Google needs the meta information (title tags, meta description, h1 tags, etc.) in order to even look at your site and accurately categorize your site. Once you get Google to your site, you need to prove that you deserve page one rankings by providing original, high-quality, optimized content. It used to be enough to create Anchor-links in the body, as well as bold and italicize text. Now, more than ever, it is necessary to have a blog and update content. One thing people do not think about is that the more you add fresh content to your site, the more often Google will crawl the site. I have helped people get their sites from the top 100 to page 1-3; however, it took longer than they wanted, because they were not adding fresh content and Google was only crawling the site once a month.

Another good way to “optimize” your company’s site for rankings is to create a Google+ and Google Local page, as well as Youtube videos. By creating the Google pages, your site will show up when Google knows the searcher is in your county. This is great for online stores that have a brick and mortar shop. Youtube videos get put on top for some searches before websites, which makes sense since Google owns Youtube.

Onsite optimization and external links are great ways to get ranked higher on Google and drive pre-qualified traffic to your site. Once those strategies are established, then, based on recent Google algorithm changes since March, it would be advantageous to explore the aforementioned strategies in order to provide avenues to fresh, original, and optimized content.

The first thing Google looks at is the URL. Picking a URL that contains terms related to your business is ideal. Next is what is called a “301 redirect.” Some sites show up as mysite.com or www.mysite.com. Google considers these two different pages and you may be dinged for duplicate content; therefore, the 301 redirects the site crawling machine from one URL to the other so they appear as the same site. After that, one must make sure the website has a site map. It is an outline for Google’s crawlers about your site. Not having a site map can be very detrimental in trying to rank on Google.

Title tags appear as the link on Google search results, and in some browsers they show up on the top of the tab. Sometimes your title tag will not show up on Google, and here is a link to Google with them explaining why (third paragraph more specifically)

Titles should be about 70-75 characters and contain key terms you most want to rank for. The meta description is the text that shows up underneath the title in Google search results. These phrases ought to include key terms from the title; however, unlike the title, the meta description must make sense grammatically, so the words in each key term just need to be near each other.

It has been argued that H1 headings do not matter anymore, but I believe any time you can give Google’s webcrawlers a street sign of what the content is related to, do it. Meta keywords haven’t mattered for over a decade. One very important strategy is making sure your photos have ALT attributes. Image the crawl machines are blind and cannot see the picture. The ALT attribute is like Braille for the machine, it is what the machine reads in order to know what the picture is of. If you have 02938s9g0k.jpeg, you are not helping Google know what is on your site, and thus you are not likely to rank for anything related to that photo.

There are many other concepts to SEO, but these are the most basic, and most often asked about. Recent Google algorithm changes this year have pretty much made all of this “worthless” if you do not have valuable content. Writing good content that appeals to both webcrawling machines of Google AND to consumers is very difficult, and has developed into its own form of art. When in doubt just write about your services and what you sell. I hope this has been helpful and that you have a little more insight into the ever evolving world of Search Engine Optimization.

Today, the range of online marketing tools at our disposal is almost overwhelming. Twitter, YouTube, SEO, PPC, email marketing, blogging… the list goes on. And it will continue to grow.

So where do you invest your limited time and money? Which baskets should you put your eggs into?

Most experts will say, “it depends.” I like to say, “let’s look at the data and find out.” Last year, Hinge conducted an online marketing research study of 500 professional services firms to determine which marketing techniques were most effective.

We asked each firm in the study to rate the effectiveness of common online tactics on a scale from 0-10. We then segmented the data into two buckets:

1. Average growth firms
2. High growth firms (based on year-over year revenue) that were generating 40% or more of their leads online.

We hoped to identify which online marketing techniques fast-growing firms believed were most effective. Here is what we found:

What does this tell us about online marketing for professional services firms?

1. If You’re Not Optimizing, You’re Not in the Games

   It’s tough to generate leads if you’re not generating traffic. Conducting keyword research, optimizing your site, and building search engine authority are critical to attract the eyeballs necessary to fuel a high quality lead generation program. Smart firms understand this and focus heavily on search engine optimization.

