In an article by SEO expert Jill Whalen, she comments on the minor changes that helped SEO evolve from 2000 to 2008. In an outline she found from 2000, her introduction stated that Google had 1.3 billion pages indexed. When the article was written in 2008, Whalen, CEO and founder of High Rankings, estimated that Google had nearly 10 billion pages indexed. As all of these small changes and unexplained algorithms rock our SEO boats, Whalen comments on what stays the same: “The one element that will never change is the same one that I’ve been advocating forever—whatever SEO methods or strategies you use, the thing that will get you the furthest is creating an awesome website!”

More Competition
The easier it is to make a website, the more people sign up for personal blogs or websites that can potentially distract users from the relevant information they’re searching for. Services such as WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, and Weebly make web development a breeze. As these sites have gained popularity in the past few years, more people have dumped their information onto the web.

Five years ago, if you had a serious niche, it’s possible that you could be one of several websites, or even (gasp!) the only website, discussing a subject. Now that it’s so easy to make a website, i.e., you don’t need to know how to code it, you don’t need to purchase a domain name, new sites spring up daily. In the wake of this over-saturated market, ensuring that your website has up-to-date, relevant information is crucial.

More Social
Twitter launched in July of 2006, and since then, its users have grown to giant proportions. An article from Time Techland dated September 2011 revealed that Twitter has 100 million active users. Facebook launched in February 2004, and as of January 2012, there are 800 billion users. Now Google announced that search results are getting more personal, as users will see Google+ results as well as normal search results in the “everything” category.

These sites are a destination, where people spend lots of time connecting with friends or acquaintances with common interests. While before, friends could share links fairly easily through email, now, these websites like Facebook and Twitter provide a common ground for link sharing. As Eric Hammer from Quantum SEO Labs writes, “[Social media] has really taken the concept of SEO and stood it on its ear because until now, you were trying to get Google to notice you. Now, for the first time, because of social media, you need to try to get human beings to notice you too and recommend you to their friends.”

Google Loves Change
To keep searches fresh and readily improving for users, Google is speculated to make changes almost daily to their search algorithms. Google introduced Panda (previously known as “Farmer”) to better their search results by weeding out duplicate content and lowering the prevalence of “content farms” in query results. Google launches Google Places to give businesses a place to be recognized.

Just as Google likes changing their own search algorithms, they also favor fresh content, as we recently reported in “The Google Freshness Update”.

While the SEO horizon changes daily like the phases of the moon, what stays the same is the importance of relevant, accurate, and fresh content.

“Search engine optimization boosts the visibility of a website by making sure that the site’s language gives the best possible chance for it to be found when a web surfer performs a search,” Husayni says.

A small part of the SEO process is on-page optimization, which is constructing the code of a website to be easily crawled by search engine spiders, according to Web Developer and SEO Specialist, Saeed Khosravi. A basic search about SEO will pull up a staggering amount of information and ‘How-To’ tutorials. Unfortunately, knowing which list has ethical SEO techniques, and which has outdated or detrimental ones can be a chore. Plus, it is constantly changing.

“Google’s search engine algorithm is updated on a regular basis, which means in order to make sure you are not using obsolete techniques, you have to find a reputable source that keeps you informed about changes,” Khosravi says.

Google wants to mimic the human behavior of reading, analyzing and organizing content, and so the system evolves as people do. According to Husayni, some changes to the algorithm are to block black hat SEO techniques, which include any techniques that use spam, cheap links and poor or irrelevant content just to get a higher ranking.

Panda was an update like this that Google released in the U.S. in February last year. The major change was that Google began “rating” websites on their content and user-experience. According to a recent Search Engine Land article, the focus of the update was to reduce and penalize websites that had thin, low-quality and duplicate content. It also targeted sites that came up short based on other site-quality metrics, such as high advertisement-to-content ratios.

Where To Get Started

Husayni has been committed to the Google-approved SEO methods that work with the search engine algorithm instead of trying to abuse it, since he started Master Google in 2004.

