While content would not give rankings to writing that was obviously spammy, it was simple enough to optimize content in a way that was useful to the marketer.

Although SEO still has its place in marketing, changes to Google and other search engine algorithms has resulted in a greater importance of writing quality content. “Content Marketing” has led to an equally dramatic change in how practitioners of SEO have changed their practices. No longer is writing to attract search engines the key to effective marketing. Instead, it is about writing informative content that people will want to read.

Exceptions to the New Rule

Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are getting tons of traffic by people who are interested in a variety of products. As a result, more writers and publishers are writing content that gets traffic from these sites. Even so, there are still many people using Google and other search engines to find what they are looking for, offering publishers a traffic resource that they can’t afford to ignore. The best option for businesses is to combine SEO with their content marketing practices. Some ways they can do this is:

• Create content that is informative and fresh, making individuals who read it want to share it with others
• Post all of the content you write on a single domain/subdomain
• Search for keywords to find out what people are reading about
• Make your brand about what you do. People shouldn’t have trouble thinking about what your company is all about.
• Put sincerity behind the writing. If you are dedicated to a specific topic that is related to your business, use it to your advantage.

Today’s SEO requires an even higher degree of honesty in building real brands without the links that were such a large part of the content of the past. Because of the way that search engine algorithms work today, sharing is factored into search rankings so the spammy content they needed to get recognized before is no longer a necessity on any level.

Blogs that excel are those that focus on getting quality information onto other blog sites and news sites. This is an honest way of creating effective links back to their website. Another approach to successful linking is to invite guest bloggers, writers, and publishers onto your website, which will increase social signals when they share your domain with their followers on social media sites.

In many ways, SEO has not only changed, but expanded, to include more ways for getting more followers from a variety of venues and those who take a variety of approaches to find what they are looking for. By evolving along with the changes in how online marketing is used, and continuing to incorporate SEO with quality content, online publishers can get the best of both worlds.

Regardless of the number of social media platforms a business is on, the fact remains that social media has the power to change businesses. It can help business owners reach more customers, which in turn can increase profits. If you doubt this fact, you simply need to look at the statistics regarding social media. Social media has made it possible for updates and posts that have gone viral to reach more people in a shorter amount of time. The following infographic gives examples of times that social media has helped spread the news.

Despite normal safeguards in place on secure websites, hackers have gotten creative with the different viruses and malware used to intercept information. One bug in particular, called the Heartbleed Bug, has caused concern according to security experts. This bug had remained undetected for over two years and could have put a lot of personal information at risk. Read on to discover more about the Heartbleed Bug and whether you should be concerned about your personal information.

SEO for international companies or businesses here in America or abroad that have a global market need horizontal SEO strategies. Our 24 years in business as a Florida Web Design, SEO and Social Media Marketing company witha large international population has attracted  a global client base and we provide international internet marketing services to our suite of marketing solutions.  The new service focuses on the specific needs of companies that market their services globally to a broad base of customers, and is designed to overcome the challenges that typically accompany such efforts.

The internet is incredible for its ability to give companies truly global reach but at the same time, there are many obstacles that make it challenging for companies to truly market to an intercontinental and geopolitical base.  Search engines try to focus results geographically, and customers search parameters involving location can limit their visibility unless you understand the algorithms and properties of international SEO.

International internet marketing allows companies to reach their intended audience more effectively through strategies that include  broad local search engine optimization strategies, social media marketing on international social media websites and networks and powerful marketing and advertising campaigns that are dedicated to the algorithms of local searches based on the geographics of the market and the client’s places of business. We have been attracting clients from various countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Russia and South America because our success has been outstanding with regard to global Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Marketing.

There are other things to consider before SEO such as web design and language. Translation must be done manually and we can translate up to 25 different languages and their dialects. Never trust those goofy translation websites that automatically translate English to another language. You will have a disaster on your hands and very confused audience who thinks you are completely illiterate or one heck of a bad speller!  Have you ever gotten nonsensical form responses that leaves you scratching your head saying “Why did they even bother… I can’t even understand what they are trying to say. Also design is important if you are focused on a certain country. Great Britan has a more conservative culture and you design has to appeal to that society. Russia loves a predominantly dark rich scheme with red, gold and green. One must really understand culture and geopolitical aspects of a region to effectively communicate with your market.

On the technical side their a many aspects of SEO and web development we employ such as rel=”alternate” hreflang=”x” tags, server location, domain suffix, and multiregional / multilingual and monetary conversions. Developing a website in multiple languages and domain suffixes can hurt your ranking if viewed as duplicate content so you have to understand how to simplify your site structure and strategy online to achieve what you want without offending the search engines! Many SEO companies tend to overcomplicate things and end up confusing the search engines with too many instructions and needless coding. The bottom line is you want to achieve the objectives of the website’s purpose, implement proper international SEO and Social Media Marketing and be ranked on page one in every international demographic.

AWOA’s SEO services include creating and optimizing geographic and demographic content which expands and develops the website and blog content all while expanding key search phrases that now will be unlimited in scope. “Our clients never have to worry about paying A La Carte for some specific SEO services such as the number of key phrases we will market. Our business plan always revolves around providing added value to our clientele because the bottom line is making sure our clients’ businesses consistently grow and that we are behind that growth.

For the past 24 years A Work Of Art, Inc. has focused on providing continued return on investment backed up by quantitative data the kind of meaningful results that clients can get their arms around because they see the growth and result of what they pay for. Once you create a good product or service, no one works harder and communicates better 7 days a week getting you quality business and a loyal following that sustains growth with innovative techniques to advance SERP while adhering to the most stringent Google algorithms and staying current with those guidelines.

