NASHVILLE, TN – Until recently, Google users typed in search queries, and a neat list of blue links popped up. Within these links, users hoped to find answers to their questions.

But what if the information they’re searching for is fact? What if they’re searching for the capital of Spain? Google now wants to tell people these factual answers without needing to click away to another website.

On March 15, the Wall Street Journal reported that Google would phase its search results into more semantic modes. If you’ve ever used Wolphram Alpha, you have an idea of what this means. For Google users, when you type “2+2” into the query bar, you’ll now get the answer “4” instead of a link to a webpage that can help you find that answer. If you type certain words into the query bar, the definition will pop up even before you finish the word. When I typed “tumultuous” and “lethargic,” Google gave me definitions. However, no definitions appeared when I tried “general” and “advice.”

“Google isn’t replacing its current keyword-search system, which determines the importance of a website based on the words it contains, how often other sites link to it, and dozens of other measures,” WSJ reporter Amir Efrati writes. “Rather, the company is aiming to provide more relevant results by incorporating technology called ‘semantic search,’ which refers to the process of understanding the actual meaning of words.”

Is this new?

When I told my computer programmer husband of this change, he replied that Google’s been doing that for a while. Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan agrees. Sullivan’s March 15 post goes through the WSJ article, wondering why it’s news.

“As for ‘spitting out’ those ‘facts and direct answers’ that the WSJ story talks about, Google’s been doing that for so long that it’s hard for me to even know exactly when it all began,” Sullivan says.

Sullivan believes that Google is trying to offset criticisms to Search Plus Your World, as many people were worried that search results would lose quality from this personalized search change. “It’s helpful to counter that type of bad PR with interviews talking up forward-looking technologies,” says Sullivan.

Will Google’s ‘semantic search’ mean anything for SEO?

Image Courtesy of TNooz.com.

Whether Google’s semantic search is new, old, or still evolving, effective optimization will still be important as ever. Learn simple SEO tips to keep your website relevant to users and optimized for search engines.

Efrati writes, “the move could spur millions of websites to retool their Web page—by changing what’s called a ‘markup language’—so the search engine could more easily locate them under the new system,” said Larry Cornett, a former Web-search executive at Yahoo Inc.

Boiled down, Google’s going to be answering more things on its own, meaning that websites may experience fewer visits. Websites such as Merriam-Webster and Wikipedia may take hits, but relevant, focused content will still bring in visits.

At Master Google, our SEO team provides results, guaranteed. We empower our clients with quality content and expert Google SEO consulting to give businesses a boost.

NASHVILLE, TN – So many factors go into Web ranking, and once you’ve set up a solid foundation of clear navigation and relevant content, sharing your information helps people find you.

There are many ways to share, but they’re all basically the same: advertising. You must tell your customers you have a website. You’ll have a Facebook page, maybe a Twitter account. You might pay for a radio ad or a printed coupon in a magazine. All of these are advertising.

Social networks are some weird blend of word-of-mouth advertising and clear self-promotion. The best way to have potential customers find you and trust your content is to act organically. Be educated in your field. Find a connection with your customers between your product and something else they care about.

I was browsing on Google+ when I saw a public post from Google on March 20, 2011. The post, linked to their Google Analytics blog, announced a new way to measure your social media efforts through Google Analytics. These new measurements show up as social reports.

“The Overview report allows you to see at a glance how much conversion value is generated from your social channels,” Google’s Group Project Manager Phil Miu writes. “The Social Value visualization compares the number and monetary value of all your goal completions against those that resulted from social referrals – both as last interaction, and assisted.”

Last Interaction Social Conversion means that through a social media channel, a customer has found your website and converted without straying from your site. Assisted Social Conversion means that someone converts who had visited your website earlier through a social channel.

This will mean that businesses will know where their most loyal (and highest purchasing) customers are coming from. Social media results will be clearer, and your efforts can be spent on the mediums that drive the highest results.

