Google keeps changing, and this doesn’t make everyone happy. We’ve all heard the horror stories of a small business that lost big when it plummeted from a top of Google page ranking because of changes to Google search algorithms.

It’s easy for these “victims” to paint Google as the bad guy, but that’s not the case. How well a business fares in the competition for front-page ranking is usually tied to the practices of their SEO services provider.

One of Google’s ongoing goals is to thwart black-hat SEO practices that artificially boost the rankings of a site based on black-hat tricks, and at the same time reward credible sites that follow best SEO practices. In a post on the Google Webmaster Central Blog, the head of Google’s webspam team, Matt Cutts, provided this explanation:

“The goal of many of our ranking changes is to help searchers find sites that provide a great user experience and fulfill their information needs. We also want the ‘good guys’ making great sites for users – not just algorithms – to see their effort rewarded.”

Staying abreast of Google’s ever-changing search algorithms and “playing by the rules” is key to Sinai Marketing’s ability to place their clients at or near the top of Google rankings and keep them there, says company CEO Ali Husayni.

“Google relies heavily on SEO professionals to prepare sites to be properly indexed, identified and ranked by its search algorithm,” he says. “They encourage white-hat SEO because when we do our job right, it makes theirs easier – and that makes the good information on the Web easier to locate.”

By contrast, companies that engage in black-hat SEO practices are constantly fighting an ever-losing battle, Husayni says.

“Google eventually catches up with them, and in the next algorithm update, they may lose their somewhat easily-earned ranks to the sites that have engaged in white-hat SEO only,” he says. “Because we follow only white-hat practices, our company doesn’t worry about these downgrades.”

One example of how the “good guys” win happened after a recent Google update, which moved Sinai Marketing from the number six position to number two for an extremely competitive keyword: “best SEO.”

“Google downgraded some of our competitors who were involved in shady black- or gray-hat SEO practices,” Husayni says. “We just continued with our white-hat practices and eventually, we got ahead of the wolves.”

There is, of course, much more to high quality SEO work than good intentions.

“The devil is in the details,” Husayni says. “There are more than 200 criteria Google looks at when ranking a page.”

Among the many factors that can increase a site’s Google ranking is the proper optimization of well-written content, which involves such specifics as including headine tags, URL-structure, placing the right keywords within the article and talking about the article on your social media platforms, he says.

One positive phenomenon brought on by the ongoing evolution of the Google search algorithm is the increased value placed on quality content.

“Building sites that attract and retain visitors improves the experience and makes the Web a better place,” Husayni says. “Google is paying more attention to such practices.”

As a result, professional content development has become increasingly important in recent years. This includes not only text but also images and video.

“Another important emerging factor is social media indicators,” Husayni says, “namely Google Plus. If your Google profile is tied into your site, your author image will be placed next to the search results. This helps to both increase the click-through rate and enhance site ranking.”

And, last but not least are the quality back-links that make sites more popular.

“This remains Google’s number one factor in deciding what sites should rank at the top,” Husayni says.

With each new change, Google will continue to seek and penalize questionable back-link practices. This not only weeds out the junk, but also helps push the good guys to the top.

TAMPA, FLORIDA—When I think of SEO experts outside of Master Google who I deeply respect, the names Rand Fishkin and Dharmesh Shah come to mind.

So when I found a webinar recorded in August that involved Fishkin and Shah, you can imagine my excitement.

Fishkin, CEO of SEOmoz, and Shah, CTO of HubSpot, are featured in “The State of SEO & Internet Marketing in 2012.” They shared some fascinating information that I believe may help you better craft the SEO work you do to improve your Google website ranking, or equip you to ask the right questions of your SEO provider. So let’s get right to it.

Interesting facts shared during the webinar:

• Google gets about 3 billion searches per day, and about 75 percent of clicks are on organic results- not paid ads, Shah says. That means if you focus solely on pay-per click, you’re missing out on most of the opportunities to drive traffic.

• More than half of search results have no ads at all. So when it comes to ranking for those sorts of terms, organic is the only way to go.

Much of the webinar’s content came from a SEOmoz survey of more than 6,000 people involved in SEO conducted between March and May 2012. Thanks to the survey, the following trends were identified:

• Duplicate content is front and center now more than ever, due to Google Panda. Nearly 60 percent of those surveyed use rel= “canonical” to control duplicate content.

• Nearly 80 percent set up a Facebook business page.

• Nearly 70 percent set up a Google+ business account.

• Lots of attention is focused on site speed and page load times these days. About 75 percent of those surveyed follow analytics that analyze and track this information.

The statistics regarding content were heart-warming to this writer:

• More than 60 percent of those surveyed have started a blog, or “invested heavily” in blogging.

• Interestingly, the written word still seems to dominate the content market. When it comes to creating viral content that attracts links, slightly more than 40 percent reported creating video content, while less than 30 percent created infographics.

• More than 70 percent of those surveyed market their content via blogs and social media outlets.

This content-related information also pleased me because it drove home the fact that what we here at Master Google do for our clients in terms of content continues to be right on the money.

