Each time a search is conducted on Google, organically displayed [...]]]>
At the end of 2010, Google did something quite radical: they combined their organic ranking results with their existing Google Maps data to create a new service called Google Places. Google Places helps people find what they are looking for when searching locally.

Each time a search is conducted on Google, organically displayed listings are displayed and each listing incorporates a title in addition to a short description. This is all that is seen until the visitor clicks through to a particular website. However, each time a potential customer uses Google to search for a certain area of interest in a given location, it is extremely likely they end up seeing a results page which contains a Google Places listing. This kind of listing includes a map with several businesses pinpointed in addition to their basic information such as a local phone number and an address.

It seems sensible that if someone is trying to find a local business, they should find the same rather than a well-optimized website. Google has therefore taken the position that local businesses should have an edge with regards to local search. In simple terms, Google have optimised their search engine results pages for local businesses. This is why all business owners should promote their business using Google Places.

When someone searching Google encounters a Google Places Listing, it basically results in more sales conversions for the business in that listing as people tend to make a phone call to the business directly as opposed to click through to a business website or a more in depth Google Places listing.

Google Places delivers a trusted communication channel so that consumers are able to connect, interact with and develop a genuine, more personal relationship with their local businesses.

Google Places has numerous benefits over traditional organic results and here are some of them:

Benefits of Google Places

• Google Places can boost the quantity of targeted visitors from geographical search keywords.
• Google Places has more trust than pay-per-click advertising: Organic search results are lists that naturally display in the results pages of the search engines. Most search engine results pages have a combination of paid and organic advertisements. The organic ones are frequently the most trusted by the general public as these are results which have been gained over a period of time. Compare that to paid listings where the site controller can just bid on any keywords that they like, and their website could, if they wish, have nothing at all to do with the searched keywords.
• Google Places is free.

• Google Places is succinct. It allows your prospective clients the opportunity to begin to know you and what you have to offer in a lot less time than it would most likely take to look through your internet site.

• Google Places results have the potential to show up on both Google Map searches as well as for local searches.
• With Google Places results it is possible to outrank other more established businesses. Search engines are notoriously challenging to rank for but with Google Places, you can rapidly jump to the top of the listings even with a brand new website.

• By using citations and reviews, your Google Places listing will progress in ranking. With higher ranking, your cost-free advertising with Google Places will give you more targeted customers quicker than traditional organic methods.

• When your Google Places listing is optimized properly, your business has the potential to appear on the first page of Google.

• Mobile phone users can discover your Google Places listing easily, and they do not require a computer to do so. If they are on foot and close to your business, then they may even start walking towards you.
• Google places pages tend to be more important for businesses that serve a particular geographic area, for instance a gas heating engineer or electrician, and not as important for say a web design company.

• Google Places is extremely simple to use and easy to manage.
• Your website, postal address, and your phone number are displayed within your Google Places listing, enabling customers to locate you faster and to obtain the information they require.

• Photo Shoots for Free – If you are operating a business located in a major city, Google Places may be prepared to visit your business premises to take some professional high quality photographs free of charge. Google do this as it enhances the quality of their search results. Also, it makes it possible for Google to confirm that you are an authentic business.
• The Google Places interface enables the business to entirely manage what is seen in the Search Engine Results Pages. They can update online videos and images, give information such as their opening hours, and more importantly, the listing may also show reviews written by previously satisfied customers.

• Your Google Places page can offer discounts and coupons and this will further entice customers to buy from you.
• Online advertising like Google Places is the future, and it will replace paper phone directories. If someone is looking for businesses within your town, they are more likely to use the Internet as opposed to the Yellow Pages.

Summary

It’s not enough to have a Google Places listing. You will want to make sure that you are showing up on the first page of the Google Search Engine Results Pages, in exactly the same way that it is important to be on the first page of organic rankings. If you would like help setting up your own Google Places listing and achieving a high ranking, it makes sense to bring a Google Places expert or local SEO expert on board. The return on investment will likely be high in comparison to your tiny outlay.

Create a new template file to contain the PHP. [...]]]> I recently had some difficulty calling a simple PHP script from within the Magento eCommerce Platform. Although the following example focuses on calling a VoltRank PHP script, you can replace the code within VRank.phtml with your own PHP script.

VoltRank PHP Script Installation in Magento

Create a new template file to contain the PHP. The file should reside within the ‘template’ directory. I have put the file within the “catalog/category” subdirectory:

VoltRank VRank.phtml in template Directory

Copy and paste your PHP code into the .phtml file:

VoltRank PHP Code

Call PHP from Magento Static Block

Using the Magento GUI interface, navigate to CMS->Static Blocks and select the block to be edited. In this case, I am editing the Footer Left block. Create the highlighted code to call the template code.

