting to those wanting your product, no matter which marketing tactic(s) you choose, the web is the place for prospective buyers to find reviews and information.  A recent Pew Research Center Poll shows how consumers decide where to eat and what to buy:

• 51 percent use the Internet

• search engines – 31%
• specialty websites – 17%
• social media – 3%

 • 31 percent read newspapers

• printed copies – 26%
• newspaper websites – 5%

 • 23 percent take the word of friends/family/reputation

 • 8 percent watch local TV

Let’s take a look at just how effectively SMM, SEO and YouTube reaches target audiences.

The Skinny on SMM:

Its use is on the rise, and the cost is nearly nil for initial output, which has made it more popular. It’s viable, too, according to a Fall 2011 study done by email marketing provider, Constant Contact. After surveying just over 2,000 small businesses, they found that 81percent of them use some form of it. The most common SMM remarks were that it is “easy to use,” and “works with my customers.” Facebook was cited as the number one tool, followed by Twitter, LinkedIn and video sharing.

What to Know About SEO:

SEO works, when used effectively. Effectively is the key word, pun intended. When looking at the Google keyword tool in AdWords, for instance, many changes have taken place, with the addition of everything from mobile apps to Google+ features. The questionable accuracy of keywords, as researched in our current AdWords-Focused Article, puts SEO up to scrutiny. In light of these worries, SEO expert Ali Husayni gives us assurance of the continuing stability of SEO as a viable marketing tool, as highlighted in our recent interview.

“SEO, and Google SEO in particular, are still very solid marketing tools for any small-, medium- and large-sized business,” Husayni said. “We do realize that, since Google+ has been born, SEO has become even more complicated, but at Master Google we’re staying at the top of the game.”

Now, let’s move to the often-talked about, seldom-understood potential of YouTube.

YouTube’s Place in Online Marketing and Media:

The face of the media is changing, and Paul Gillin, a respected social media marketing guru and Author of The New Influencers, stresses the importance of being bold with the new opportunities presented by being able to target an audience. Using traditional media is limited, after all, according to Gillin’s forum at the SuperGenius Conference.

“We are seeing a collapse of mainstream media because it’s based on an economic model that is highly inefficient,” Gillin said. “If you’re interested in selling wedding gowns, in the past, you had to market to 100 percent of the population, instead of the one percent looking for a wedding dress. Now we can reach those people directly.”

Why is this industry expert a proponent of YouTube? For one thing, I found Paul Gillin there. (Fun side note: have you heard of Justin Beiber, the song Friday by Rebecca Black, Antoine Dodson, or Auto-Tune the News? They all have YouTube to thank for their fame.)

As for the smartest budget choice in 2012, we at Master Google say a healthy dose of all three. If you have any questions regarding your marketing, please contact us directly. Happy marketing, and happy holidays.

Google wants to further protect their users’ privacy by encrypting their search results pages (through https://www.google.com).

In Nov. our site received 1,144 visitors from organic Google search which their search keywords were not shown (see below). This is 19.6% of our total Google organic search traffic.

Because of that, we decided to address several of the most frequently asked questions, in hope that if you’re a client already using us for your SEO campaign management, this information will enlighten you on the importance of various SEO campaign elements. If you’re a business in need of an organic SEO consultant, this may give you some insight into how our process works.

Hands-down, the most frequently asked question is this:

How long will it take me to get my website onto Page 1 of Google search for my main keyword?
Through the years, we have become quite good at predicting such an uncertainty. We’ve written a couple of times recently about the quick success we’ve had in getting clients ranked on Page 1 of Google. The time frame varies greatly from client to client. Normally, clients who want to get ranked for local keywords see results within two to six months.

Why does my Google rank change sometimes?
One day you’re on top; the next you’re near the bottom of Page 1. We constantly check SEO ranking for our clients’ websites, and we see a variation in results occasionally, due to changes frequently made to Google’s algorithms. Google’s primary goal is to provide the most helpful information to people using its search engine. That requires almost constant tweaks and changes. We are diligent in keeping up with these changes so that when a change adversely affects a clients’ website, we can get on track to restoring the previous ranking.

