Guest Blog by Kris Reid
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Negative SEO refers to tactics that companies use to manipulate the organic Google rankings of their competitors. Google's Penguin update penalized websites that used spammy links to get higher rankings.
If low quality links really hurt the Google rankings of a website, then one of your competitors could submit your site to paid link networks and your Google rankings would drop. That's what negative SEO is about.
Other things that your competitors could do:
Does negative SEO work?
This is a very controversial topic among SEO experts. Some think that negative SEO is not possible, others are sure that it is possible to harm the Google rankings of a competitor.
Instead of penalizing websites that have backlinks from spammy sites, Google could simply ignore the spammy links. People who try to promote their sites with these links would waste their time and other website owners wouldn't be hurt.
Google could also introduce a robots.txt command that tells Google that certain links should be ignored. It's hard to believe that Google's engineers would make it possible to harm other websites if there was an easier solution that would prevent this.
What can you do to prevent problems?
If you want to make sure that your website doesn't get penalized by Google, do the following:
Do not use spam methods to promote your websites. If Google ignores these methods, you're wasting your time. If Google penalizes these methods, you will damage your website rankings.
If you find fake reviews of your website, ask the website that publishes the reviews to remove the fake reviews. Use white-hat SEO methods to promote your website. If you show Google that your website is a high quality website, then your web pages will get high rankings.
Make sure that your website is not too dependent on Google. You should also get visitors through other sources (online ads, offline ads, links on other websites, etc.).
Negative SEO is highly unethical and one can only hope that Google doesn't allow other people to damage your rankings. To improve your rankings, focus on the factors that you can influence and optimize your web pages so that they get high rankings on Google.
Something new for consideration with your Google Adwords accounts.
Now, the ad rotation setting which allowed multiple ads to run indefinitely has been discontinued as of mid-May.
So, after 30 days of testing, Google will only run your ad with the highest number of clicks.
Be careful with this feature as the ad earning the most clicks might not be the ad earning the highest number of sales, conversions, etc.
It makes sense Google wants the best "clicked" ad to be presented the most often (that's how it makes money), but it might not be the best ad for your business.
Keep an eye on your ads, clicks and conversions.
The best way for a small business to get started in social media is to do one thing:
Listen.
Listen to what potential customers & clients are saying about your business.
Listen to what's being said about your competition.
Listen to the questions people are asking as they seek help to find a product or a question they need answered.
Then, you can get started creating the appropriate social media accounts. As you will find out, there's probably not a need to create dozens of accounts. Go to where your customers are talking.
There's no whining if your website took a hit recently from the Google algorithm update "Penguin."
The update, which was released on April 24, was designed to help improve Google's search results by punishing websites that engaged in "black hat" SEO activities.
If your website suffered a significant drop, then Google says you were spamming the search engine.
Google also suggests that you don't complete a request for reconsideration. It won't work. Instead, you need to clean up your spam mess.
Word on the street is one of the main reasons why sites were penalized by Penguin is due to bad link building practices. This includes using sponsored WordPress themes; poor quality reciprocal link building; buying links or participating in linking networks (such as BuildingMyRank.com).
Clean up the bad links; remove any bad SEO tactics applied to your website and, most of all, write some fresh content for your site.
Everyone in your Facebook account is a "Friend." Now, however, Facebook wants you to decide who are your "Close Friends."
Facebook's new List feature, allows you to group Close Friends, Acquaintances and Restricted Friends (Uh, yeah, I sort of liked this when it was called Google+ with Google Circles).
Close Friends, according to Facebook, are your best friends, who will appear more often in your News Feeds.
Acquaintances are still Friends, but they will show up less often in News Feeds.
Those who are Restricted are also still Friends, but they can only see what you've made public.
Once you have created your Close Friends list, you can then update your status specifically to your best pals.
Do you think you will utilize this feature?
Purple Trout, LLC, a search engine optimization (SEO) consulting firm located in Cincinnati, Ohio, is offering an online webinar explaining the reasons why businesses need to begin using Google+.
“Five Reasons Why Businesses Need to Embrace Google+” is scheduled for Wednesday, May 23, from 10 a.m. until 11 a.m. Admission is free, but space is limited to 100 participants.
In this webinar, attendees will learn:
“Social media continues to grow, but businesses are still left wondering which social media network should they use and why,” says Purple Trout, LLC President Steve Phillips. “Too many times, we see businesses trying to do everything and, unfortunately, not doing anything well. They’ll work on Facebook for a bit, and then move to LinkedIn, and then move to Twitter, and then rush over to Pinterest … There’s no strategy.”
Participants may sign up for the “Five Reasons Why Businesses Need to Embrace Google+” webinar here: http://bit.ly/IHfOSE. Space is limited.
For more information, contact Purple Trout, LLC by calling (866) 837-7095 or by visiting www.purpletrout.com.