Magento Call Voltrank to PHP code


{{block type= 'catalog/navigation' name='catalog.category' template='catalog/category/VRank.phtml'}}


Call VoltRank PHP Script from Magento – Troubleshooting

If it looks like the PHP script is not being called, then take steps to debug by turning on display of errors in index.php. Uncomment this line:

#ini_set('display_errors', 1);

Any errors should then display on the page if there is a problem with the PHP. Otherwise, your Magento eCommerce CMS should be successfully calling your VoltRank PHP code!

Special Offer

In addition to using VoltRank to increase traffic to your website and push it higher in the search engines, you may want to build some links to your website using Linxboss and at the same time get 125-150 FREE LINKS to your website. See our Linxboss Review for further information.

I always find that it is a good thing to have a diverse number of link sources when trying to promote your website as it seems that too many incoming links from the one range of IP addresses does not have as much impact. In addition, Google and other [...]]]>

Socialadr Introduction

I always find that it is a good thing to have a diverse number of link sources when trying to promote your website as it seems that too many incoming links from the one range of IP addresses does not have as much impact. In addition, Google and other major search engines are starting to put more weight on social networking when it comes to passing link equity to your website or blog, and this is where SocialAdr comes into play.

SocialAdr is a 100% free to use Social Bookmarking Service. Socialadr works by sharing your bookmarks (urls) across approximately 20 different social accounts (Twitter, Delicious etc) that belong to thousands of other users. Socialadr has a small disadvantage in that it requires an hours work to get all the social accounts set up initially, however it is worth doing this as once the initial setup is complete, it takes very little time each day to keep SocialAdr working away for you.

Here are the steps you need to take to get Socialadr up and running:

1. Sign up for a free SocialAdr account.
2. Use the SocialAdr Setup wizard to create each of your social accounts.
3. Click the “Quick Share” button in the Socialadr interface to post other peoples links to your social accounts.
4. Create some bookmarks on Socialadr that you would like other users to share.

Lets go through the steps in a little bit more detail.

1. Sign up to Socialadr is easy. Click Register, scroll to the bottom of the very long page and click on “Get started with SocialAdr Now!”. You will then be taken to a screen when you can enter your Name and Email address. Again, scroll down to the bottom of the next screen and click “No thanks, Free for Now”. There is a final bribe page to get you to sign up. Once again, scroll down to the bottom and click “No Thanks, take me to registration”.

2. Once you have registered with Socialadr you are ready to set up your social accounts. You can use existing social accounts such as your existing Twitter account if you like. However, as I really didn’t want to be sending out strange and wonderful bookmarks to my friends I created approximately 20 new brand-new accounts especially for SocialAdr and I suggest you do the same. Using the wizard, create each account and populate the log-on details so that SocialAdr can sign-in and post on your behalf.

3. Once you have all your social accounts added to Socialadr, you simply have to click the “Quick Share” button and share the 5 bookmarks that come up. This will earn you some credits. You will get a notification to your email as each bookmark is shared. This can get annoying after a while so click on settings and then Notifications to turn some of the notifications off. Note that you will only be able to do a “Quick Share” in Socialadr one time per day.

4. Finally, create the bookmarks you want to share using Socialadr. You can do this by clicking on Bookmarks, Add Bookmark. You need to enter the URL of the page you want to promote as well as a title, a description and tags. The title and the description should be spun. If you do not already have a spinning tool I would highly recommend The Best Spinner. As the name suggests, it IS the best spinner and it will save you lots of time compared to the free alternatives due to its huge community-driven database of synonyms (you can get by with either Content Professor or Jetsubmitter 2). Create as many bookmarks as you would like to share on Socialadr but a couple will get you started and you can always come back and add more when you have time.

Socialadr Maintenance

And that is it done! You should log in to your SocialAdr account every day, click the “Quick Share” button and share your 5 links to keep the Socialadr credits rolling in.

In addition to social bookmarking using Socialadr, you may want to build some links to your website using Linxboss and at the same time get 125-150 FREE LINKS to your website. See our Linxboss Review for further information.

If you know of any other great free social bookmarking tools please let me know in the comments below as this is the only one I have found to be any good.

Get 125-150 FREE LINKS to your website. See our LINXBOSS SPECIAL OFFER at the bottom of this page.