How many keywords are you going to rank me for?
There is no limit to the number of keywords we will rank you for, but we’ll focus on 20-30 main keywords

Who is responsible for my site’s rankings?
Our team has many members and each one is responsible for a part of your overall SEO work. Our writers- perhaps the team members you will be in closest contact with- are charged with developing well-written, relevant content for you on an ongoing basis. These articles and press releases play a huge role in your overall SEO efforts. Other members of our team are responsible for strategically posting these articles and releases on websites to generate quality inbound links back to your page. We also have team members who are tasked with making tweaks to your site to make it more search-engine friendly.

Are you going to change my site or what I have on it?
Once we have access to your site, we will make any necessary changes that will enable it to be found and indexed easily by search engines. Sometimes it is necessary to make changes to the content on your site, such as removing duplicate content and replacing it with custom content created specifically for you by our writers.

When will my article and press release appear on my website?
Our writers work nearly one month in advance so we can be sure to get your articles and press releases posted on time each and every month. That means that although our writers may contact you early in the month to interview you for your article and/or press release, the item may not appear on your website until closer to the end of the month.

Where are my articles and press releases published?
Articles and press releases are posted to a variety of sites throughout the Internet. We have some posts on our blog that list the top sites we use for posting articles and press releases. Each month in addition to a SEO ranking report, we also provide to our clients a list of the sites to which their articles and releases are submitted.

Who reads the articles and press releases that are written for me?
This is a difficult one to answer. It could be anyone. People who conduct Google searches for your keywords may stumble upon these articles and releases. News wires may pick them up. Someone might read the article, find it interesting and forward it to a friend. The sky is the limit. And the most important reader of these articles is Google. Its spiders will read and index these writings and will give your site credit as the source – thus increasing your overall rankings on Google search results.

How much time do you expect me to spend on helping you rank my site?
You get out of your SEO effort what you put into it. Our writers rely on your input to guide their writing. They need you to approve topics, and then approve completed articles and press releases so they can be forwarded to other team members for publication.

What happens if I leave your company?
Nothing. In most cases, your site will remain at the rankings we get you by the time you leave. And slowly, over time, you will lose your rankings – not because we reverse what we have done for you, but because Google changes and your competition does more work to get ahead of you.

Are your costs going to increase over time?
As we have to do more to keep our clients at the top of Google search results, we may increase the monthly budgets. However, you have to give us your consent. But when we quote you a needed budget, that’s usually good for at least one year.

© 2011 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.
-end-

Q: Can you show me examples of your previous work and share some success stories?

A: Master Google’s search engine optimization service has many satisfied clients. Find out if your site qualifies to be ranked on the first page of Google by filling out the form on our site.  If your site qualifies, my administrative assistant will set up an appointment with you to speak with me directly. After our initial conversation, we will send you a formal proposal and a list of our current clients so you can contact them and hear what they say about our work.

Q: Do you follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines?

A: Indeed. Google uses software called spiders to find your site, read its code and content and rank it for your specific keywords. We follow Google Webmaster Guidelines to optimize our clients’ websites. Website optimization paves the way for Google spiders so they can easily read your site and find your important keywords. The optimization process involves modifying the meta tags of each page of your site to insert your specific keywords where appropriate. Also, we update other back-end codes such as alt-image tags, header tags, etc. We then insert your keywords within the body of your site’s content. We stay away from “black-hat” SEO techniques, because Google can easily locate any spamming optimization technique and penalize your site for using such unacceptable techniques.

Q: Do you offer any online marketing services or advice to complement your organic search business?

A: We offer website copy-writing, blogging, SEM, SMM and other related services which will complement our organic SEO work.

Q: What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe? How do you measure your success?

A: Each client and their needs are unique. We carefully assess their site, keywords and competition and come up with a plan of action with realistic results. Our goal is to rank our clients’ sites atop Google search results under the organic listings. This is achievable from one to two months, to up to two years for some international keywords.

Q: What is your experience in my industry?