One interesting thing I read discussed the Activities Stream, which lets us know how our content is being shared and discussed on other social websites. The downside of this is that four of the biggest players – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest – aren’t part of the Analytics Social Data Hub, but you can see how frequently users on sites like Google+, Meetup, Digg, Reddit, TypePad, AllVoices, Blogger and Delicious are sharing and discussing your content.

Why Optimizing Your Business’s Website is More Important than Ever

Google Analytics project marketing manager Adam Singer writes a post on the Future Buzz about the latest social analytics features. Singer believes that these statistics will show how important your individual website really is compared to saturated social networks.

“We’ve been arguing at the Future Buzz that your owned presence (like your website or blog) should be where you focus activities for years,” says Singer. “External social communities aren’t where conversions happen anyway. It should be pretty obvious, but we have to say it again because some people are still confused or looking in all the wrong places: your website or blog (a place where you control the templates, Calls To Action, etc.) is where the most possible users convert and where your business is best poised to capture value.”

You may have 50,000 likes on Facebook or 20,000 Twitter shares, but those numbers don’t show how many fans or likes lead to actual conversions. And in the end, it’s all about results.

SEO specialists like the ones here at Master Google can optimize your business’s website for search engines, increasing exposure and driving potential clients to your doorstep. Master Google’s CEO, Ali Husayni, believes that companies should be proactive in their SEO efforts.

“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 everyday, your prospective site visitors have no way of finding you to read your content.”

With an all-inclusive SEO strategy and inclusion of social media, Google Analytics will show you how your efforts are paying off with real results. Contact Master Google today to see what our SEO team can do for your business.

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 – Sometimes SEO gets a bad reputation. Naysayers are correct that there are two types of SEO strategies that are indeed bad for business, and those are gray hat and black hat SEO tactics. Gray hat SEO includes tactics such as reciprocal links, buying old or expired domains, and Google bombing/washing. Black hat techniques are even worse for business and include tactics ranging from keyword stuffing, using link farms, comment spamming and more.

Since Google can so easily spot these tactics, why do companies use black hat and gray hat SEO techniques? For starters, those tactics take less time. White hat techniques require creating quality content, careful site optimization, link baiting, guest blogging, internal linking and more. These techniques take a considerable amount of time, which is why to effectively use SEO tactics, you must hire an SEO team with a positive track record.

Image Courtesy of Itsabacus.com.

Master Google only uses white hat SEO tactics because it is the only way to go for successful SEO, according to Ali Husayni, the CEO of Master Google. Husayni said to heed the warning of Google’s anti-spam strategy as your rankings will rise and fall accordingly to how well you implement the correct SEO strategies.

“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.”

When done correctly, SEO is not spam at all, but a good tactic that Google recognizes, according to Google Software Engineer and head of Google’s web spam fighting team, Matt Cutts. Watch the video below to hear Cutts explain why Google appreciates SEO when done well.

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A focused SEO plan is a never-ending job, but one that will greatly increase the likelihood that your customers will find you on Google. Contact Us to see if we can provide SEO services for your website.

SANTA MONICA, CA – Although SEO is a serious time commitment, there are some lighthearted moments. From realizing that rankings can become a roller coaster ride if you check them moment-to-moment, to comedic commentary on just how perhaps overly personal searches have become (as outlined in our recent article, Search, Plus Your World), here are a few funnies to start your weekend off on a happy, lighter note.

The Rankings Game: What happens when we get addicted to checking our placement on Google’s search results? A wonderful comic strip by BigOakInc.com showcases the dangers of checking your rankings too often.

So how do you avoid this roller coaster? Our client CariniAir.com is a good example of what having the right attitude about the nature of changing rankings does for peace of mind. Doug Cooper, the VP of Marketing for CariniAir.com, has been working with Master Google for a relatively short period of time, and was supportive of our efforts, which landed him the top spot in Google Maps and Google Places. Cooper understands that rankings fluctuate slightly, but keeps it positive about the big gains in his website rankings.