2. Build a Content Foundation

   Companies that blog generate 55% more web traffic. The more educational content you feature on your site, the more search engine and social media traffic you are likely to receive. Further, high quality content pieces such as white papers and e-books make great offers to nurture visitors and convert them into leads.

3. If You Don’t Measure, It’s Hard to Grow

   Google Analytics is free, so there is no excuse for not tracking valuable web activity. The online landscape will continue to evolve — and so should your firm’s marketing initiatives. By tracking the quality of your web traffic and understanding what leads to conversions and leads (and what doesn’t), you can make informed decisions that will guide you to continual improvements.

Looking for more insights? Download the full research report and start prioritizing your online marketing today.

Sean McVey (@SeanTMcVey) is the Director of Online Marketing at Hinge, a marketing and branding firm specializing in professional services firms.

Anchor linking is still one of the most important elements of creating “relevancy” for web businesses. Through strategically placed links on high ranking blogs, articles, directories, competitive sites and many other techniques, the one thing in common was that we were able to track the progress of the anchor link growth with Yahoo! Site explorer. This was a free tool that not only enabled us to view one way in links, but to also get a better sense of our own internal link structure as well.

As of November 19th, in conjunction with the bigger merge between Yahoo! And Bing, Yahoo has decided to shut down the tool. This truly ends a simple way for web marketing experts to check on progress of link building.

At Vision Course, we are constantly on the search to seek out the next tools that will assist in the overall SEO processes, and to be as transparent as possible with our clients. We have come up with a couple of solutions that we want to share with our audience that there are still some free, and paid, tools to replace this.

Two anchor link checkers we would like to share with you are as follows:

1. Backlinkwatcher.com – Free and fast. Does have advertisements that will drive you nuts, but its free and provides solid link checking similar to Yahoo’s
2. SEOattack.org. has a limited free version and reasonably priced.

It is our understanding at Vision Course that (with a little bit of wishful thinking) Bing will release either the old tool with upgrades or the exact same functionality in due time; however, as with all mergers, I am sure they are evaluating how they can turn that into a better paid model to create a new revenue stream to make up for the Google domination factor.

Either way, Vision Course will keep you up-to-date as soon as we hear something. Keep checking your anchor links and keep moving ecommerce forward!

If you take a look at Google over the years, they have continuously made changes, while evolving their own display of how organic search results are exhibited. Here is a short list of some of the major differences when looking back just a few short years ago in natural, organic search results:

1. Google Paid ads have gained traction with not only top page positioning, but right rail, and bottom of the page as well.
2. Voice recognition search capabilities
3. Real-time auto populate based on popularity of search term in both the search bar and the organic returned results
4. Local Map display
5. Local stores close to your computers IP Address

For many local businesses, these changes to Google and their adaptations based on consumer behavior can be a nuisance. In fact if these changes go unnoticed by the local business owner, they can hurt the site’s organic traffic.

Here is a tip regarding local SEO that will help you and your small business stay relevant with Google’s organic search listings.

Local SEO is the New Black!

“Places” listings are now dominating organic search results for a large amount of inquiries entered by consumers. While many consumers are getting smarter about what they search for, and how they are searching, they are also becoming more knowledgeable in locating what they are looking for faster than ever before. A recent case study by SEOMoz has shown that general searchers are gravitating towards the “places” local search results when they are returned in organic placement. While this is still a fairly new phenomenon, take notice of this behavior and begin thinking about how you want to address this newly found consumer behavior online. Here are a couple ideas to help:

1. Business listings: This sounds so simple, but please make sure that your business is listed correctly. This includes your business phone number, the spelling of your business name (abbreviations are important too), the town to which your business is located (twnshp vs. township) etc.
2. Optimize your “Places” Page: Again, may sound like second nature, but we have seen more mistakes with this than you can imagine. When someone clicks on the placement link, take them to the appropriate page. Also, do not make the searcher go on a wild goose chase if you have multiple locations. A person searching for your business that is in New Jersey will not care about a location in Florida. Optimize the landing pages. If you are limited in this regard, let them select their location as the first act when they arrive.
3. Customer Comments & Reviews: Ah, be careful what you ask for right? Well, now it’s your job to make sure that the customers experience once in your place of business is a pleasant one. If not, you will get the dreaded negative review (Cue the “Psycho” stabbing scene music). To help increase your businesses positive reviews, try to secure reviews from Yelp and other review sites. Some ideas of how to do this might entail free giveaways for their review; enter into a drawing for a free slice of pizza, or simply by just asking how the food was or the customer service.