A: We have helped more than 500 businesses worldwide, and that number continues to grow.  We have experience in various fields, including real estate, medical, restaurants, software and car dealerships.

Q: What is your experience in my country/city?

A: Our client base is scattered all over the world, but our main client base is the U.S., followed by Canada and the U.K.

Q: What is your experience developing international sites?

A: We have worked with a few internationally based businesses. We will share our clients’ information with those prospective clients who qualify for our services and are serious about SEO. We will share a reference list soon after our initial client consultation.

Q: What are your most important SEO techniques?

A:  In the initial consultation, you will learn some of our secret SEO techniques. These have been used to rank our sites and those of our clients in top positions for very competitive keywords. You will also learn what you can expect from your SEO campaign, based on your budget.

Q: How long have you been in business?

A: Master Google is seven years old and Husayni has nearly a decade of experience in SEO.

Q: How can I expect to communicate with you? Will you share with me all the changes you make to my site and provide detailed information about your recommendations and the reasoning behind them?

A: You will communicate with us by phone, email, and Skype. We have an open communication policy. We share all details of our work in monthly reports. After the initial consultation, you will receive an electronic package containing recent samples of our client reports, etc. We will share as much information about site changes as you would like.

© 2011 Master Google. Authorization to post is granted, with the stipulation that Sinai Marketing dba Master Google are credited as sole source. Linking to other sites from this press release is strictly prohibited, with the exception of herein imbedded links.

A better name for our Free/$99 SEO package is “Google Web site optimization package.” Let me explain. Google Search Engine Optimization (GSEO) has two main parts: Web site optimization and link-building.

Web site optimization refers to modifying the back-end code of your site, along with its text, to help Google and other search engines rank it better for your desired keywords.

Optimization is the foundation of GSEO, but only comprises 5-10% of the overall effort. In short it includes:

• Monitoring Google Webmaster Central for any possible site errors
• Identifying the most important keywords for each campaign
• Removing any code blocks in Google’s way
• Interlinking all the pages so Google spiders can easily find/index the content
• Updating the title tags of the site’s pages
• Updating the meta tags of the site’s pages (including the description tag)
• Updating the alt image tags
• Inserting H1, H2, … tags where appropriate
• Inserting <strong> tags where appropriate
• Adding text to the sites’ pages where appropriate
• Inserting the keywords within the text
• Adding an XML sitemap to the site
• Removing any black-hat SEO techniques used in the past

The above ensures that Google will be able to read, index and understand your site and what its keywords are. The optimization is the basis of GSEO and, without it, the other SEO techniques will not bear fruit.

On the other hand, the majority of GSEO is off-site: links pointing to your site from reputable, strong Web sites are what push your site above everyone else’s.

If someone has a good knowledge of GSEO, the optimization process doesn’t take more than a few hours. Nevertheless, if done incorrectly, Google might flag your site for SEO malpractice.

With the Free/$99 SEO package, we’re offering to perform the optimization – that would normally cost at least $1,000 – for a fraction of that price. We can afford to do that because the link we place on your newly optimized site is valuable and helps us and our paying clients rank better on Google without harming your site. So, our Free/$99 SEO package is mutually beneficial.

What We Don’t Offer

Free/$99 SEO package does not offer a top of Google ranking guarantee. The optimization of your site will improve your rankings but, since most of the Google SEO (GSEO) work is off-site, you may not see your site on the first page if your keyword is a competitive one.

For example, if your site is now on the 10th page of Google for your keyword, after a few weeks (when Google notices the updates to the site), your ranking may improve to page one, two, three or four – depending on how competitive your market is.

If you have the investment and you understand the benefits of being at the top of Google search results, we offer exclusive SEO services that will guarantee your site’s top of Google rankings for your site (if your site qualifies for such services). We even offer a 100% money-back guarantee.

- Is it worth to place a comment/link where the link will have a nofollow tag?
- Are there blogs that do not have a no-follow tag for the comment sections? How can we find them?
- If leaving comments on blogs has no link-value, then why should we do it?

What is a nofollow tag?