He has written an e-book of best SEO practices that he updates as the industry changes, and here he shares seven aboveboard methods he uses for his clients, ranging from the medical field and real estate to heating and cooling:

1. Navigation. Navigation includes the top menu, footer links, breadcrumb navigation and HTML sitemap of a website. It should be very user-friendly and easy to understand. Do not make content hard to get to or structure the site in a way that only makes sense to experts in the industry or the person who designed the site.
2. Sitemap. Set the XML sitemap to automatically update so that navigation stays current and keeps the latest information easily accessible for users and search engines.
3. Header Tags. Header tags are used to define HTML headings and organize page content. <h1> stands for the most important heading and <h6> means that information is the least important of the page. Headers make the layout of textual information easy for the reader.
4. Links. The purpose of website content is to serve the reader, so linking to other content within the site is beneficial for everyone: the company, the reader and the search engine. A page that expounds on a topic, issue or technique mentioned on a different page builds an internal link structure that Google loves and, as a result, boosts the ranking on SERPs.
5. URLs. Use a consistent URL version and redirect all the other versions to the preferred one. For example, redirect non-www to www, https to http, and the one without trailing slash to the one with trailing slash.
6. Keywords. Using short, keyword-rich URLs is another way to share information about the page content, as opposed to a URL that uses an ID number or another ambiguous parameter. Just make sure keywords accurately explain the page’s content succinctly. This information shows up in the SERs, and Google is also factoring this into their algorithm.
7. Metadata. Do not use duplicate page titles and descriptions in the code for pages. The page title shows up at the top of the browser window, and the title and description show up in the SERs. This is another opportunity to make information available to readers and search engines.

Using a Master Google website page as an example, a popular search term, Google Free Optimization, displayed on the first page of Google results when I entered it. Notice the URL that lists optimization, as the page title is Search Engine Optimization Master Google Free SEO Services, and the description said this: “Master Google offers Free SEO (search engine optimization) in a way which Google spiders could easily find your site, read its code and content, and rank it for your specific keywords.”

Keeping descriptions concise helps SEO efforts tremendously, according to Husayni.

“The person who did a search like this would have a very clear understanding of what the contents of this page are going to be and whether it will be helpful,” Husayni says.

Husayni also emphasized that these SEO tips are designed to benefit the user, not just make a page rank higher on Google’s search engine. The reality is that on-page optimization is a much smaller percentage of the total SEO work than it used to be. Today, it is five to 10 percent of the work an SEO firm would do for a client.

Husayni explains more on his blog about the SEO components needed to build a site Google will love.

Image Courtesy of Konoozi.com.

NASHVILLE, TN — For smaller businesses with limited funds, checking off some basic SEO starting points can be done for free with a little research and know-how. Here are some small things you can do that will increase the value of your website. We’ve touched on each of these points in detail in previous posts that we’ll link to below as they come up, but combined, these tips are just what you need to jump-start your SEO efforts today.

Help Search Engines Help You

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: don’t wait for Google to find your site through their crawling spiders. Instead, add your website to Google’s index and then submit your unique Sitemap. You can access these settings through Google’s Webmaster Tools, which you can read about on a recent Master Google post, here.

Learn the Importance of Creatively Getting Links

You know you need links, now take it one step further: increase the links pointing to your website, and get creative in how you go about it. You could write a guest post on a related blog or feature a post from a guest blogger on your website. You could even sponsor a product giveaway on one of your favorite websites or blogs. We talked about blog trackbacks and pingbacks in a previous post, and recommend it for extra credit reading.

Be Critical of Your Blog

Adding keywords and updating content frequently can help you move up in search engine rankings. Content is king, after all. Offer relevant information to your potential clients. What have you learned about your field that you want to share? If you choose to start a blog, it’s important to provide good, quality content. Don’t start a blog just to be redundant. Providing fresh topics and insight in your field will make your site a welcomed destination for viewers. You can even allow comments to spark thoughtful conversation.

Review Your Content Critically

Analyze your website’s content carefully. First, make sure your page titles clearly and concisely state what your viewer will find on each page. If you’re familiar with HTML, check to see if your meta tags beneath your page titles are being used properly. In that space, write a concise but descriptive blurb about what each page offers.

Next, imagine you’re searching for your own product or company. What words would you type into a search engine, assuming you weren’t familiar with your company’s name? Google’s Webmaster Guidelines states this well: “Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it.”

It may seem like common sense, but giving your content a close reading will help. Ask a spouse or close friend to describe your website. Do the keywords they used match the ones in your featured content?

Saturation of other mediums, including videos and images, can help your site rank higher if done correctly. Title your image with relevant phrases, as we discussed in a recent post about image SEO, so that if a potential client is searching key terms in the images section, your content is easily available. After all, adding other media to your website can increase functionality for your users. An easy way to see your pages similarly to how the Googlebot sees them is to view your website in Lynx, a text-based browser.

If you embed a video on your website, consider adding text as a transcript or a detailed summary of the video to enhance the crawling and indexing of your website.