The tips above may seem simple, but too often we see web businesses neglect them, ultimately harming their ability to be returned organically for local, relevant results. After all, one positive experience can spread to the “word-of-mouth” every local business needs and wants more of.

Is your site appearing in local organic search?

Set the right tone

Before dealing with colors, it is important to decide whether your site will be dark, neutral, or light. Light backgrounds are a popular choice for making the content stand out, and they are easy to manage. Most e-commerce websites are lighter because the products stand out and become the star of the show. Light sites are typically easier to manage because they don’t require special photography or design to make the content fit in. If subtlety is a goal, then a neutral color (or grayish) palette will work well. With stark white or pitch black backgrounds, a website can sometimes overwhelm the eye or be visually loud. If there is too much visual noise, then everything can shout for the site user’s attention. When the overall tone of a site is neutral, then splashes of bold color will carry a lot more visual weight and attract the customer’s attention. This allows you to guide your customer’s eye to important call to action links, such as a checkout button, or a promotional banner. If you prefer a darker site, then you need to make sure that your images and wording will work within this context. For example, your photographs may look best with a darker background, and your text should not be stark white. Choosing the right tone depends on your target audience, and will be the foundation to the branding of your site.

In order to understand the difference between dark, neutral, and light, checkout the following e-Commerce sites…

• The Dark Side – www.tumi.com
  Tumi sells high-end luggage for business, travel, and every day. Their site exemplifies how a dark tone can work in an elegant and powerful way. With the use of gray text, bold imagery and a limited use of red, they guide the eye in a seamless manner from product to checkout. Although a majority of their site is dark, they still utilize a white background for their products, which tends to be a best-practice for e-commerce sites.
• A Neutral Approach – www.apple.com
  Apple exemplifies a cutting edge and minimalistic site that uses an overall light color palette. Their site is easy to navigate, and has been stripped of unnecessary visual elements. The website does not get in the way of the products, and the overall design becomes a pleasant afterthought. This lighter approach works best with strong content, and is typically user-friendly.

Establish a color palette that makes sense

Choosing the right colors involves a deeper understanding of color theory, which is the study of how pure colors relate to each other and the effect of their combinations. We will go over a few of the most recognized color relationships below…

• Monochromatic – Using one hue (pure color) and varying the saturation (intensity of the color) or brightness. This palette provides a very cohesive look, and tends to work well.
• Complementary – Using two hues that are directly opposite of each other on the color wheel. The most common examples of complementary colors are: orange & blue, green & red, along with yellow & purple. These colors will provide excellent contrast to allow visual elements to pop and draw attention.
• Neutral – Using muted colors can provide an interesting look and prevent visual noise. When colors become too saturated or bold, then can distract the customer from important information.
• Accented – The use of muted colors, with one color high in saturation. Using one accent color (such as lime green) for links and call to action buttons will help to guide the customer’s eye. By eliminating superfluous colors, the site becomes more focused, and the user knows where to click next.
• Warm – These colors range from red to yellow, and sometimes a shade of purple. Think about the color of fire. By using this palette, the site can certainly provide a warm feeling. Warmer colors tend to jump off the screen.
• Cool – Colors ranging from purple to green are often referred to as cool. Cooler colors evoke a very pleasant mood, and tend to recede on the screen.

Aside from theory, it is also important to consider your target market. Pay attention to popular websites that are geared towards your target audience. What colors do they all have in common? By examining successful sites, you can determine how to shape your color palette.

Here are a few tools to help you choose a color palette…

• kuler.adobe.com
• www.colorhunter.com
• www.colourlovers.com

Choose fonts the smart way

The worst way to choose a font is purely based on whether it looks cool or cute. When a customer has to squint to read a font, they will not be thinking about how neat it looks.
Here are a few factors to consider before selecting a font…

Legibility: Make sure the font is legible at a small scale, such as 12 pixels. Also, make sure the font looks good as a header or paragraph text. Some fonts are meant for paragraphs, while others are meant for headlines.

Availability: Not everyone has a font installed on their computer. Although there are ways to embed a font in your website, it is best to stick with common web fonts, such as Arial, Georgia, Verdana, or Trebuchet MS. Other common fonts are: Andale Mono, Courier New, and Times New Roman.

Style: If Arial sounds boring to you, I don’t blame you. There are many new web-friendly fonts being published today, and Google Web Fonts (http://www.google.com/webfonts) is a great way to find unique fonts that look good in most browsers.

Final Thoughts

Although there are many components to a successful website, design cannot be overlooked. While you are investing time and money into content and marketing, do not forget about the visual impression that your site creates. By improving the little things, such as color and font usage, the customer will take your site more seriously. When a site is visually appealing and user-friendly, they will be more inclined to stay a while. Need help visualizing your site? Give us VisionCourse a call at 877-696-3475.

The definition of SEO is the method used to boost the ranking or frequency of a Web site in results returned by a search engine, in an effort to maximize user traffic to the site.

The definition of Audit is a thorough check or examination to inspect, correct, and certify.

When we put those terms together, especially when discussing online marketing and strength of relevancy, the definition changes to become the following: SEO Auditing is the ability of online users to alter and strengthen their online relevancy to maximize qualified user traffic.

In order to begin the research and analytics portion of the SEO auditing process, the following free website seo tools should be considered. Here are the top 5 SEO tools that not only make the research and analytics process smoother, but also will help to educate online marketing owners to better understand their business.

1. Wordtracker
2. Woorank
3. Google Keywords Tools
4. Yahoo Directory
5. Google Analytics

The 5 tools listed above with help with researching of relevant key terms, understanding you current seo benchmark, developing a strategy around new key terms that will help generate increased traffic and new niche markets, how strong you online business currently is with anchor links, and daily evaluations of traffic highs and lows.

An organic SEO service provider will also be able to help with your overall SEO auditing efforts as well. Typically, you will get a marketing plan sample for online business when you partner with such a vendor. However, many of the SEO auditing can be done in-house. As most often, by changing title tags, Meta descriptions, Meta keywords and onsite content is enough to make an impact of altering the way Google currently crawls your site.

The first thing to consider is to evaluate your current tags which include your title:

The title of your web page will help Google identify who and what your site is relevant for. It is very important to keep this title fresh, relevant and specific to what you want to tell the potential

Next is the description, which is really the first opportunity to “sell” your services…

Lastly, evaluate your onsite content to ensure consistency between all three dynamics. For Google to best understand what your site is about, it will look for all three elements and determine if indeed the exact keyword match or phrase exists in each.

At VisionCourse, we specialize in onsite SEO as well as Offsite SEO. Based on what we are telling Google, we are optimizing for specific key terms that include: SEO, Design and Web.

So before spending money on external SEO PPC and offsite SEO initiatives, clean up your onsite tags to ensure proper and relevant content, to which Google is searching for.

Would you like a professional to take a peak? Let us know if we can provide a free SEO analysis for you…just click here to get started! <FREE SEO CHECK>

Follow these 5 steps below for getting the most shoppers to the end of your shopping cart experience, to the all-important “thanks for your purchase” screen…So you can enjoy an eggnog or two.

Optimize, Optimize and Optimize…

1. You are the expert in your industry and as a result must know your customer based pretty well. Take any learning’s you already have based on the years’ worth of data, and use it to your advantage. Develop keywords that you know your audience is searching for, and apply them to your site in the title tags, and meta descriptions. This is a surefire way to tell Google what you are relevant for and what you want to be found for. Also, apply these keywords to your content as well for maximum potential. Areas to address:

   1. PSHelper SEO Tune-Up
   2. Onsite SEO
   3. Offsite SEO

Support and Live Chat

1. The more open you are about your business, i.e. About Us, Testimonials, and Live Chat Sessions, the higher the conversion potential is onsite. If you allow for your phone number to be easily found, and contact info to be front and center, these are great starts. One way to separate yourself from the competition is to allow for onsite chat sessions and support. Areas to address:

   1. Online Live Chat Support
   2. Phone Number Placement
   3. Contact Us Form

Maximize your categories potential

1. Just because you have listed a specific type of product under a category doesn’t always mean that is how the customer will find it. If you have a product that is deemed a “home and garden” product, but could also be found in a “Tailgate and BBQ” category, then list it in both! Do not make it difficult for customers to find a needle in a haystack. Sprinkle the needles all over the haystack to maximize the find ability.

