Ever wondered how the social media graph may affect the search algorithms in the future?
I personally have, and its my view that Google is showing many signs that it is using the “social graph” more and more to influence its ranking algorithm.
Google recently introduced its new product, Google Buzz, which is incorporated into Gmail. Google Buzz is like twitter in that you can share what you are doing, share videos, images and links etc and generally provide your followers with status updates.
I have had a brief play, and I think it will be a big hit.
It’s my personal view that eventually users will move away from search engines. “What?” you say. “You must be mad mate!”. Well a little yes but let me explain.
The world has changed big time in recent years, not only how people interact online but also in terms of trust. Word-of-mouth has always been a great source of leads and information and I personally think this is the way the web is going. People will not be looking on Google or Bing or any other search engine for information. They will be asking their hundreds or thousands of connected followers that they have within the social sphere in order to find what they are looking for, or answers to questions they may have!
What do you think? I would love to hear your point of view. Feel free to send me a tweet, connect on facebook, mail me or leave a comment below.
After sitting through yet another SEO webinar and reading more and more posts on the web in recent days, it has become very clear to me that there are a huge amount of new and experienced SEO’s out there who seem to be fixated on trying to reverse engineer the Google ranking algorithm.
Many of them spend hours writing about what they “believe” to be the case but have no substantial evidence to back up their claims. Just visit any SEO forum and you will find hundreds of threads created by people claiming that this is the best approach or this is the best method in building links. What is clear is that a lot of these people spend an awful lot of time hanging out in forums. What is it they say? “advice is the cheapest commodity around”. Everyone has some to share!
When it comes to measuring the effectiveness of your online marketing campaigns, there are many different KPI’s that can be used, with some providing better insights than others. Some people measure the number of inbound links and indexed pages with others using Google toolbar page rank and keyword rankings.
Historically, I have offered core organic SEO services to my clients. But in the new year I will most definitely be incorporating many extra marketing strategies into the mix. Not only is search changing in a big way, but also, the approach I take in order to market my clients services and products.
SEO is great for attracting new organic search traffic and visitors and myself and my clients have had much success, but alone It is not enough. In a changing online world of search a more holistic approach has to be adopted in order to make use of all the channels that are available to marketers.
With the recent introduction of personalised search, universal search and real time search, obtaining top 10 placement on Google is becoming harder and harder, and we all know that languishing on page 2 or more is of no use whatsoever. As Google butchers the results pages more and more, organic results are getting pushed further and further down the pecking order and lets face it, organic search results just don’t pay the bills for Google do they?
The web has become the numero uno when it comes to marketing your business. In the early years of the web it was relatively easy to promote your business and make lots of money. I would like to say its “easy” to make money today, but what with the global economic meltdown there is no doubt that there is a lot less money in circulation. Couple this with the fact that the web has become a lot more saturated with companies looking to take advantage of this “new medium” and you can see that things are a lot harder than they were in the past.
But saying that, there are still great opportunities to gain greater exposure for your business and yes, make money. The Internet is still the most cost effective way to make money and gain greater exposure. Don’t believe me? Think about Barack Obama and how he used inbound internet marketing to defeat Hilary Clinton who had a much bigger budget. All thanks to a great web strategy and something that we can all replicate.
I work closely with the Redline Company who are a leading marketing company here on the Costa del Sol and recently had the privelege of doing a radio interview on Central FM with George Prior where I spoke about SEO and how it can benefit all companies who have an online presence.
The interview is aimed at those who are not familiar with SEO and who maybe considering having some SEO done on their site. So hopefully the interview may provide you with answers to questions you may have in regards to my own services or to SEO in general. Happy listening!!
For those who do not know, article marketing is a term used to describe the practice of writing articles and sometimes distributing articles via distribution services such as isnare.com and articlemarketer.com or just by adding them to article directories such as ezinearticles.com or buzzle.com
The idea behind it is that you write an informative article on your topic/niche, and put it in front of as many eyeballs as possible. Then at the bottom of the article (or sometimes within it), you will have the option to add your little bit of self promotion and link to your website via the resource box. Continue reading “Is Article Marketing Effective For SEO?”
Many of those new to SEO become almost obsessed at times with the little green bar in their browsers (Google Toolbar) and see it as some kind of victory or trophy that says “Yes, Ive made it” its all down hill from here! If only it were that simple!
So what does pagerank really mean in terms of ranking and SEO?
Pagerank is a Google algorithm that was named after Larry Page one of the two Google founders and is supposed to represent and indicate to a sites visitor the overall link popularity of a page or an indication of the amount of citations/votes (links) there are too that page. Although this is partly correct and it must be stated that this is a rather simplistic view of pagerank, it still does not reflect the true meaning of pagerank and what bearing it has on our sites performance.
This is a question that unfortunately I am not asked enough by potential clients so normally have to volunteer such info as its important that I manage a clients expectations correctly in order to avoid possible dissatisfaction.
What is clear, is that at the outset of any search engine optimisation agreement or contract, the client MUST be made fully aware of the following:-
1. The competitiveness of their niche
2. The demographic of their potential customers
3. What they want their visitors to do in terms of actions on the webiste, IE, buy a product, contact them about a service or signup for a monthly newsletter etc.
4. How long it will take to rank for their most competitive search terms.
5. How likely their site is to actually convert any visitors into paying customers.
6. The advantages of SEO over other forms of advertising and promotion.
Ok, well this is a question that I am asked from time to time and read a lot on the web. “How can I compete with the big boys online with a small budget?”
In terms of business size, bigger isn’t always better. There are some definite advantages to staying small in the business world that in my mind far outway some of the advantages of going BIG. Some of the advantages of remaining small include:
