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If you are hoping to rise to the top of search results, the key is to start small. While seemingly counterintuitive, specialization is the key to befriending Google, according to Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s webspam team.
Building Your Reputation
In a recent seminar, Cutts advised business owners, “If you want to get a reputation, start small, expand in your niche.” For example, rather than targeting the general, universal term of “content,” Communicate Better’s website focuses on becoming an authority on SEO content and SEO website copy. If you want to break into the insurance industry, instead of attempting to rank for the broad term “insurance,” a more powerful strategy would be to publish SEO content on umbrella insurance in California, for example.
When Google begins to view your website as an authority site for your niche, you gain credibility and relevance, which builds your long-term reputation for the search engines (and customers!). Starting with small niche steps not only builds your short-term search results and traffic, but is the building blocks to ranking well in the long-term for your broad terms.
Riding the Success of Long Tail Keywords
Although the long-term goal of many websites is to rank in the first position for their industry’s most powerful one-word keyword, this should not be your primary strategy. Instead, target relevant long-tail keywords through your SEO content, which not only have less competition for rankings, but will likely result in more targeted traffic and conversions. According to Search Engine Watch’s Josh McCoy, “…when you look at the big picture all the long tail keyword traffic…will collectively drive much more traffic to the site and convert better than the competitive broad term that became an obsession.”
Consider your own psychology and behavior when you conduct a search. If you are looking to hire a writer for your website, do you type “writer” into the Google search bar, or do you utilize the more effective phrase “SEO content writer” instead?
In addition, you can experience higher rankings in the search results more quickly with long-tail keywords – which means more traffic and more sales both now and in the future.
Rather than exhaust your efforts in fighting the war for placement for your broad terms, why not win plenty of battles in ranking for niche, long-tail keywords?
Read moreSEO benefits, branding advantages, and consumer loyalty: these are all the direct results of blogging. However, did you know that the humble blog could propel your business to the top of your industry?
Indeed, according to Technorati’s State of the Blogsophere report for 2009, blogging translates into greater visibility and industry leadership. Some of the key highlight statistics from the report include:
Any industry can benefit from the addition of a corporate blog. If you have clients and potential customers, then you have an audience base that is just waiting to be tapped. Consider these top 15 corporate blogs, as ranked by their Technorati Authority by Marketing Nirvana:
From computers and software programs to GPS systems and cars, clearly any industry can benefit from blogging. Whether you share an inside look into your daily operations, helpful resources, previews of new products, or anecdotal stories, your blog can be a powerful springboard for your company.
Isn’t it time you leveraged blogging to catapult to the top of your industry? If you don’t have time to personally pen your blog posts, take advantage of our ghostwritten blog writing and publishing packages, which is the ultimate hands-free blogging solution for busy business owners.
Read moreOnline prose typically falls into two realms: informative content or sales copy. Which type of composition translates into the best conversion rates? Does snazzy sales copy win more dollars than humble, informative content with infused soft sells?
Copy and Content: Attached at the Hip
The truth is that both types of content play an important role in your online success. Informative content brings visitors to your door and builds their trust in your website, while sales copy compels them to open their pocketbooks. Just like flour needs yeast to rise, sales copy needs informative content to help close the sale – and help your profits rise.
Most Powerful Types of Informative Content
While there are many ways to approach SEO content writing, providing valuable information to the reader is the most powerful strategy. Not only will valuable content prompt a visitor to read more and stay longer on your website, but it will also build their trust in your expertise and knowledge. With that said, there are several ways you can present valuable information, including:
Publishing helpful, informative content lures visitors to your website, as well as initiates the first course of dialogue between a potential customer and your business. The more value you can give to your readers through content, the more likely they will convert into customers.
Read moreYou may not have multimillion dollar advertising budgets or prime retail space on Rodeo Drive, but you can still fiercely compete against Fortune 500 companies online. In fact, with the right SEO strategies, you can easily overtake Fortune 500 companies in the search engines.
Fortune 500 Companies: Dismal Online Exposure
According to the “Natural Search Trends of the Fortune 500” 2009 report from Conductor, Fortune 500 companies are nearly “invisible” online. In analyzing 6.7 million paid keywords and natural search engine results, Conductor discovered the following trends:
What the Study Means for the Entrepreneur and Small Business Owner
For entrepreneurs and small business owners, the takeaway message from the report is clear: capitalize on search engine optimization to easily overtake Fortune 500 companies in natural search results.
Thankfully, search engine optimization strategies are affordable, even for modest budgets. Two of the most important SEO strategies include:
While it may not be easy to compete against Fortune 500 companies in the traditional advertising game, the online realm is an entirely different league. Take advantage of our affordable SEO writing, press release distribution, and manual article directory submission services to target your most important keywords – and easily beat out your Fortune 500 competition!