   1. Left Navigation Fly outs
   2. Breadcrumbs

Allow the customer to use multiple checkout options

1. If a customer gets all the way to your checking processor, and the only thing they want to do is use Paypal to checkout and you don’t offer it, then you have just lost a sale. Options include Paypal, Google and Amazon and make it an easier decision while they are holding on to their credit card.

   1. Google Checkout
   2. Checkout by Amazon
   3. Floating Shopping Cart

The Checkout Process

1. The Final goal… they are so close… do NOT let them go! Each and Every customer should be monitoring their checkout experience for clicks, abandonments etc. By understanding this info, it allows you to make decisions that positively affect your conversion rates. Making sure the “checkout” button is obvious, “Update Cart” is easily accessible, and navigation becomes secondary from the main focus of checking out.

   1. Enhanced Checout Process

Applying the 5 steps listed above will undoubtedly improve your storefront conversions during the holiday season. Following the holidays, check back often to ensure your site is maximizing it’s ecommerce conversions.

How is your shopping cart experience? Contact me today to discuss further. Chris@visioncourse.com

According to MerchantCircle, 22% of small businesses have used Facebook Ads, and 65% say they would use Facebook Ads again, citing ease and flexibility as the top reasons to run another campaign.



However, much like Google PPC, Facebook Ads are not a guaranteed overnight success — about one-third of users who say they wouldn’t run another campaign, nearly 70% say that it didn’t work to acquire new customers. (MerchantCircle).

So why did it not work for the majority? Just like Google PPC, there is a right and a wrong way to approach advertising. Read through the 5 tips below, and contact www.visioncourse.com if you need help or are looking to discuss more strategy and how to successfully run a Facebook Ad campaign without wasting your time or money.

1. Make sure to set your online goals for advertising on Facebook.

What do you want to achieve with your ad? Do you want to:

• Build awareness
• Drive traffic
• Promote a specific product (s)
• Promote an event
• Generate sales

Facebook has a many options that address the objectives above.

For example, to build awareness, I would recommend you begin with standard marketplace ads. Have them click to you “wall” and get people to “like” you. If your fan base is sizeable, try a “Page Like” where the ad shows friends who have liked your Page.

Promoting a particular post from your page, i.e. a special offer or news, you can also use “Page Post” sponsored stories to convert your post into a News Feed item.

Whatever your goals, make sure to track and measure your data. While click-through rate (CTR) is an important metric to track, it’s not as important as Conversion rates (CR).

According to Webtrends, the average CTR for Facebook ads is only about 0.05%, which is half the industry standard of 0.1%. Based on this data, use other data to surround your business with information such as increases in comments, Likes, impressions and active users. It will not matter if you acquire 300 new fans, if none of them are doing what you want them to do, i.e. purchase, engage, share etc…

2. Geo/Demo-Targeting

The easiest way to narrow your target audience and pre-qualify them is through the easy-to-use tool to isolate demographics, and geographical locations as well. Facebook ad interface allows you to select age, sex, location, education level and interests, but it is also unique in its ability to micro-target very specific audiences.

Frank Morrall, founder and CEO of www.PSHelper.com and www.VisionCourse.com notes that “with Facebook, less is more. I would prefer to have a thousand pre-qualified visitors than tens of thousands of casual browsers,” says Frank. He suggests that you focus on specific targets with your ads, even if it means reducing the size of your audience.

Frank also suggests that when trying to identify “local” audiences, “use names of popular local businesses, stores, Universities, Health clubs and basically any other kind of business that may have a similar interest to what it is you are promoting”.