“Finally achieving the top spot on Google Maps for our most important keywords is a dream come true. Everyone at Carini Heating and Air is very excited and grateful to Master Google for their continued hard work and persistence,” Cooper says.

When The Use of Highly Competitive Keywords Goes Wrong: Again, BigOakInc.com makes a great point about overusing keywords by inserting them into a conversation between coworkers at an SEO company.

While funny, this comic strip emphasizes that White Hat SEO techniques are so important for higher rankings, because Black Hat SEO simply defeats the purpose of keywords, because keyword stuffing without anything to back up those keywords is simply bad practice. According to Husayni, Black Hat SEO techniques include any techniques that use spam, cheap links and poor or irrelevant content just to get a higher ranking, and these techniques just hurt you in the long run. As you ruminate over the free SEO advice that you’ve learned about while reading these comic strips, also keep in mind that SEO efforts count for your blog content as well, Husayni advises.

“Blogs seem to be an important part of any site because they get updated on a regular basis,” Husayni says. “I suggest site owners should write for their sites on a regular basis. The more fresh, quality and relevant content they post to their sites, the better chances of exposure and inclusion on Google search results they will have.”

NASHVILLE, TN – On January 10, 2012, Google introduced “Search, Plus Your World,” SPYW for short, which allows users to see tailored search results when they’re signed in to their Google+ accounts.

Here’s what this means for you, as a user of Google. If you have a Google+ account and you stay logged in (as I do most always from my home computer), you should see your information across the navigation bar at the top of your page. Once you type a query into the search bar and hit ‘enter,’ if you have any personal results (such as acquaintances posting relevant topics on Google+), these will show up. For now, the search results aren’t commingled. If you look to the right of the screen, there’s an inconspicuous little toggle button where you can select “Show Personal Results” or “Hide Personal Results”. See the full explanation straight from Google’s blog.

Even if you aren’t logged in to Google, you’ll still see Google+ results on the right side of the page. In a small box, Google is promoting Google+ content under a People and Pages headline. Here, content is featured from Google+, including personal profiles and business pages, which is an incentive for people to use Google+.

Rand Fishkin, the CEO of SEOMoz.org, an SEO expert featured in a recent post about the importance of producing quality content, weighed in about Google’s SPYW on his blog.

“It’s my opinion that if [it] continues to roll out to all logged-in Google users and Google stays as aggressive as it’s been in the last 10 days with pushing Google+ for even logged-out users, the service will become a necessity for search and social marketers,” Fishkin says.

Fishkin also believes that marketers who don’t use Google+ are missing out on a huge platform, as Google is promoting its social application, Google+, through this new search feature.

Get Google+

If you don’t have a Google+ account, get one. As SEO Expert Ali Husayni tells us, Google+ pages for your business are absolutely essential.

“It’s a real step in the right direction. Initially, they said that they weren’t going to add that component, but they needed to have it from the get-go,” Husayni says.

Now that Google integrated SPYW into people’s searches, Google+ is even more crucial. For example, if I search for the term bicycles, and one of my friends on Google+ bought a bicycle from Bob’s Bike Shop and +1′d the store’s page, then Bob’s Bikes will show up in my personal results. As much as people like reviews, a review from someone you actually know usually goes further than a review written by a random person online. How do we know a random review isn’t one written by the business owner to promote his own business? It’s a given that we trust information more fully from people we’ve met and have a connection with.

Update Your Profile

If you have Google+, now is a great time to make sure your information is up-to-date. Since Google is pushing Google+ profiles to the top for users that are signed in, you want your content to be fresh, relevant, and accurate.

Get Your Customers Talking on Google+

Make it easy for your customers to find you by posting your content to Google+. Include a +1 button wherever you have other social networking buttons, such as Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest links. Consider holding a promotion, such as “add us to your Google+ circle and you’ll receive an exclusive coupon code.” Having an incentive for your customer will bring your brand to the front of their brains, and having them add your Page to their circle or +1 you will be vital in their future Google searches.

