Popular Misconceptions of SEO
Being an internet marketer for many years now I have heard some really out of whack misconceptions when it comes to SEO and how it helps grow a business online. Here are some of the most important misconceptions of SEO that I think should be called out: 1. It is all Technical - Search engine optimization is only about 15-20% technical. The rest requires a marketing approach. Think about it, if you are trying to get rankings in the search engines don’t you have to put yourself in your audiences shoes and anticipate what they search for, what they read and what they want to see on your website? That requires a marketing hat. 2. Rankings Happen Quick - Search engine optimization is time and CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
New Boston SEO Training Workshop
We are very excited to let all of the Search Engine Optimization Journal readers know that I along with my SEO company, Brick Marketing will be presenting a full day SEO training workshop.. The full day SEO training will be held at the Brick Marketing training office at 101 Federal Street in downtown Boston, MA. This day long Boston SEO workshop is being taught by the SEO experts at Brick Marketing. To learn more or to register for the workshop please visit the registration page located at http://www.boston-internet-marketing.eventbrite.com . This Boston SEO workshop will consist of topics that range from beginner type topics all the way to advanced topic discussions. This workshop is only limited to 10 total registrations, so seats are limited. Brick CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
Increase the Power of your SEO Efforts
If you have been conducting search engine optimization efforts for your website for some time and you are wondering why things just are not working out like they should you might want to take a step back and take a look at some other factors that could be holding your website back from climbing in the rankings. Here are a few important areas to consider when marketing your online business: • Proper Steps? - Did you dive into link building or did you take the proper steps to optimize your website first? If you’re trying to build links without taking the time to focus on your website first you will never see the results you are looking for. Link building before on-site optimization is a CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
SEO Should Never Stand Alone
Search engine optimization was once a very powerful form of communication and marketing by itself but as time has pushed on and the technology has changed, morphed and evolved SEO alone will become less potent than it once was. However SEO is still very important at the very minimum and should always be implemented and taken seriously but coupled with other forms of internet marketing SEO becomes a much more powerful driving force in the online marketing space. Search engine marketing comes in many different slices and search engine optimization is really just one slice of the marketing pizza. There are many different approaches to SEO which is primarily why so many website owners have a hard time putting a definition on what it really is. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
SEO’s are Not a Free Hotline
It boggles my mind how some people will call a place a business of and actually get upset when free information is not provided where it usually is paid for. I would never in my wildest dreams call a doctor or lawyer and demand they get on the phone and start asking for free advice only to get upset that it was not provided. If you search online you will quickly find that there are ample amounts of free information regarding the search engine optimization industry. Everything from detailed how-to guides to lists of qualified sources that can walk you through virtually almost any problem you might have with your website. There are also numerous forums that are updated every single day with very new fresh CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
Top Ten Google SEO Ranking Factors
People don’t really understand that there are many different factors that fall into place when determining where a website ranks in the Google search engine results. Some things to keep in mind when you are wondering why your site doesn’t rank well. It is not always just the obvious reasons that are holding it back. Over the past years by reading Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, Google SEO Starter Guide, many other industry blogs and by actually doing professional SEO and internet marketing since the late 1990’s, I have gathered data and come to a boiled down short list of the most important Google search engine ranking factors. Here is the list of my top 10 of important Google SEO ranking factors to consider: 1. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
Personalized Search And Your SEO Efforts
On December 4, 2009 Google announced that they were rolling out personalized search to all users and not just signed-in users. That means that everyone who conducts a search will get personalized results every time. How will this affect search engine optimization and the work you have done building your positioning and search engine authority? Here's a great video from Google about Personalized Search: Let's break it down. If a user conducts a search for "local pool halls" and visits the the top listings in the SERP and the bottom three listings on page 1 of the SERP then those top four websites will be added to that user's personalized search data. The next time that user conducts a search for "local pool halls", those CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
Things Not To Do With Your SEO Campaign
When you first start your search engine optimization campaign for your business website or if you are just in the process of learning, your head will most likely start to spin a little from all the information available online. It will be important for you to realize there are some efforts that are industry standards and some that are very much frowned up by all including the search engines. Here are some SEO don'ts of things that you should not do (these are my white hat recommendations, you can always feel free to choose the path that you would like!): 1. Mass Directories: Did you come across an ad or software that will place your business into five thousand directories? This will not help you CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