3. Design Images and Text that Bounce

When designing your Facebook ad, remember the following:

1. Write clear, targeted ads with concise text
2. Speak directly to the audience
3. Highlight any special offers or unique features that differentiate you from the competition
4. Use your company name in the ad title or somewhere in the body of the ad.
5. One focused Call To Action
6. Use an image that relates to your site or offer

You’ve heard of the concept, “If you bold everything, you bold nothing”. Well this is also true with the amount of text you could/should use. Just because you are given 135 characters doesn’t mean you need to use them all…often times one single strong headline will due. The pictures you choose for your ad are also critical, since this is what will catch people’s eye, and you should think beyond your logo

4. Test, Test and oh um…TEST

There is no bigger mistake you can make then not testing your creative, headlines, images and offer. This is often times the most difficult given the low click rates one might receive. However, it is probably the most important data you can use to evaluate your online performance in order to increase your overall conversion rates.

Ideas for testing include:

1. Image
2. Headline
3. Offer
4. Landing page (offsite to your website)

Facebook allows for us to “Create a Similar Ad” and simply swap in a new picture or text. Use it!

5. Are you ready for the increase in traffic?

When you decide to run a Facebook ad, please do not neglect your info page and your wall page. The ad will create awareness and engage in direct clicks. Both are as important now as they have ever been before.

For the wall and info page, make sure the content is fresh, and you have a community of dialogue, interactions, and participation. This helps with branding your business and overall professionalism.

Lastly, make sure when someone clicks on the ad, that the page they are landing on works! I cannot tell you how many times I’ve seen people spend money on ads, then the pages are dead links, or take them to something completely different from what the ad was promoting.

What have you done with Facebook Ads? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Whenever my brothers and I would complain to my dad, and say something like, “Well Mike doesn’t have to go to practice today, why do I?” His next immediate thing he would say and I quote, “You worry about you pal!”

Not ever wanting to hear that as a child, I now realized that he was absolutely right. He meant that I should be concerned with my situation and understand why I had to go to practice and my brother Mike did not. It wasn’t about choosing favorites, but was about the subtleties of surrounding factors that alter or “explain” the situation. The same should apply to businesses in trying to reach their onsite goals and objectives. Let me explain…

Most people I talk to are overly concerned with what they are doing RIGHT in Google’s eyes, but fail to address what they are doing WRONG. They are not worrying about their own situation, but so absorbed in what others are doing. But, if you are not worried about what you are doing wrong, it really won’t matter what you are doing right as this is a huge roadblock that will impede progress.

At VisionCourse, we want you to think differently about your SEO strategy. This will focus on what we potentially are doing wrong, to better steer us in the right direction.

Sudden and unexplained dips in Google ranks and search traffic are Not All Penalties!

The list below will help you identify SEO techniques that could be seen as “black hat” by Google.

Others are simply Google filters that you will not have control over. Both of which carry a high risk of altering your current SEO rank and overall traffic, which if addressed, will benefit your SEO efforts as whole.

Anchor Links (Back links):

Link building is still the key to a successful SEO campaign. Getting links to improve our organic placement and relevancy are techniques of offsite SEO that are very important. However, there is a right and a wrong way to approach this technique. Following Google Webmaster Guidelines will make this easy for you but it is better explained below.

• “10,000 links for $19.95 – But wait, there’s more, and if you buy NOW, you’ll get a brand new set of Steak knives!” Too good to be true… run away!
• Paying for links on high Page Rank sites – I am not suggesting that you don’t pay for links in certain situations, but what I am suggesting is that you do not try to get your site on all page rank 7,8, and 9 sites. This is unnatural and will harm your approach. In addition to ranks, timing is also a factor you want to consider as well…It won’t happen overnight!
• Reciprocal links – reciprocal links are important but are losing in overall relevancy in Google’s eyes. Massive link exchange schemes or networks can set off red flags in Google’s algorithms, so be careful.
• Hidden links in Blogs (WordPress) – Although WordPress is a wonderful link building approach; many free themes rely on hiding links in the themes to be spread around.
• Artificial Anchor Linking – If every link on your site is optimized with one long tail keyword phrase like “Doggy Clothes” this alarm Google that you are keyword stuffing.
• “No sprekense englis” – If your site in in English with links coming from Germany, stop. Google engineers are smarter than you and will know if there is an influx of links pointing from other countries.
• Slow down, you’re moving too fast – Quality vs. Quantity. Google will set algorithms and determine if the speed your acquiring links is too fast. Best practice, is stick to a schedule from day one.