Remember your marketing plan? The one you said you were going to stick to in 2012 no matter what happened. Remember?
Unfortunately, everyone continues to run to the shiny new toy and they've forgotten their own website. Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, etc., etc., are getting updates daily.
However, when's the last time you've updated your website's content? You know, the one that looks like a brochure.
When's the last time you've contributed to your company's blog? Or wrote and published a press release?
Folks, social media is an additional marketing channel.Yes, your company should be engaging (at some level) in social media, but don't put all your marketing eggs in one basket. It won't work.
Your business:
Social media is not a replacement for those things.
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"Pimp My Keywords" is written and published by Purple Trout, LLC, a Cincinnati, Ohio SEO consulting firm specializing in search engine marketing (PPC), international and multilingual search engine optimization and online reputation management.
Hold on to your butts.
The anticipated - and much discussed - Google search algorithm update is currently being released, according to Google's blog "Inside Search."
The update is designed to "reward high-quality sites" and improve overall search engine results.
Google went on to mention that "white hat search engine optimizers often improve the usability of a site, help create great content, or make sites faster, which is good for both users and search engines."
Purple Trout, LLC practices ethical and honest "white hat" search engine optimization techniques.
Some SEO firms, Google noted, engage in "black hat webspam" and in the use of a variety of loopholes or shortcuts to beat Google. These methods include keyword stuffing, link building schemes, etc. in order to earn higher rankings for their clients.
If your website(s) suffer a severe drop in Google search engine rankings over the next several days, you'll need to review your website's content; begin the process of cleaning up spammy inbound links; remove "black hat" elements from your site, and/or have a serious discussion with your current SEO provider about dishonest practices.
Visit these sites to learn more about the recent Google update:
Inside Search: The official Google Search blog
Search Engine Land: Google Launches Update Targeting Webspam in Search Results
While you're waiting to earn top organic search engine rankings in Google on those golden keywords, perhaps you should give Google Adwords another chance.
Google Adwords, also referred to as "Pay Per Click" or "Search Engine Marketing" is the method by which you advertise in Google.
Face it, Google Adwords is the only way to get in front of your prospects now. Today.
Despite the rumors, Google Adwords is not expensive. Those who have broken the bank and tell horror Google stories at boring networking events are:
Don't let the above list freak you out. Start slow. Create a small campaign with a few keywords and one landing page. Write a few ads and test, test, test. Stick to a limited budget.
As you get started, check your campaigns daily.
Work on improving your campaign ads and landing pages before you tweak your budget.
More to come here on Google Adwords and other online advertising strategies.
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"Pimp My Keywords" is written and published by Purple Trout, LLC, a Cincinnati, Ohio SEO consulting firm specializing in search engine marketing (PPC), international and multilingual search engine optimization and online reputation management.
Is B2B SEO (Business-to-Business) any different than regular B2C (Business-to-Consumer) SEO?
Yes, definitely.
While the principles of search engine optimization are the same, the approach to keywords and other SEO elements will be different for a B2B SEO project. After all, you'll be targeting other businesses and not consumers.
Research and selecting the best keywords for your SEO strategy is extremely important for B2B. Target specific sets of keywords: those that will educate your potential customer and keywords that will result in transactions.
For example, let's say your company manufactures handles. Unfortunately, targeting the basic keyword "handles" is extremely broad. The audience is too wide and would include consumers (B2C) seeking to replace the handle they broke on their lawnmower over the weekend.
Potential B2B customers will be seeking a manufacturer or supplier of thousands of "handles" and not just a replacement handle. Therefore, keywords such as "handle manufacturer" or "handle suppliers" might be a good place to start for B2B keyword research.
Awareness and education will help set your your B2B company apart from competition. Write amazing content including articles, white papers and other information for your website. Write a blog. If you have one, make it better. Content is definitely king in B2B SEO as well as an opportunity for potential client engagement. Great content sets you apart from your competition and helps develop industry, service and product expertise.
B2B companies must utilize Google Analytics and spend time reviewing traffic and other statistics, such as how much time visitors spend on your website; returning visitors, and how visitors found your site., etc.
B2B companies should also give strong consideration to creating and monitoring Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns in Google, Bing, Linkedin and other sites. Utilize retargeting programs to keep your company and products in front of prospects who visited your website, but didn't convert into a sale or lead.
Your website needs to be as easy as possible for buyers to engage with you such as completing a simple form for more information or a helpful download. B2B firms need to test different offers; consider a free trial for prospects; create videos or a demo.
There are huge opportunities with B2B search engine optimization. However, companies need to invest in time and technology in order to implement stronger SEO and PPC strategies.
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Purple Trout, LLC specializes in B2B SEO, PPC, online reputation management and international/multilingual search engine optimization.