Video Optimization Techniques to Consider
You've decided that now is the time to start including videos on your website. Good for you. To be sure, it is the perfect time. And it's never too late to get started. But how do you optimize your videos? Here are three specific methods for video optimization that you should use when implementing your on-site video marketing campaign: Keyword-rich file name: This is one of the most important video optimization techniques for any website. Don't just name your video something generic like video1 or video-of-me-and-billy. Instead, give your video a keyword-rich file name. For example, if you sell chocolate truffles on your website and you are adding a video of your manufacturing process, give your video a name like the-chocolate-truffle-making-process.wav. This is a keyword optimize CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
SEO ROI Jumps Around Like a Kangaroo
If you are trying to calculate your ROI on performing SEO for your business you are going to be greatly disappointed. Search engine optimization ROI can be measured over time through an increase of visitors, and conversions (sales, leads, phone calls, etc.). But since SEO is such a long term effort that never really has a finish line and preliminary conversion numbers are virtually impossible to accurately predict over time. The only thing you can really do is improve. Improve, positioning, quality of content, call to actions, incoming relevant links, improve your authority and improve your ROI over time. It is important to know that search engine optimization is not paid advertising so nobody knows when your website will appear in search results CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
Are You a Bad SEO Client?
If you are in the business of offering a search engine optimization services to the public, you will most likely completely understand where I am coming from as I write this blog post. Before I continue, I want to point out, that I love what I do, working with clients to help build their businesses through SEO and SEM. At some point the industry veered off course because some clients look at you like you are the enemy right from initial phone call. I view at each client like a partner, I have been hired to grow their business and my only goal is to do just that. I think this is important to discuss because it seems to be getting worse for many other search CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
Confusing Local Search Intent At Google
Google rose to prominence by demonstrating a competence in discerning user intent and providing relevant search results. But this statement by Brian, a Google employee, on Google's support forum is a bit confusing: Today, we're intentionally showing less local results for web design / SEO queries. For example, [web design sacramento] doesn't display local listings today. We believe this is an accurate representation of user intent. In some cases, we do show local listings, however (as NSNA/php-er noted) [web design in bellingham]. I'm sure some of you feel we should be displaying local results for queries like [Web Design Vancouver]. I understand that concern, but based on our understanding of our users, we feel this is the right decision for now. I have the same CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
What Is On Your SEO Christmas List?
Now that Christmas 2009 is behind us, it's time to start thinking about your SEO program and the Christmas and holiday season of 2010. OK, go ahead and groan. But you know it's time. Well, if you own an ecommerce or retail website and if you depend on Christmas and holiday visitors to make or break your annual sales numbers, now is the time to plan your search engine optimization efforts for the Christmas and holiday season of 2010. Years ago, people didn't start thinking about Christmas until after Thanksgiving. The day after Turkey Day was the largest shopping day of the year (and still is). But in recent years I've noticed that marketers have started marketing for Christmas earlier and earlier. It CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
Search Engines Rank on Data Not Emotion
I get many potential clients on the phone that have one goal in mind and that is to be on the first page of Google right next to their biggest competitor, wouldn’t’ we all? It is important to realize that to get ahead in life most websites need to first put their dues in. The same thing goes for websites as well. Websites need to show the search engines that they have earned their right to be in that high position or ranking in search results before they are actually allowed in. Each website needs to work their way up to that point, by marketing their businesses over time. Key point is that search engine optimization is about building your online authority and developing CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
Blog Post from 2007 Makes Top 2009 List
This is the time of the year when every blogger in the world looks back at the year and creates a top 10 posts of the year blog post. Marketing Pilgrim published its top 10 list of 2009 and I was just as surprised as Andy Beal to discover that one of the items on the list was a post from 2007. How did that happen? The post in question is this post on Google offering cheap online file storage. Let's perform a little forensic SEO analysis: First, the post is No. 1 in Google for the key phrase "cheap online file storage" It's also No. 1 in Bing and No. 7 in Yahoo! OK, let's include Ask too. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE...
SEO Journal is Written by
Brick Marketing Founder,
Nick Stamoulis:
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Tel. - 877-295-0620
nick@brickmarketing.com
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