A nofollow tag has the following format (HTML code):

<a href=”http://www.website.com” rel=”nofollow”>text link</a>

The nofollow tag indicates to Google (and other) spiders to not follow the link to its intended place. Thus, making such links value-less from an SEO point of view. The only intended audience for these links are human visitors who cannot tell the difference between a followed link and a nofollowed link (because the code is hidden in the back-end).

Now, getting back to the original questions. The short answer is that if you leave comments to get some link-juice for your site, don’t do it. You won’t get any SEO benefit from them. Because many black-hat SEO companies have abused the comment section of the blogs, almost all blogs have nofollow tags for the comment sections.

On the other hand, they don’t have nofollow tags for the main blog pages or other links on the site.

Instead of leaving a comment with your link in it, contact the blog admin and tell him that you’re interested in placing a link to your site on his blog/site.

Here are some tips to get the most benefit from your efforts:

- Check the blog’s PR (Page Rank). Sites with less than PR3 are usually not worth your efforts.
- In your first contact, indicate that you’re willing to pay a fee if necessary. Most blog owners crave for such business generating from their blog and most are honest people that will honor your agreement.
- Ask for a link on the home page. Home page links have far more value than links from the internal pages.
- Try to make an arrangement for a year at a time – the longer your link stays on a site, the more value it will have with Google.
- Pay monthly if you can.
- Give the blog admin the exact URL and anchored text-link to be used for the link.
- Also give him a description to go with/around your text link – a text-link without any text around it could be viewed negatively by Google.
- Varry your anchored-text as well as the URL for the best results.
- Monitor your link on a regular basis.

Still, visit blogs and leave comments with links to your site, not for the benefits of SEO, but for encouraging other blog visitors to visit your site. That generates traffic/customers and if you have excellent content, could lead to natural links for your site.

I have personally seen Google search results fluctuations since I started my SEO career. For one thing, if it wasn’t for Google changing the search results pages, none of our clients would have had top of Google rankings, right?

But what we mean here is gaining and losing first page or top positions in cycles. Normally, this doesn’t happen for very competitive keywords, as top players always have SEO experts on their sides. But for less competitive keywords, this is a common phenomenon.

Here are some reasons that you see your site’s rankings fluctuate on Google:

1- Posting fresh content: Google values fresh content on sites. Adding a new story to your blog, posting a new article on your site or simply rewriting your site’s homepage could trigger Google bots to move you up the scales a few notch. Same could go for your competitors. However, the improvements in rankings don’t last that often unless you keep on updating your site’s content.

2- Optimization Removal: if our SEO team has optimized your site and you have over-written the optimization work by uploading your old files to the server, you have caused your site’s rankings to be dropped. In this case, you can ask our team to re-upload the files.

3- Different Google bots: each Google bot (spider) uses a slightly different algorithm; so, theoretically, when different spiders visit your site, they would rank your site according to their algorithm.

4- Duplicate content: this is also more likely a theory as I have not seen the proof of it, but I was just reading Google Webmaster Help and someone had claimed if your site’s content is copied by someone else, it could fluctuate your rankings. However, what I’ve seen with duplicate content is that rankings will drop to 10+ pages of Google SR’s.

We appreciate your comments/questions.

To know if your site is banned (red-flagged) by Google, follow the following steps:

1- Copy a portion of your site’s content (at least two sentences) and paste them into Google search within quotes (“your site’s text”). That way you’re asking Google to return only the sites that have that exact content. If you only see your site in the search results, that means everything is fine. If you see other sites listed next to yours, but yours is at the top, that means the other sites have copied your text and that’s not a good thing, but your site is still not flagged. However, if your site is not ranked at the top or is not listed at all, that means either your site is flagged, or you have copied someone else’s text – neither of which are good news.

2- Search Google for some of the keywords within the title tag of your site (the title tag appears within your site’s back-end code as as the text after <title> – also, it shows up at the top of the browser when you load your site. If your site comes up #1, or towards the top of Google search results, then it is not banned.

