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Tag Archives: SEO
Google Changed Algorithms again this week.
Google’s always moving and improving. I happened to try Google Voice this last week, it is pretty cool. Google did make a change to their search, this all affects SEO guys.
We saw significant increases of our SEO clients who focus on “local”. Google is working hard to figure out who local services and companies are, and they are trying to get rid of duplication or content that’s only focus is to create advertising revenue.
“in the last day or so we launched a pretty big algorithmic improvement to our ranking—a change that noticeably impacts 11.8% of our queries,” http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/finding-more-high-quality-sites-in.html
I use Chrome (Why I’m a Chrome User), because it rocks. There is a cool add-on that Google launched for Chrome, Personal Blocklist Extentions. You basically can block some of your surfing patterns.
Links from .EDU’s carry more authority.
Here is a great SEO tid-bit from the Wall Street Journal
Internet search experts say that sites associated with educational institutions, which come with “.edu” in their Web addresses, are often considered by Google’s search algorithm to be more authoritative than commercial sites. Experts say educational sites rarely link to commercial sites, so a shopping site can surge in Google rankings if an .edu page links to it.
Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704520504576162753779521700.html#ixzz1EtLOsWCu
Search Engine Optimization Starts with Authority
Search Engine Optimization is about two main things, niche content (which contains your keywords) and Authority.
Authority is gained by a few things, having your content pages linked to by others or listings of your site on other websites like directories. Getting these links, or backlinks as Google calls them, is the core to what Google considers Authority. The more links, the more authority.
I have told a story about the importance of links for about 8 or 9 years. It is the easiest way I can express what the value of the links are, and the authority they have.
Say you get cancer. Who do you ask about finding a doctor? You probably ask your best friend (who is not a doctor), who just went through a bad case of cancer and over came it. You don’t ask the drunk guy at the end of the bar, “hey, do you know a great cancer doctor?” I always throw in, the drunk guy at the end of the bar, well he is the world’s best cancer doctor, just out having some drinks.
Now, the moral of the story is that you went to the person you trusted, the one you gave authority to. Not the person you didn’t know, who was not in the position of authority, even if they truly were the real authority on the subject.
Websites need to build authority, in all cycles of their development.
You therefore need a plan to build links.
Need help with a plan? Send me an email jon @ jonburgess dot com, we can chat.
SEO Writing – Write for People, Not Search Engines
I’m an SEM expert, which means I think very highly of my SEO skills. I have built hundreds of websites and do very well on SEO. I’m not a detail guy, I’m not even worried about all the “little SEO tricks”, I advocate writing GOOD content.
More than 10 years ago, before Google, we told clients, “Content is King”. Content is the key to SEO. Not the idea that “Keywords” are the key to SEO.
Some food for thought. I never write anything that is based on keywords, or some keyword map. If you write to keywords then the content loses its quality, and the links to the site are never natural. If you write good content, others will link to it, so your getting more than just farmed links. Yes, good content should have keywords, just don’t write the content about the keywords.
Imitation is the best form of flattery.
One of my highest traffic-ed pages is “How Does Google Work.” I get tons of traffic to it and it still can be found on the first page of Google. Now, the content was actually written as a paper for my MBA, so it was more about the company than about the about how the Google algorithm works. It was authoritative, sighted facts, and was not written for search engines.
Imitation, and the resulting flattery comes from a competitor of ours, they actually are great designers and I don’t believe we have ever lost or won bids that involve them (we’re marketers, they are designers). But, in more than few keywords market niches they tried to grab our traffic. So, they wrote a page, “An SEO Critique: How Does Google Work.” Their’s is not found anywhere in Google, and if you read it, the content is completely written for search engines. All key worded up, the page really has no meat, and shows you that content which is written for readers wins over content written for search engines.