By implementing these small steps, you can get started, but SEO is not a part-time job. To get to a top spot with Google, you need to hire a team that can give its full effort and range of expertise to your business. After all, hiring an SEO expert like our CEO, Ali Husayni, could take your business to the next level.

“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,” says Husayni. “Call the office for a free consultation to find out.” Click here to contact us about our services.

Ali Husayni, the CEO of the SEO service company, Master Google, has an answer to this question.

“Search engine optimization is like any other demanding industry in business,” says Husayni. “You don’t do it part time if you want to be successful.”

After all, when it comes to SEO, there is a big learning curve while acquiring skills, and it is an ongoing process, a fight to stay current. There are thousands of sites on the internet with tips, lists and tutorials about SEO techniques, including the Master Google website and blog, but search engine algorithms get updated regularly and without warning.

“The only constant about SEO is that it will change,” Husayni says. “One update can turn everything you’ve been doing on its head.”

Learning the basic concepts of SEO might not cost money, but there is still a cost. When a company or individual is wondering about whether they can do SEO on their own, they should carefully consider these questions:

• Do I have the time to keep up with frequent updates to algorithms and new techniques by reading blogs, breaking news and articles online?
• Do I have the skill level to research and write quality content for my site, including press releases and articles?
• Do I know where to submit articles and press releases or how to share new content on social networking sites?
• Do I have a good working knowledge of computer coding languages to manage and update the code of my site in order to implement new techniques while staying within Google’s Quality Guidelines and Terms Of Service?
• Do I have the stamina to continue doing this these things on a consistent basis?

If the answer is ‘no’ to any of those, the company or individual should consider hiring an SEO professional instead. Husayni works with small businesses frequently. In fact, it was his desire to help small businesses be able to compete with their larger competitors that have bigger budgets that got him into SEO in the first place.

“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,” says Husayni. “Call the office for a free consultation to find out.” Click here to contact us about our services.

“Search engine optimization is the ongoing process of making a website appealing to search engine spiders and readers alike through the site’s content, relevancy and popularity,” says Husayni, who is president of SEO firm Master Google.

One aspect of this SEO process is called on-page optimization, which entails altering a website’s code to make it search engine friendly, explains Saeed Khosravi, the operational manager at Master Google. While the internet has list after list of tips or tricks for doing that, sorting out the tried-and-true SEO techniques from outdated and detrimental ones is a never-ending process.

“Google’s algorithm is updated frequently, so what worked last month might be obsolete today,” says Khosravi.

The reason the search engine algorithms change frequently is because they are making adjustments to more effectively mimic the human behavior of reading, analyzing and organizing content. Husayni says some updates are intended to thwart exploitative SEO tactics used by black hat companies.

One of these big updates rolled out in the U.S. in Feb. 2011, and Google began “rating” websites on their content and user-experience. According to a recent article by Search Engine Land, the focus of the updated, named Panda, was to reduce the prominence of websites that have thin, low-quality and duplicate content. It also targeted sites that come up short based on other site-quality metrics, such as high advertisement-to-content ratios.

Where To Get Started:

Husayni says what he has said from the beginning of his career in the industry: that an ethical SEO company works with the Google algorithm instead of trying to take advantage of it. Here are some simple, current, effective and aboveboard methods that Husayni uses with his clients, ranging from the medical field to real estate to heating and cooling:

Easy to understand navigation. This includes the top menu, footer links, breadcrumb navigation and HTML sitemap. Do not make content hard to get to or structure the site in a way that only makes sense to experts in the industry.

Automatically updating sitemap. Set the XML sitemap to update automatically to keep the navigation current and the latest content easily accessible to search engine spiders and readers.

Utilize header tags to organize information. According to 3Schools.com, Header tags are used to define HTML headings with <h1> defining the most important heading and <h6> defining the least important heading. Using tags helps lay out textual information for the reader.

Link to other useful places within the site. This is also called friendly interlinking. Website content is supposed to be helpful for the reader. Linking to a page that expounds on a topic, issue or technique mentioned on a different page builds an internal link structure that benefits the business, the reader and the ranking on SERPs.

Use consistent URLs. Stick to one version URLs, redirecting all the other versions to the preferred one. For example, redirect non-www to www, https to http, and the one without trailing slash to the one with trailing slash.

Be informative with URLs. A short, keyword-rich URL is much more useful to readers than one that uses an ID number or another ambiguous parameter. Keywords need to accurately explain the page’s contents in a succinct way. This information shows up in the SERs and helps a reader decide if the information is relevant, which means Google is also factoring this into their algorithm.

Put unique page titles and descriptions in the code. The page title shows up at the top of the browser window, but the title and description also show up in the SER. Accurate, informative and short information helps a reader decide if the page is what they are looking for.

For example, search for “Google free optimization,” with Google on your browser. In my search, the Master Google website listed as the third result after the ads. The page title and description, as well as the URL, all provide key information about what the reader will find on the actual page.

These SEO tips are designed to make a website easier and better for the user, not just make a page rank higher on Google’s search engine. Husayni says that on-page optimization is only about five to 10 percent of the total SEO work, so he will explain more on his blog in the coming months about the other components needed to create a site Google will love.

Be Aware of Common SEO Mistakes: SEOFailBlog.com wants you to know that they’re watching for a variety of mistakes. From incorrect footer links, to a Google related searches fail, SEO Fail Blog puts the spotlight on bad practices.

Understand the Audience of New Platforms: Google+ is an amazing new tool for communication, but one that clearly wasn’t appreciated by Steve Yegge, an employee at Google, when he accidentally told the world about his misgivings with the new platform a few months ago. In a memo meant for Google employees on Google+, Yegge forgot one important thing: to click private instead of public post when sharing a blog. Read the now infamous memo on TechnoBaboy.com. One of the most shocking excerpts is of Yegge’s complaint that Google+ is simply a “prime example of our complete failure to understand platforms from the very highest levels of executive leadership, down to the very lowest leaf workers. We all don’t get it. The Golden Rule of platforms is that you Eat Your Own Dogfood.” Yegges was quick to post an apology. Let us all be considered warned about checking our settings twice.

Impatience With SEO Results: Quality takes time. Do not fear if a project has taken six weeks and the results are minimal. As you build links and prominence with Google, the people will click, according to Husayni.

“If people expect huge results in a very short period of time, they are bound to be disappointed,” he says. “Search engine optimization is an ongoing process that takes time, especially if the website has been in trouble for bad SEO practices in the past.”

Effectiveness with SEO pays off, after all. As it relates to Google search results in the orthodontic field, Husayni notes that, depending on location, there can be an increase in yearly income ranging from $50,000 to as much as $300,000.

“Americans performed 15.5 billion searches in 2010, and around 80 percent of customers research a product or service before making a purchase,” Husayni says. “So it doesn’t matter if you are offering dog grooming services, consulting or selling exotic cars, you want potential clients to be able to find you.”

According to Ali Husayni—industry expert and founder of SEO company Master Google—a newbie should do anything but give up.

“Without a strong SEO campaign, it is very difficult to compete in today’s market,” he said. “With the economy down, people spend their money wisely. Potential customers research anything and everything on the Internet before they contact any retailer or decide on services. If your site is not easily found, you are not able to compete effectively.”

I know what you’re thinking. “Okay, so it’s essential, but what is SEO, exactly?”

Husayni explained that SEO is “the art of changing sites and their popularity on the Internet so that search engines perceive them as highly valuable, thereby placing them at the top of their search results.”

What search engine should my SEO campaign focus on?

Now that we have established what SEO is and why it’s so important, it’s time to decide which search engine you should focus your campaign on. Husayni said that, while Yahoo and Microsoft’s Bing do get some traffic, those search numbers are nothing compared to Google.

“Google receives more than 75 percent of the global search market and about 65 percent of the domestic market,” Husayni said. “Google is the giant of search engines. If you are visible on Google, you’ll be attracting customers.”

How do I go about initiating my SEO work?

This should all be becoming a bit clearer, but we still need a plan of action. Husayni advised that there are multiple ways to go about SEO, such as hiring a company to do the work for you, employing an in-house SEO professional or working with an experienced SEO consultant.

“The path you choose to take depends on your market, your budget and your level of Internet savvy,” Husayni said.

Small companies, he said, are better off hiring a professional SEO company who can place them at the top of search engines at an affordable price. On the other hand, a larger firm working with a bigger budget could benefit from having an in-house SEO team, supplemented with coaching help from a reputable SEO company to keep them in check. And, of course, the more ambitious business owner with minimal time constraints could learn SEO practices himself, though Husayni recommends receiving some guidance from a seasoned professional.

What do I need to know about SEO before I begin?

Even if you choose to hire a SEO company to do your optimization work, it’s still important to know the main elements that will help you increase your site’s ranking. Husayni said that the three most crucial aspects of any Internet marketing campaign are optimization, lots of fresh content and popularity, also referred to as link building.

“The optimization gives Google the information it needs to understand the theme of each site,” he said. “Content gives Google the impression that the site is being updated with valuable information on a regular basis, thus providing useful information for its visitors.”