3- Search for your main keyword (which is also part of your title tag if you’ve optimized it correctly). If your site is within the first 10 pages, then most probably it is not banned. If it is listed after the 10th page, it is most probably flagged. I say “most probably” because this very much depends on many factors such as selecting your main keyword correctly, etc.

And if my site is red-flagged, is there any chance to get it un-flaged?

In most cases, yes; you can get your site un-flagged – and lately Google does this rather quickly. To un-flag your site, follow the following steps:

1- Identify why your site was flagged in the first place. Some of the common reasons are using duplicate content, keyword stuffing, door-way pages, etc. (for a better list, you can read our Google SEO eBook). This is by far the most important step. If you’re unable to identify why Google has flagged your Web site, there is no way for you to help remove it.

2- Remove the “black-hat” SEO technique that got your site flagged. If you used duplicate content, re-write it. If you used keywor-stuffing, remove them, and so forth.

3- Next time Google spiders visit your site, they will notice that you have removed the spam techniques and will slowly give your positions back on the search results. If you want the process to take place faster, get some inbound links for your site.

In general, avoid using questionable SEO techniques on your site – especially do not ever link to sites you do not know their online reputation. Read extensively on the subject before you go for optimization of your site or consult someone who knows the game. There are many gray areas that you could go into and sometimes the lines between white-gray-black are blurred.

Good luck with getting your site ranked at the top of Google.

In general terms SEO services are divided into two categories: Web site optimization and link-building. The former refers to modifying each Web page so Google spiders (algorithm) can read it without any obstacles and keywords are placed appropriately on each page so these spiders rank the particular page higher than the competition.

Link-building on the other hand has very little to do with your Web site. It refers to encouraging “other” Web sites to place a link of “recommendation” on their site pointing to yours.  In other words and in contrast to Web site optimization, nearly all link-building efforts are done off-site.

In our company, Web site optimization is only about 10% of the work. The other 90% is link-building. That’s what makes us very successful when it comes to Google SEO. As a matter of fact, we offer Web site optimization for free to any Web site on the planet.

A few days ago, one of our free SEO clients who is now interested in our link-building campaign sent me the above question. I thought this may be the same question as many of you, so I’m placing my answer here – with some modifications to keep our client’s identity hidden:

***

Dear Client,

Link building is a sophisticated service and we cannot give you exact estimates on how much each link costs. It’s actually wrong to think of link-building that way, because having many cheap links is not necessarily the best deal. Cheap links usually come from low-end Web sites and are less valuable to Google spiders.

Our different link-building services cost from $79 to thousands of dollars per campaign. So, the best way to approach link-building is to know the kind of budget you want to work with. Of course, the more you can spend, the better link-building campaign you can have.

How many links do we generate with these campaigns? The number of links has to be multiplied by the quality of the sites that are giving us the link. So, the number of links could confuse people who do not understand the subject well. In other words, there are Web sites out there that having only one link from them is equivalent to having 1,000 links from low-end sites. So, asking about the quantity or the price/quantity of links is the wrong way to approach this subject.

We tell our Top of Google clients (the ones we guarantee their rankings at the top of Google search results) that they need to have a specific budget – which is different for each client – based on the competitiveness of their market. Almost any Web site could enjoy top of Google rankings for competitive keywords if we have the right budget to work with.

***

In case you need a proposal on how much you need to spend to get your Web site ranked at the top of Google (or how many high-quality links your site needs to get there), simply fill out our services request form. I will personally respond to you within a few days.

Also, I’ve discussed our link-building techniques in our Google SEO eBook. This is a great guide for anyone who’s either interested in doing his/her SEO campaign or those who want to understand what we do in order to make our clients successful.

Leave a comment and I’ll be happy to answer any other questions you may have.

Best,

Ali Husayni

If you honestly don’t believe this is possible, then read on; I may have you believe otherwise.

First, there is a difference between guaranteeing to rank your site at the top and guaranteeing to refund your money if your site is not ranked at the top.

You see? We DO NOT guarantee to place every single site at the top, but we pay you your money back if we’re unable to do so.

Google also advises against those companies that guarantee your site to be at the top. After all, only Google decides who’s going to be at the top, and who’s not.