Read morePay per click has been the backbone of many marketing campaigns, but reaching customers through PPC may be an antiquated strategy. In fact, according to research presented by comScore, the number of people who click on PPC ads has plummeted from 32% in 2007 to only 16% of all internet users in 2009. Even more interesting is that 85% of all clicks are now attributed to only 8% of all internet users!
Adding more nails to the PPC coffin, however, are browser add-ons that are literally making PPC advertisements invisible.
Ad-Blocking Programs are Changing the Face of Online Marketing
The demand for ad-free web enjoyment continues to skyrocket, and the application developers are taking note, introducing browser add-ons that cloak PPC advertisements. Adblock Plus for Firefox is a leading example, and since 2006, more than 67,500,000 internet users have downloaded the add-on! Each week, nearly one million additional users download the program just for Firefox alone.
The staggering numbers of internet users downloading ad-blocking software means that PPC is quickly becoming obsolete as a primary marketing strategy. This beckons the question: if your PPC ads are made invisible by browser add-ons, how can you reach your target customers?
The Growing Importance of Natural Search Results
With more PPC ads being shielded by browser add-ons, the importance of organic search results grows even greater. Not only are organic search results the most cost-effective for your long-term marketing strategy, but they also generate more traffic and legitimacy to your website.
With the introduction of Google Caffeine and changes in the algorithm, today’s natural search rankings may be rearranged tomorrow. For the next generation of online marketing, the importance of fresh content cannot be underestimated for either Google Caffeine or Bing. Working with your content writer to produce original, fresh, and regular content will help drive your website to the top of search results, improving your market reach and solving the problem of PPC ad-blocking browser add-ons.
Nearly one million internet users download ad-blocking browser programs each week for Firefox alone, but your advertising campaign does not need to be short changed. Focusing on your organic, natural search results will help your endeavors prosper as the world of online marketing evolves.
Read more2010 heralds a year of major changes for Google’s search algorithm – and your website’s rankings within the search engine! Your New Year’s resolution of propelling to the top of Google may just be answered with Google Caffeine’s real-time results.
“Latest Results” are Replacing Google’s Top Results
Google’s most dramatic update with Caffeine will revolve around its real-time search results. Superseding all the search results is the “latest results” section, which will showcase the latest blog posts, news stories, press releases, and social network updates pertaining to the search term. Google published a Caffeine video demonstrating where the “latest results” section will appear, and clearly, this is a traffic gold mine just waiting to be tapped.
Testing has revealed that Google Caffeine’s real-time capabilities are incredibly powerful. For example, Tweets are being returned in relevant Google searches within mere minutes of publication. Each time you update your blog with new posts, you can expect a surge of natural traffic from the power of Google’s “latest results.”
How to Capitalize on Google Caffeine’s Real Time Search Results
Clearly, Google Caffeine provides you with an unparalleled opportunity to literally jump to the top of Google’s search results for your important keywords. Each time your content writer publishes new, relevant content to your blog, searchers will see your website first and foremost. With your eloquent content writer by your side, climbing to the top of the first page of Google results is now easier than ever.
Even before Google Caffeine is officially unleashed in early 2010, you can already witness the implementation of real-time search in “old fashioned” Google. Some guinea pig users have randomly seen their Google search results sorted by date, while all searchers can now click on “show options” and select how they want their results displayed:
Google’s goal in organizing search results by time is to generate more relevant, accurate results – and this is certainly good news for every website that is savvy enough to take advantage of fresh compositions from their content writer.
The Decaffeinated Fate of Websites without Updates
SEO experts are speculating that Google Caffeine’s emphasis on fresh, real-time results will not bode well for websites that do not update their content frequently. Websites that do not add new content may receive poorer search rankings, as there is a greater probability that the website is no longer relevant or accurate.
If you only make one New Year’s SEO resolution, it should be solely focused on updating your website constantly with content. As we ring in the New Year, make sure your content writer is standing by, ready to compose fresh content that will jolt your website to the top of Google Caffeine’s search results!
Read moreGoogle Caffeine promises to recharge the search engine with significant changes, but how will this impact your website’s ranking?
Based upon a Digital Connections analysis, the change could be dramatic. For example, in evaluating 10 two-word keywords for the retail industry, more than 47% of websites that currently appear on the first page were dropped in Caffeine. For 10 of the four-word long tail keywords evaluated, nearly 26% of websites currently ranked first in search results lost their position in Caffeine.
The Caffeine update promises to be as dramatic as the “Big Daddy” update that occurred in 2005 and 2006. According to Google, Caffeine will improve the “size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness, and effectiveness” of its search engine – which could mean major changes for your SEO efforts.
Why Content is the Real Caffeine King
The search engine marketer’s adage, “content is king” holds more weight for Google Caffeine than ever before. In an effort to deliver quality search results, Google is reducing the weight of backlinks. Instead, the search engine will be ranking websites with better content higher in the results than those with better backlinks. This means that Google will return more searches based upon the on-page text your content writer composes, rather than the keywords of backlinks to the website. Indeed, content returns to its pinnacle reign as king in Caffeine.