But remember, “Google is a machine with limitations and language barriers,” Husayni warned.

“The only two ways for Google crawlers to determine if your site is valuable are by measuring how often you update your content and by gauging whether or not you’ve copied your content from elsewhere, or written it yourself.”

Google’s algorithm is always changing, too. For example, Husayni said that, with the development of Google+, the search engine has “added the +1 button to further determine your site’s usefulness.”

I’ve started my SEO campaign, but how long will it take until I see results?

After learning the basics of SEO and how to get started, you still have a long, albeit rewarding, journey ahead.

“While changes to optimization are viewed by Google almost immediately—provided you have quality back links—other SEO components are built over time,” Husayni said. “So, initially, when we optimize a site, there is a jump in its ranking on Google. Then, slowly thereafter, the site gets ranked better and better.”

And it’s a journey you have to stick to in order to see lasting results.

“Google revamps its algorithm every few months, making it important to stay on top of new techniques,” Husayni said. “And your competition is not sitting idle. They’re also doing SEO and, depending on how many resources they allocate, they could replace your number one listing in a matter of months. So, take a deep breath and get ready for a long SEO battle.”

To rank your site, Google closely looks at the number of inbound links pointing to your site, the quality of the sites that have the inbound links, the anchored text links associated with each link and finally any traces of human interference to “artificially” increase a site’s link popularity (which will negatively affect your rankings).

I can go into a lot of details on each of the above, but for the sake of this post, I want to focus my attention to the press release development/distribution as one of the easiest ways to acquire quality inbound links for your site. My team has previously put together a list of press release distribution sites you can use for this purpose. Now, I want to give some advice on how to best use press release distribution sites to stay ahead of the game.

Please note that we use the following tips internally and have seen great success within the past few months.

• Hire a professional writer to write your press release. If your press release is not written in the format accepted by the news outlets, they will simply reject it.
• Ask your writer to write multiple versions of your press release. By multiple versions I mean a complete rewrite to the point that only the meaning is similar, but the content is completely different on each release. Much like the same news we read on Google News from different sources.
• One of these versions will be posted on your site as the source and the rest will be distributed.
• The other versions will be posted on a different press release distribution site. This will help you to avoid duplicate content on your releases thus increasing the chance that they will be picked by Google and ranked better with the engine.
• On the bottom of each release, you should include a copy-right sentence to avoid readers to copy/use your press releases.
• Link to the original post on your site (as the source) as well as your site’s homepage or the internal pages from these press releases.
• Your anchored text links should be different, yet contain your main keywords in them.
• Avoid multiple keyword text links. It’s best to link only one word to your site.

Like always, we appreciate your comments.

Duplicate content refers to “substantive blocks of content” that match or are similar to “content within or across domains”, according to Google webmaster central. Google simply reduces the ranking of both pages/Web sites if it notices similar content being posted.

Here are some examples of duplicate content and tips on how to resolve them:

Mirrored Sites
Having mirrored sites refers to the same Web site being hosted on two or more different domains. This was basically what cryoserver.com had done. They had their site hosted on cryoserver.com as well as forensiccs.com.

Use a domain-level redirect from one domain to the other to resolve the mirrored sites issue. Also, use 301 redirects for any linked-to Web pages within the redirected domain.

We asked cryoserver.com to redirect the mirrored domain to the main one. After only one week, Google removed the red-flag and now their site ranks on the 3rd page (still some SEO work is needed to get them to the first page).

The same for-sale items on e-commerce Web sites
This is very common when it comes to e-commerce sites. Many URL’s are dynamically created and linked to from the home-page or other pages. Or simply, one product is placed within different categories. To resolve this issue, you should avoid dynamically building your pages and use different description even for the same products if they’re placed on different categories (having different url’s).

Copied text to be placed on competitors Web sites
If someone copies your text and place it on their site, your site could be penalized (flagged) by Google spiders for having duplicate content. This doesn’t happen too often, but when it does, it reduces your site’s rank on Google dramatically. To resolve this issue, you should contact the site that copied your text and ask them (by using all means) to remove the stolen text from their site. If they don’t comply, you should just rewrite your own content (painful, but it’s easier and less expensive than hacking the other site and removing your text).

Print-only versions of Web pages
Avoid print-versions if at all possible. If you cannot, use a “no-follow” tag wherever you link to a print-version copy of your Web pages.

Web pages that generate a mobile-friendly version
Similar to above, use “no-follow” tags so Google spiders don’t follow the link.

If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to ask. We will respond to all questions in a timely manner.