In reality, every site is capable of ranking at the top, however, the efforts to do so vary greatly and for some companies, it’s not worth the time/effort/investment.

I’ll put this in more simple terms:

Google is very logical and its logic is very simple: “Rank sites based on their popularity on the Internet.” In other words (generally speaking), sites with a better Page Rank (PR) get to rank at the top of Google for a particular keyword (of course with the correct optimization in place). PR is determined by the number and the quality of inbound links a site receives.

Google considers each inbound link pointing to your site from other 3^rd party sites as a vote of confidence in your site. The 3^rd party site refers its readers to your site for more information. Now, your site becomes a reference point for another site – thus a valuable site in Google’s terms. Imagine you have hundreds or thousands of these kinds of links. Google will realize that your site is a “mother” site. Therefore, it’ll rank it above all the other sites.

Do you see how simple this logic is?

The logic is simple, but to actually get your site known enough in the Web world so 3^rd party sites link to your site as a reference is another story. It takes very delicate and tedious work to accomplish this in a short period of time. And that’s what we have mastered.

I have been able to place sites at the top of Google in 2-6 months.

Sure. I can share with you numerous examples of sites that we’ve helped rank at the top. I just can’t mention them here for obvious reasons. Just fill out our services request form and I’ll set up a time to share with you some of our secret inbound link-building techniques and tell you precisely how long it’ll take for us to place your site at the top.

Is Google SEO right for everyone?

No, of course not. For some businesses, it is not worth their time, money or the efforts to get their sites ranked at the top. Some keywords are way too competitive and Google is dominated by huge corporations with great SEO budgets that smaller companies couldn’t compete with them. However, for most other keywords, it is very possible to rank at the top.

Find out for yourself if your site can compete. Fill out our services request form and I will personally respond to you.

This is because the files you have on the server are optimized and contain our optimization codes and therefore are newer than the files you have on your local computer.

Now if you upload directly from your local computer to the server it means you have overwritten the new optimized index.html file by the old not-optimized one that you have had on your local computer.

Index.html is just an example and same thing goes for other files stored on your server and you should avoid them from being overwritten by the old files too. This has been simply illustrated in the image below.

Q: How does it work?

A: After we receive a request for our Free SEO services, we first study your entire Web site. We determine the specialty and niche market the Web site targets, and we use different tools to determine which keyword combinations receive the most search engine queries for the specific market. Next, our team optimizes the Web site’s Home page by implementing keywords in meta tags and other locations to boost your site’s visibility for those popular keyword terms. We generally use one to five keywords during optimization, depending on the specialty and the market.

After the Home page is set up, we set you up your Web ranking report as well as your traffic report. You will receive an updated version of your Web ranking report every week and the traffic report every month for free.

Click here to read more about our Free SEO package.

Q: How could it work for me?

A: Our Free SEO service is an effective strategy to improve your Web site’s rankings for the keywords we use. You will notice an improved status in Google for the keywords we target within a few weeks, which should help boost Web site traffic. However, these improvements will most likely only occur for the keywords we use in our optimizations (see “How does it work” to read about keywords).

For more thorough visibility in search engines, your site will need organic inbound links in addition to our keyword optimizations. We offer organic link-building services through our Top of Google and 1st Page of Google packages. Also, with these packages, we bump the number of keywords we use when optimizing your site from two to five keywords to around 50 keywords.

Click on the links below to read about our other SEO services:
Top of Google
1st Page of Google

Q: How quickly does it work?

A: This is the question everyone asks. After optimization, it usually takes a few weeks for a Web site to see improvement in any search engine. There are no fast results unless you are dealing with illegal black hat tactics. But, our SEO services have been proven to work, providing our clients with improved search engine rankings, increased Web site traffic, and more online business. And our services are guaranteed.

Q: What do you need to start your optimization?

A: All of the information we need is noted on the Service Request Form. Usually, our clients don’t know what an FTP site is or encounter problems with finding accurate FTP login information. If you have any problems providing the necessary information, just leave a message in your Free SEO Service Request Form, and we will contact you and walk you through the process.