With Caffeine, there will be more than one way to benefit from the power of content. Google Caffeine may offer real-time search, which would allow users to sort search results based upon temporal relevancy. The value of real-time content has already been made apparent with Bing. This makes publishing frequent, relevant, and timely articles from your content writer even more important in improving your ranking and driving traffic to your website. Updating your blogs and issuing press releases can all help to jolt your pages upwards in Caffeine.
Prepare for Changes in Your Keywords
Based upon beta testing, the world of keywords will also change in Caffeine. The competition amongst single keywords will amplify, while decreasing amongst long-tail searches. Google Caffeine intends to index a higher volume of pages, which will increase the amount of competition for single keywords. However, there is good news for the webmaster. Google will be more accurately indexing long-tail keywords, which translates into less competition for these phrases. Although you may experience more competition for your single keywords, you should also enjoy a growth in traffic from more relevant long-tail searches. Now is the time for your content writer to begin targeting your articles for powerful long-tail keywords.
When to Expect a Shot of Caffeine
The full rainbow of changes that result from the Caffeine update remain to be seen. However, we do know there will be a bevy of intriguing factors that Google Caffeine will begin using to rank websites, including site speed.
One data center has already been switched to the Caffeine algorithm, and according to Matt Cutts, a wider introduction of Caffeine will occur throughout multiple Google data centers after the holidays. Before 2010 arrives, make sure your New Year’s resolutions include preparing for the jolt of Google Caffeine!
Read moreLong before the turkeys start shivering and Santa Claus takes his red suit to the dry cleaners, businesses should begin preparing for holiday profits. Leveraging your web content provider allows you to capitalize on powerful marketing materials, while giving you the time needed to focus on the core of your business operations.
From penning holiday prose to composing cheerful newsletters, your web content provider is a creative resource for marketing ideas. Consider the myriad of ways your freelance writer can help you prepare for the bounty of holiday sales.
With Black Friday and Cyber Monday just around the corner, now is the time to begin preparing for the bounty of holiday sales!
Read moreMicrosoft hopes that Bing, their “decision” search engine, can chip away at Google, the goliath of search engines. In August, Bing held 10.7% of the search engine market, while Yahoo fell 4% to 16% of the market share. Google slipped, but still retained a 64.6% share, according to The Nielsen Co.
Preliminary polls estimate that Bing will eventually capture 15% to 30% of search engine users – making Bing a strong competitor against Google. In addition, if Yahoo and Microsoft’s proposed partnership can pass antitrust inspections, be prepared for Bing to shake Google’s dominance.
Is Your Website Indexed in Bing?
While most webmasters currently tailor their search engine optimization strategies to Google’s algorithm, Bing’s foray into the search market will change the SEO playing field. Taking steps now to optimize your website for Bing will help you capitalize on their battle against Google. The first step is to verify that Bing is indeed indexing your website.
Once you have taken these two preliminary steps, then it is time to delve into Bing SEO, also nicknamed DEO (decision engine optimization).
Bing vs. Google: SEO Discrepancies
In reviewing Bing’s Webmaster Center, many of their published SEO guidelines are very similar, if not identical, to Google. Like Google, Bing evaluates the quality of your website based upon content, keyword relevance, and backlinks. However, there are discrepancies between Bing and Google to keep in mind.
Some elements of Bing’s algorithm, such as weighting your domain’s age, leave you little room for SEO techniques. However, hiring a freelance SEO writer to create informative specialized web pages, cleaning up your code, and continuing to build quality backlinks are easy steps you can take to optimize for Bing.
Could Bing be the “David” that brings Goliath Google to its demise? Only time and effective search results will tell, but with preparation, at least your website can be successful, regardless of who wins the battle.
Read moreSanta Claus is coming to town – but if he can’t find you online, you should check your SEO list twice.
Too many businesses wait until November or December to begin adding SEO content to their websites. Alas, paying a freelance writer to create content during the late holiday season may not maximize the SEO benefits. The search engines can take weeks, if not months, to fully spider and index new content on your website, especially if you do not make updates regularly.
When to Start for SEO’s Sake
Creating your holiday content in August or September will maximize the Christmas cheer your bottom line enjoys in December. By starting early, the search engines have ample time to crawl your website and update their search results. While starting your holiday SEO efforts early may take planning on your part, the rewards are certainly worthwhile – both in the sense of increased holiday sales and decreased advertising costs, such as expensive PPC campaigns that spike in cost near Christmas.
Content to Optimize for Search Claus
There are a variety of strategies your freelance writer can employ to optimize your holiday content, including:
While the sun may be shining and your tan has not begun fading, now is the time to begin optimizing for the holiday season. By planning ahead, you can ensure that your bottom line will not cry or pout this year when Santa Claus comes to your town.
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