For this new integration of Google+ into search results, Google is forcing us to get personal. Now’s the perfect time to be friendly in person and on the web. Having a strong SEO presence on your website and on your Google+ can help push you up to the top of the page.

NASHVILLE, TN – Google Maps and Google Places may seem like the same product with two different names, but that isn’t the case. In a recent post, we outlined the success of Master Google’s client, CariniAir.com. With the help of our SEO services, Carini Air shot to the top spot of Google Places, and they’ve seen a 50% increase in qualified leads as a result. While CariniAir.com reigns supreme on Google Places, they aren’t #1 on Google Maps. Let’s delve into why and how these two differ.

Google Maps

If you’ve searched the Internet for directions in the past few years, chances are you’ve used Google Maps. This extensive free mapping service gives us directions and even offers a super helpful Street View, which plops us down virtually in front of basically any address. If someone searches “restaurants” in Google Maps, depending on how zoomed in the map is, they might find 30+ restaurants. Having a great ranking in Google Places will help your business make it to the first, larger map people view in Google Maps.

Google Places

Courtesy of ObserversRoom.DesignObserve

Google Places is a web listing (think Yellow Pages) that includes photos, reviews, a map, and other information about a business. Google introduced Google Places on April 20, 2010 as a revamping of their previous service called Place Pages.

Starting in 2011, Google started using Google Places listings instead of Google Maps on its main search page. These listings share the pin as well as the location on the map with Google Maps, however, the big difference is that they’re basically a combination of previous Google Maps and the organic results, thus having  the site’s title as well as the description under each listing.

Google Places allows business owners and patrons to upload photos, which is especially popular for restaurants. Patrons can also leave reviews, which can help prospective customers decide whether or not they’ll choose your business over another. Businesses can easily share hours of operation, add relevant categories (or search terms), and offer customers special coupons and promotions. If you have a specific service area, you can enter this information, too, so that your business’s information will be geographically-focused.

Get Listed

Even if you haven’t listed your business on Google Places, your information may still be visible. This is because through crawling, Google sets up unverified business listings on Places. If your business has a listing, you can search your business on Google Places. On the business listing, you’ll see information on the left about the business, and on the right side of the page you’ll see a small map. (Clicking the map will take you to a larger map and a smaller listing on the left side, i.e., Google Maps). Above the map, you’ll see a few links: one titled “Edit this Place” and the other titled “Business Owner”. To verify your business’s listing, you can click the “Business Owner” link and update your company’s information. Once you’ve done that, your listing will be labeled as “Owner-Verified”.

If you don’t know how to list your business on Google Places, watch this video by Master Google’s CEO Ali Husayni to see how easy it is. Once you’re listed, ask your returning customers to write a positive review for your business. The more your listing is rated, the higher your business will be in Google Places rankings.

Having reviews on other rival websites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor can certainly be helpful, but this Wall Street Journal article reiterates the importance of a Google Places listing in search engine results, as writer Amir Efrati explains.

“Links to the pages often appear near the top of the search results page when people search for information on local businesses, in part because they aren’t subject to the same Google algorithm that ranks other websites in search results. Google Places links often are ranked above links to Yelp, TripAdvisor and UrbanSpoon and Citysearch, which are owned by IAC,” Efrati says.

SEO is Still the Top Dog

Google Places expert Randy Kirk operates the blog Google Places Help, which provides free tips to business owners who want to optimize their Google Places listing. In a recent blog post about the importance of SEO content in Google Places rankings, Kirk writes that paying attention to every aspect of it is a must.

“No matter how closely you watch the changing world of how to rank on Google Places, it is a major mistake to take your eye off the main prize, and that is being highly ranked on the everything search for keywords you care about,” Kirk says.