When I first heard about Linxboss I was skeptical. After [...]]]> Put your link building on autopilot with Linxboss!

Linxboss is a completely automated, SET IT AND FORGET IT, SEO link building tool.

Get 125-150 FREE LINKS to your website. See our LINXBOSS SPECIAL OFFER at the bottom of this page.

Linxboss Overview

When I first heard about Linxboss I was skeptical. After all, Link Building and Automation usually doesn’t go hand-in-hand. However, I was drawn to give Linxboss a try due to a combination of the positive reviews it received and, if I am being honest, by the thought that I could reduce my amount of time writing articles, blog posts and other time-intensive activities. So, I signed up. At $147 a month Linxboss is on a par with well respected link building tools such as Linkvana. The difference is that Linkvana is NOT set and forget. No, with Linkvana and practically all other link building networks (Build My Rank, Blog Blueprint etc), you have to spend time, and lots of it, writing and submitting articles one at a time. This can be fun at the start but quickly becomes a chore. Linxboss is different. If you ever wished for a completely automated link building solution that you could just put on autopilot – no article writing, spinning or content submission then Linxboss is the tool for you.

What do you get for your money with Linxboss?

So what do you get for your $147? Actually, you get quite a lot. Linxboss gives you one thousand links split across 5 domains or to put it another way, 200 one-way links per domain. This works out at just over $29 per domain or 14.7 cents per link which is actually quite reasonable.

Linxboss Setup

Setup is extremely easy. You provide the five domain names that you want to build back links to and you also provide the URLs and anchor text keywords. What you have to do is decide how many URLs you want to split your links between. I read through the Linxboss documentation, watched the videos (really worthwhile doing) and decided that I would concentrate my links on just two URLs for each domain where each URL would receive 100 links over the course of the month. You also need to set up your “primary” and “secondary” keywords in Linxboss. The primary keyword for each domain receives 50% of the links while the rest of the links are divided between the secondary keywords. This diversity of anchor text is great as it allows for more natural link building.

Linxboss Disadvantages

Although not technically a disadvantage, the main thing that takes a bit of getting used to with Linxboss is that you really don’t have to do very much. If you are used to tinkering with settings and writing and spinning articles it might take a little getting used to. Really and truly, once you set it up you can just leave it to work while you get on with something else. Another disadvantage is that you don’t get a report that lists the webpages from where your links are coming. Linxboss and many other link building solutions do not share this information in the interests of protecting the integrity of the network. Linxboss does however have a built-in rank tracker so that you can monitor the rank of your URLs without having to leave the interface.

Linxboss Results

Where Linxboss shines is on performance and I guess this is all that really matters. I was surprised at just how quickly my URLs climbed the ranks for the specified keywords:

I took Linxboss out on 26th October 2011 and I am reporting these results on 7th November 2011 (just 11 days later). Note the keywords I am targeting here are mostly 2 word keyphrases (one three word keyphrase) in a very competitive niche.

Linxboss Results

UPDATE AFTER 1 MONTH It is now almost a month since Linxboss started working on these keywords and I pleased to report that results have been excellent. Unfortunately, one of the keywords (the last one) has not does as well as the other three. It has only gained 7 Google places in the entire month… a bit disappointing. Google reported this keyword as having 33,100 global monthly searches, 12,100 local monthly searches and as being Highly Competitive.

Linxboss Results After 1 Month

However, the other 3 keywords have done extremely well for themselves. The first one has gained 153 places and now sits in position 37. Google reported this keyword as having 450,000 monthly global searches and 60,500 local searches. Again this keyword was reported as being highly competitive.

The other two keywords ended up with movements from Google position 114 to 43 (550,000 GMS/ 90,500 LMS/ High Competition) and from 183 to 90 (246,000 GMS/ 110,000 LMS/ High Competition) respectively.

Overall… Linxboss is impressive! The main thing to remember is that I have thrown the tool a tough cookie and it is fairly much demolishing it in three out of the four cases.

Special Offer

If you have decided that you want to go ahead with Linxboss and you signup for a paid Linxboss account through our link, we will give you 125-150 links for FREE from an alternative source to complement your Linxboss links.  Within 1 hour of signing up, simply fill in your name, email address and telephone number on our Contact Form and we will get in touch with you as soon as we can. Once your Linxboss purchase has been confirmed through our affiliate account, we will start to trickle your FREE links over a 30 day period (this can be completed in a shorter time period if you prefer).

Visit the Linxboss Website.

Acquiring competitor backlinks should be one of the top priorities in your search engine optimisation campaign. One-way backlinks are one of the major factors in determining [...]]]> Author bio:
Alex Petrovic, Advanced SEO strategist – Dejan SEO company
Main activity – Link building team leader.
Personal twitter account: http://twitter.com/Alex_DejanSEO
Company twitter account: http://twitter.com/dejanseo

Competitor Backlinks

Acquiring competitor backlinks should be one of the top priorities in your search engine optimisation campaign. One-way backlinks are one of the major factors in determining your search engine ranking.

The backlinks that your competitors currently have may hold clues as to who you can contact for backlinks. Even if those particular competitor backlinks do not give you direct dofollow links, they still provide valuable insight as to what types of links your business will need in order to do well in the search engines.

How to Find Competitor Backlinks

A simple search of backlinks using any number of free available tools can easily show you the backlinks of your competitors. The problem is that many of these links are unique to your competitor, and may include clients, or some other personal relationship that may be difficult for you to break into.

The secret to finding competitor backlinks that are relevant and have value for your company is to study the trends of the top ranking backlinks of many of your competitors. Chances are that if a backlink appears on many of your competitor’s lists, then it is a backlink that you should and can also have.

You can simply perform a background check on the top URLs that show up for your target keyword. You can then export these results into a spreadsheet of your choice in order to sort and do some trendspotting.

Some advanced operators in Google also have the ability to give you this type of backlink research. However, the secret is, not simply to copy your competitors, but to do better than they have.

When you search for backlinks using Google, try searching for the keywords for which your competitors were trying to get ranked, and the ones in which they actually did. This “spread” represents where you can step in and get ranked higher for valued keywords.

Analyzing Link Priorities

As stated before, you want to go for the backlinks that show up in a number of your competitor’s profiles.

The first step is to really analyze and hone the keywords that you need for your business. This may best be done by a carefully monitored PPC campaign.

After this, your top priority should be to analyze the newest tactics that have worked. Therefore, hone in on your youngest, yet most recently successful competitor. Their tactics are the most likely to still be valid.

After this, hone in on the aforementioned “spread” between the on page and off page keyword targeting that your competition is doing. If your competition is not ranking highly for a keyword that is relevant to your business, and they obviously wanted to, this is your opportunity and should be your top priority for keyword competition.

Acquiring Competitor Backlinks

Once you have analyzed the backlinks of your competitors, it is time to start grabbing some.

The first and easiest method is simply to analyze the broken link pages that your competitors still have up. This may be a disgruntled client or a broken relationship upon which you can capitalize. Check all of the 404 pages on the web sites of your competitors.

Check your competitor’s web sites with old links that are broken. If they are going to advertise their past relationships, it is worth it for you to explore.

The Bottom Line

Proper backlink research and execution requires adding something to what your competitor has done. If you simply copy what they do, you not be able to top them. Your content, your relationship building, and your research should allow you to leapfrog your competitors and create an even stronger backlink web.

In addition to finding and acquiring competitor backlinks, you may want to build some links to your website using Linxboss and at the same time get 125-150 FREE LINKS to your website. See our Linxboss Review for further information.

Bessie Knows Best (www.bessieknowsbest.co.uk) is a caravan review website for Northern Ireland and up until yesterday it had been hosted at no cost by 000webhost.

I have hosted a few personal websites on 000webhost in the past, and while it is great to avail of free hosting, I [...]]]>

Bessie Knows Best Website

Bessie Knows Best (www.bessieknowsbest.co.uk) is a caravan review website for Northern Ireland and up until yesterday it had been hosted at no cost by 000webhost.

I have hosted a few personal websites on 000webhost in the past, and while it is great to avail of free hosting, I decided to move Bessie to paid for hosting for a number of reasons:

• Reliability was noticeably worse than my paid hosting. For example, quite often my email client failed to retrieve email when it was asked.
• Certain functionality in the CPanel, for example, backing up the website failed regularly.
• It was not possible to update my WordPress Blog to the latest version of WordPress automatically as there is a 2MB upload_max_filesize limit imposed by 000webhost. This meant i had to do it manually.

It is very easy to move a WordPress Blog from one host to another where the domain name will not be changing.

• Copy all files from the old host to the new host.
• Backup the database from the old host
• Create a new database on the new host. Create a database user and give that user the appropriate privileges for the database.
• Import the database to the new host.
• Modify the ‘DB_NAME’, ‘DB_USER’, ‘DB_PASSWORD’ and ‘DB_HOST’ in the wp-config.php to reflect the new host’s database.