“We’ve used textual content and blogging as an SEO tool for more than five years,” says Master Google CEO Ali Husayni. “Any new client who signs up gets a free, custom-designed WordPress blog and we assign a professional writer to their account to conduct interviews, research and write quality articles and press releases for their business. Our SEO team carefully optimizes and places these articles on our client’s site on a regular basis.”

Many of our clients report getting phone calls from individuals who have read the articles we write for them, Husayni says. Providing relevant and useful information to the public is a great form of indirect marketing, which gives our clients a good reputation as truly being experts in their field.

My personal takeaway from the webinar is this: while SEO pros love to focus on the minutiae, the deepest inner-workings of search engines, and sometimes the tricks that may be used to “game” the system, all roads still lead to the user.

“Solve for the humans,” Shah says, adding that when you focus attention on SEO strategies that circumvent that, it’s only a matter of time until the search engines catch on.

This webinar was packed with information and over the next few weeks I’ll extract bits of that information and expand upon it a bit. If you’d like to check out the webinar yourself, follow the link above.

ORLANDO, FLORIDA—If you are just beginning to focus on your website and know that you want to use the principles of search engine optimization but aren’t sure where to start, you have come to the right place.

“The first step to a successful SEO campaign is to identify the kind of help you need and find an SEO veteran with a proven track record,” says Ali Husayni, who founded his SEO agency in 2004.

Courtesy of dealsextra.com.au

Each business is unique with varying levels of technical experience, budget and personnel, but Master Google has a solution compatible for each one. Some companies want the guaranteed results Husayni offers with a full-scale SEO campaign so they are free to focus on other aspects of their business, but other companies have a different vision for their SEO.

Master Google’s consulting services are a good option for clients who are looking for in-depth analysis of their site, rankings and an SEO team. It’s an ideal choice if they need search engine optimization tips and solutions for specific problems like finding out why rankings tanked after an update. Consulting services can also be used to help companies locate, hire and set up an in-house SEO team.

Coaching is for the businesses that want to be hands-on with SEO and have a working knowledge of HTML, but feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information available and need help setting up a road map for an effective search engine optimization campaign. They want to avoid getting sidetracked by insignificant issues or techniques that will eat up a lot of energy and time.

“With so much wrong information out there on the Internet, I cannot stress to you enough how important it is to have an asset like Master Google on your side,” says Don Gerig Jr., a client who hired Husayni for SEO coaching services.

Gerig manages his family’s business American Dream Realty, a Santa Cruz company with a client base primarily from Internet traffic.He and his brother Matt Gerig, the marketing director, had studied HTML coding and SEO for a while but kept finding contradictory information on what worked with the search engines and what didn’t. When they moved their website to a new hosting platform, they knew they needed professional coaching to become more competitive in the market.

“I did a lot of research and, after a lot of frustration, I finally found Master Google. I knew I had to have the best, so I immediately hired Ali,” says Don Gerig.

Master Google spent about 20 hours working with the American Dream Realty team and after a few months of continued support, the hard work paid off. The site’s traffic soared to the highest levels in their market where they now rank at the top of Google for their main keyword: Santa Cruz Real Estate.

Husayni says companies that invest in SEO coaching gain these three benefits:

1.    Avoid Incorrect, Insufficient Or Outdated Information

SEO is constantly changing with algorithms being updated frequently and without notice as search engines work to improve results and fight spam techniques. That means good SEO must adapt to the changes, discarding obsolete practices, avoiding black hat techniques and implementing new strategies to stay on top.

“Using outdated information and techniques or making a simple mistake because of insufficient information can waste your time and worse, have a profoundly negative impact on a site,” says Husayni, an SEO expert.

A veteran SEO coach can show businesses what they need to do for success and then teach them how to find reputable sources to stay up-to-date about developments, technologies and strategies as well as how to implement the information on their own.
“Knowing how to stay current is crucial for the long-term success of a marketing campaign,” says Husayni.

2.    Get SEO Working Right Away

Learning SEO, like any new skill set, takes time and practice. But with Master Google, the process gets started right away. The websites’ SEO is working and the rankings are getting better while the business owners are learning how to use the techniques.

Some aspects of SEO are done once, like certain programming tasks and structuring the website so search engine spiders can easily crawl the content, but a lot of SEO is ongoing, such as link-building campaigns and writing press releases and articles. The SEO coach shows them how to do the one-time tasks, explaining what they are as they are done, and the ongoing tasks can be done together.

3.    Help Establish A Clear Strategy & Avoid SEO Distractions

Establishing where a business wants to go with their SEO campaign and the steps they need to take to get there can be difficult to do when they are still learning about the different techniques. A coach can help business owners set goals with a realistic timeline and equip them with focused techniques that will help their businesses achieve that.

“What a good SEO company does, whether they are doing all the SEO work or getting you set up, is start you out correctly by honing a clear strategy and then focusing on meeting authoritative guidelines with an emphasis on good content,” he says.

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