Category: Google

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Should You Be Using Certain Phrases in Your Anchor Text on Your Blog?

Confused about Google version of what web spam is?
Confused about Google version of what web spam is?

I had a blog client just recently send me a list of 5 phrases that he wanted used in his blog posts with all links regardless what they were to point to his home page. This blog post will educate you on why you may not want to use this “old” SEO tactic any more on your blog.Placing on Google has really changed in the last year. It used to be that keyword density and smart use of anchor text in blog posts really worked to boost your Google.com placement. However, now using these same tactics of building keyword density and repeating the same anchor text in blog posts over and over can be considered web spam by Google and can end up winning you not better organic placement but a Google smackdown!

I found this terrific article at the Internet Marketing Blog called “Google Web spam “Penguin” Over Optimization Penalty Hits” It is a good article and one that you should read for more information about what Google considers web spam.

Here are my specific recommendations to my clients on the topic of web spam.

  1. Don’t send your blog writer phrases to use any more. Let us know what is important, but it we use the same phrasing over and over again in your blog posts you will be nailed by Google.
  2. Let the blog writer mix up wording and phrasing so that content reads naturally.
  3. We won’t be working to build keyword density in a blog post as this may really come back to bite you.
  4. We still want great catchy titles in fact this is more important than ever for share-ability of your content.
  5. Allow the blog writer to point to the correct page on your website not just to your home page. Deep linking is good!

Remember the Google spider and algorithm is so smart… you don’t have to spoon feed content, phrasing, keywords, or links. Let content be natural to read, on topic – yes, but not redundant, create great content that is now shareable and authoritative.

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Where Did All My Links Go Google!

Just this past week Google gobbled up and spit out links in the Google Webmaster Control Panel. We’ve had clients go from 12,000 inbound links to under 3,000. What’s happening with Google now?

First, there has been chatter on the web as recently as Friday, February 8th that there was a glitch in recording link numbers in the Google Webmaster Control Panel, but does this account for such a big drop or are there other things at play?David Anderson in an article at SiteProNews thinks that there is a consistent erosion of Google honoring and giving you credit for inbound links that continues to impact website even post Penguin.

“Links remain important, but their overall value has diminished. Worse for SEO specialists, quality links have to be earned. Google stripped sites of many links they deemed forced, purchased or otherwise tainted and now makes it harder for sites to gain links. Content marketing and social media marketing are usurping SEO’s dominance in link-building as Google now rates links based on perceived value — a link from an article published in a high-authority magazine or shared on Twitter — gets more Google love than links from ezines and directories.” Read this interesting article in its entirety.

Note what David says is the new way inbound links are credited through high authority sites and social media – this is the essence of co-citation which appears to be the new way to garner search engine placement.

Add to changing link numbers and the difficulty in getting them to be high enough to make and difference and the growing impact of not being able to see the keywords that generate your website traffic in Google Analytics and you’re left wondering just how can a website owner get placement on Google with Google continuing to change it’s ranking formulas.

David Anderson doesn’t really answer that question (how to remediate Google placement) in his article just paints a fairly bleak picture for website owners and SEOs who are operating in this new environment. However, there is hope for savvy marketeers who are using content creation, social media, and Google+ to combat the new version of a Google smackdown that is impacting all websites

 

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Great Tips on Going Local With Google+

I just read this article at Website Magazine and wanted to share it with you. It has some great tips on going local with Google+ and how you can leverage exposure on Google. With local search results being pushed ahead of most organic results, leveraging your location makes great sense.

Here’s a quick synopsis as well as my own comments and suggestions on going local with Google+.

1. Make sure to focus on your About Page
Make sure your address and categories are listed as well as a descriptive paragraph about your business.

2. Encourage others to review you on Google+
I’ll add my own comments to this one… if you don’t ask you won’t get a review. Consider sending a link out to all your satisfied customers asking them to login to Google+ and leave some comments on your page. These recommendations can be a gold mine for your business so work to see if you can build your number of reviews. Don’t scam Google! I’ve seen some situations where reviews were clearly fake, don’t buy services to make fake reviews for your Google+ Local page. Google is getting too smart to not be watching the IP addresses on reviews at this point.

3. Build a free Google+ Community for your business
My comments again… Community pages are much more interactive that Google+ business pages. They operate more like a forum. You can have closed or open communities and even those by invitation only or moderator approved. For now Communities look stronger to me than Business Pages but Communities do not allow status update scheduling as Business pages do with third party apps.

4. Think about Google Offers
This could be good for local businesses. Here’s more information so you can dig deeper on this one. It appears kind of like Groupon but from Google. Interesting for possibly driving in discount traffic for certain types of businesses but not for everyone.

If you have another tip for going local, just click comments below and leave your own words of wisdom.

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Facebook’s Graph Search – Instant Search Only Better Kind Of

This past year Google created Instant Search, you know those suggestions that pop up under what you are typing at Google.com that recommend finishing your query based on other popular searches that Google has seen and recorded. Well you could consider Facebook’s Graph Search like Instant Search for Facebook, but with a twist – it delivers results from friends, friends of friends, and friends of other friends.

It’s kind of cool to have really personalized results from people who you may trust more than a search engine algorithm. You’ve got to enable Graph Search on Facebook first to use it. Once you do, Facebook inserts a search bar on the top left of your Facebook page. Results are personalized based on your friends and if your friends don’t have the answer, the answers come from Bing.

I did a search for best Chinese restaurants in Waldorf and got ratings on two from friends of friends. The page of the restaurant actually even showed images of people eating including children, shared ratings, and the location.

After reading the information I thought I’d better check my Facebook privacy settings as clearly anything you post, images you share, or locations you log, Facebook is now using for their Graph Search results. I am not so sure I want everything I do and say used in a personal search engine. As a result, I blocked many of the things that I allow Facebook to share so you probably won’t see my comments in a Facebook search in the future.

With Facebook Graph Search you are just losing another piece of privacy that can now be used to sell products, encourage shopping or visits to a restaurant, even if you didn’t even know your comments were being used. Kind of scary when you think about it.