Outgoing links

Linking out is crucial for blogs and even static websites. Many webmasters stopped linking out in order to hoard PageRank. Google engineers have discouraged this and suggested linking out instead. Linking out can be risky though.

• Broken links – If there was a broken window outside of your favorite store, with police tape across it, would you shop there? No. Neither will your customers when they come across broken links. And, even worse, this makes Google take notice.
• Links to bad neighborhoods – Is there something worse than having broken links onsite? Yes. Imagine someone coming to your site, opening the door, and when inside, it’s a different store than what the sign out front suggested it was. It’s a no brainer that the relevancy must be there.
• Too many outbound links or none at all – Quality vs. Quantity.

Content is King – Unless You Screw It UP!

Content is still king, but it can lead to black hat approaches deemed by Google.

• No Duplicate content – Self explanatory
• Low quality content – Got PANDA? Read up on it.
• Unique content – Do not skin another site, just to copy them. You will get burned, not the person you skinned from.
• Unreadable content – It’s as easy as using spell checker on Word. Do not be lazy.

Ads

Sites developed solely with the “made for adsense” google ads mentality are now being negatively affected by PANDA.

• Quantity of Ads – Low content to ads ratio
• Affiliate sites with no value – Add value to your affiliate sites or you will be penalized.

SEO Reputation

It is a very competitive landscape in SEO, and as of recently, businesses are being called out. Whether or not this is a moral issue is not what this blog is about. But, if you are clean, you will rest easier.

• SEO Bragging to the wrong people – be careful who you talk about with your SEO strategies if they are black hat.
• Google Forums & Groups – They are always listening.
• You’re not better then Google – When it comes to black hat, do not temp the lion by showing off.

Google filters & Limitations

Some Google penalties are actually not penalties at all. Filters are used and applied automatically. This is where its more algorithms than your own doing.

• Brand New Domain – It takes time. Using a 301 redirect link can help it is an older domain name, however, a brand new entity will take time.
• H1 tags – A movie only has one title. So should your website. Use h2, h3 and other headline tags instead.
• Keyword stuffing – Monitor your onsite keyword density. Best practice is to simply use natural grammar. Make the text readable.

Getting Technical

Websites are living breathing entities. And not every sudden drop in rankings and traffic is a penalty. If you don’t feed a plant it dies. If you don’t feed Google, your site dies.

• Robots.txt – The robots.txt is not overly important, but it can harm you if not done properly. Check your Google Webmasters tools regularly to address any issues.
• Nofollow – I’ve seen leading blogs barred from the Google index because they activated the WordPress privacy mode. It simply meant that all of the blog was set to noindex, nofollow which equals blocking it in the robots.txt.
• Duplicate Titles and Descriptions – Diversify your onsite page titles and tags. If your site uses the same page title and descriptions for every, Google will look at it as if it’s one page.
• No crawlable links in JavaScript – There are still JavaScript site menus out there that can’t get crawled by Google. Always check whether your menu uses real HTML links with “<a href=”">” in it. Or at least the whole URL must show up.

External Factors

In some cases a loss of rankings or search traffic is out of your hands.

• Algorithm change – Everyday Google potentially changes and refines their algorithms. PANDA is one recent one. Be current, and stay on top of these announcements.
• Competition is getting better – A competitor is someone who is attempting to beat you at something. They are working hard each and every day. It is YOUR job to stay abreast of what the competition is doing.
• Breaking News – Sometimes, this could push your site lower in organic rankings. This is usually temprorary and short lived.
• SERP display change – Google experiments all the time with its search results’ display. Most notably, local results from Google Places take away large parts of the screen real estate. You might rank at #1 in organic results and still get displayed at the bottom of the search results page.

If you listen to my dad’s advice, you will be safe. “You worry about you” and take care of your business. It’s not always a penalty and sometimes it is as simple as doing the right thing.