Having a focused SEO plan, plus listing your business on Google Places, can increase the likelihood that your customers will find you. Contact Us to see if we can provide these services for your website.

SANTA MONICA, CA — What’s in a picture? Martin Missfeldt’s illustration spotlighting the importance of optimizing pictures on TagSeoBlog.com is certainly worth a thousand words. But in order for any image to get the traffic that it might very well deserve, it has to be optimized correctly.

When basic image SEO is done correctly, an image like the one above can be an extremely valuable addition to a website (after all, I used an image Google search to find this image). According to Danny Dover, the lead SEO of SEOmoz.org, an image is only as good as the text supporting it. Dover delves further into his image SEO expertise in his video discussion on a recent SEOmoz.org Whiteboard Friday. In fact, Dover points out that search engines need text to help the images serve their intended purpose, and that well-developed sites tend to pay attention to image SEO. This newfound knowledge is a wake up call to this writer to implement those changes from this day forward, and I’m sure that it had the same impact on the plethora of other bloggers and SEO analysts who have read it.

“Besides just being useful for people, images are also, it turns out, useful for search engines. I think part of the reason behind that is that pages that are well developed tend to also have images on them because it helps portray information in a way that textual based content can’t do,” Dover says.

Click here to be directed to Dover’s video tutorial on the basics of Image SEO, in which he gives useful advice regarding image SEO. Here are a few pieces of Dover’s words of wisdom:

1. Alt Text: This is the text that will pop up if your image fails to display, either because of someone’s browser or the image disappearing. From an SEO perspective, you can save face, because alt text tells Google what that image was. Dover has a quick tip: keep them below about 140 characters.

2. Filename: The filename is also information for search engines and other technologies, but alt text is stronger for SEO purposes, especially when backed up with a filename.

3. Surrounding Text: This is often overlooked, but the text around an image gives Google an idea about the image itself. The surrounding text can either be a traditional caption, or it can just be the paragraphs around the image (like the picture in this blog).

4. Inbound Links: As with all SEO efforts, inbound links are very important. Dover has very specific advice: “It wouldn’t necessarily be inbound links to the image URL, although it could be, but what I mean in this context is links going to the page that has the image embedded on it. Just like in normal SEO, the anchor text of those inbound links and where they’re coming from and how many of them are, are all really important factors for image SEO and then SEO in general.”

5. Human Categorization: Human categorization comes from the early stages of developing recognition software. Google would hire people and they’d say, “label this.” In fact, Google was semi-famous for creating this game. It was called Google Image Labeler, and it would show you an image of, say, an apple, as Dover explains further.

“They would ask you in Family Feud style, which is a game show here in the United States, to list words that are associated with that object. You’d say something like apple, and you’d earn points if someone else also said apple. Maybe it’s red, Fuji, or Grandma Smith, or whatever it is. So other words that are associated with the image. And that way they could train their software to start to understand what general shapes and ideas mean within images,” Dover says.

While categorization has evolved, an eye for detail is still best done by the human eyes. But, at the end of the day, image SEO is the most effective as part of an overall SEO effort that is important to reach your desired customer base, according to Ali Husayni, the CEO of the SEO service company, Master Google.

“You may not have the budget for a full-scale SEO campaign if you’re just starting out, but some time with an SEO consultant to get you started may be within your budget and well worth the expense,” Husayni says.

SANTA MONICA, CA – Here at Master Google, we are not afraid to admit it: SEO is a lot of work. White hat techniques require real effort. After all, the things that white hat SEO requires are all big commitments (which is why a team of specialists is key).

Let’s take a look at a few of the basics of white hat content: quality content, site optimization, link baiting, guest blogging, internal linking, and semantic markup. The differences between white, gray and black hat marketing efforts are described to perfection in the form of a clever picture titled SEO Wars: What Color is Your Lightsaber, featured in a recent article by Angie Schottmuller of Search Engine Watch.

The definitions of gray and black hat seo practices are also made more clear by this picture. The gray hat area of SEO techniques include: spinning/rewriting articles, reciprocal links, buying old/expired domains, and Google bombing/washing. Black hat techniques include: keyword stuffing, link farms, hidden text, cloaking, scraping, doorway pages, comment spam, and paid links/content+.

Keep in mind that both gray hat and black hat areas will hurt you in the long run, according to Ali Husayni, the CEO of the SEO service company, Master Google. Heed the warning of Google’s anti-spam strategy: they can distinguish between black hat and white hat SEO techniques, and your rank will rise and fall accordingly.

“The only thing not changing with SEO is that it’s always changing,” Husayni says. “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.”

After all, the battle lines between white hat, gray hat, and black hat techniques are drawn quite clearly, so pick an SEO practice and stick with it, urges Schottmuller, using Star Wars as an analogy.

“Will you uphold the righteous values of quality content and serve as a SEO Light Jedi, or do you long to be a master of deception as a SEO Sith Lord?” Schottmuller says. “Perhaps you’re a SEO Dark Jedi – once believing in white hat tactics and now thirsting for the dark side. Or perhaps you’re a SEO Jedi Fashionista – knowledgeable of both sides, but discreet in practices to keep up appearances.”

Our strong suggestion: do your search engine optimization efforts justice by sticking with white hat techniques.

SANTA MONICA, CA — Why wait until the New Year begins to declare a business-related resolution? Resolve to try these five free SEO tips today. From Facebook Fan Page optimization, to using YouTube effectively for Video SEO, the options are endless, and exciting.

1. Using YouTube for Video SEO: Do you have a YouTube business page yet? Don’t worry, an entire How-To Make a YouTube Business Page support forum has been established on the subject. Video SEO is all about original content, after all. Content that sets your business apart from the rest, when done correctly, will be more than enough of a reason for a viewer to click on your site, and to become a customer.

2. Read SEO News Daily: You are what you read, it’s true. Just ask Ali Husayni, CEO of the SEO service company, Master Google. Simply looking at sites that connect the latest trends of SEO, (like our blog), Search Engine Land, and SEOMoz.org, will keep you afloat in the world of ever-changing SEO tips and news.

3. Never Allow a Duplicate Batch of Information: It might seem like a time saver, but don’t be fooled by the idea that more content is better, no matter what. Less is more in this case. Duplicate content, according to Google webmaster central is simply described as “substantive blocks of content” or “content within or across domains” that are similar or the same. According to Husayni, this can mean the end of a website’s previously high ranking, as rankings will drop to 10+ pages due to such practices. While there are many other types of duplications, this is a big offender for many businesses.

4. Optimize Your Business Facebook Page: In a recent Search Engine Watch Article about Facebook SEO, Kristi Hines suggests approaching Facebook SEO in a fresh way. She asks users to imagine that a Facebook fan page is you or your brand’s website.

“If you want to keyword optimize your Facebook fan page… pull SEO elements from your page’s content for additional optimization,” Hines says.

Here is what Hines says your Facebook Business Page SEO should look like from an optimization standpoint:

SEO title: The name of your page plus | Facebook.

Meta description: The name of your page plus the About description of your page, followed by | Facebook.

H1: The name of your page.

The process is pretty straightforward, and much more accessible to small businesses now than in the past.

5. Follow the Trend of Finding time for SMM and SEO: Believe it or not, the two can be very happy together. According to a recent Constant Contact Survey, 45% of small business owners said that social media marketing (as part of site traffic generating) doesn’t take too much time out of their day to make it viable. This attitude is a complete reversal from just six months ago, when time was cited as a big concern against doing any type of marketing. But social media marketing only goes so far. The next step is SEO, which is going to drive targeted visitors to your site, according to Husayni.

“We measure our success by the number of targeted visitors who find our clients’ sites using their keywords – main keywords as well as secondary keywords,” Husayni said.

© 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.