That is why we have a loyal following who have been with us for years. We do what we promise and over deliver and as a reult our clients see increased loyal customer base and revenue year over year.

Facebook has launched their new layout with expanded cover photo, home page tabs, and a Timeline among other features that enhance the user’s social media experience on Facebook. That is great for business Fan Pages to display their product, service or brand more effectively and the App Tabs are easier to see which creates more frequent use of them and more fan participation.

The real engagement with fans comes within the apps themselves and the implementation of Open Graph for developers. After a user adds your app to their Timeline, app specific actions are shared on Facebook via the Open Graph. As your app becomes an important part of how users express themselves, these actions are more prominently displayed throughout the Facebook Timeline, News Feed, and Ticker. This enables your app to become a key part of the user’s and their friend’s experience on Facebook. This also promotes your company virally in a variety of useful ways. With the Open Graph, you’ll be able to create a deep, persistent connection between you and your users, and drive new users to your social media Facebook app.

Another new and welcome change is the increase in size of your IFrames Wrapper. Our Social Media Marketing company’s IFrames wrapper is one example.

The size has almost doubled which provides more of a full size web page horizontally than an in-column layout. This is a great opportunity to further display your products and services with a more appealing and visible design. Users can use your Fan Page as a regular website to shop and purchase products, view video, complete contact forms or applications, and so much more.

The revolution of even the most basic the Social Plugins has taken a leap forward as well. A dozen revamped buttons such as the New Like Button lets users share pages from your site back to their Facebook profile with one click and also add comments to the “Like”. The Send button allows your users to easily send your content to their friends! The Comments plugin lets users comment on any piece of content on your site.

We will be watching a new trend in Social Media that is taking off called Social Discovery. In essence it involves the ability of Social Media Users to find other users or groups to communicate and share with. These apps will help users discover the people around them who share friends or interests. Some apps alert users to connections after they check-in to a location, others more passively ping users when their phones spot a contact nearby. More on that as it evolves.

Author – David Nagle

A guideline to hiring an SEO company – Be aware of deceptive practices.
Throughout the decades we have been in business, we have seen many factors that have evolved with regard to the effectiveness of Search Engine Optimization, web design, marketing and how that determines your page rank on the major search engines. We spend on average anywhere from 30 to 100 hours per month on each client’s online marketing and the marketing of the top key words and key phrases for their business and industry. Most of this is done manually by our hands-on experts in the field. When we talk with prospective clients to discuss their marketing interests we hear some shocking things on a consistent basis that need to be discussed.

There is rampant deception in this industry that needs to be addressed and that you as a business owner need to be aware of when you are hiring a marketing company that provides SEO, Link Building and Social Media Marketing. Let’s take a look at the SEO aspect of an online marketing campaign. A Must Read SEO Article for CEOs!

There are questions you need to ask when hiring an SEO, marketing and web design company, and the answers are crucial in making your decision of which company you are going to hire.

1) On average, how many hours a month does your SEO company actually work to optimize and market your company?
2) Does your SEO company do their optimization and marketing manually or by automation?
3) Will your SEO company not only work on internal website optimization, but also work on marketing your website externally?
4) Will the company provide you with a list of what they have done, quantify that and provide ongoing MEANINGFUL analysis of their progress?
5) What do they provide with regard to their external marketing efforts and will they provide a detailed list of what they accomplished?
6) Will they research the top competitive key words and phrases and use those in their SEO?
7) Are they marketing your business in the correct geographic regions?
8) Will they keep you involved with their marketing efforts and ask for your insight into their company and it’s goals?
9) What added benefits will they provide at no cost to you in order to boost your results because they care about your success and a long-term relationship?
10) Will they honestly and completely assess your website and current marketing efforts and provide a comprehensive list of objectives and plans to achieve them that will address all phases of a successful marketing campaign?

And always get a custom website design and not pre-designed templates.

We have conversations with several companies a day that are getting quotes from SEO companies and we have found a common list of disconcerting revelations from their experiences with other SEO companies. The first subject that comes up is cost and the conversation starts out like this; “How much do you charge? I got a few quotes for $150 – $250 a month and they guarantee great results!” Well, first off, no one can guarantee any specific result (provided that the objective is to compete using the top key phrases) because that is determined by the search engines themselves, not the company doing the marketing. I touch upon the subjects in the list of questions above and the business owner on the other end of the conversation usually is speechless. “You are the first company who has delved into these subjects and educated me this thoroughly!”

One common deception is what we call “The Phantom Key phrase”. We hear this one the most. A client hired a company to do their SEO. They tell me “Well, our current company has us #1 on Google and they got us there in just a few days!” My first question is, and I already know what the answer is going to be… “No kidding!, tell me what key phrase you rank #1 with?” Here is an example to illustrate a commonly practiced deception. One company’s CEO replied, “Broward County Plumber is the key phrase we rank #1 with.” Well, little did this CEO know, that “Broward County Plumber” is so rarely searched that there is practically no competition for that key phrase, thus an instant high ranking is achieved once their pages are indexed into Google. It looks and sounds great to the CEO of this company… HEY! I am on top! Then I explain to the company’s owner that a teenager with some coding knowledge could have accomplished this for free in about an hour. I ask, “Did you know that the key phrase “Fort Lauderdale Plumber” is the phrase that is actually used by people who need a plumber in your area? Did you know that key phrase gets TWENTY TIMES the number of searches that your current key phrase gets? And did you know that you are practically nowhere to be found on the search engines for that top competitive key phrase? We are talking thousands of searches a month that you are missing out on. This deceptive practice can be accomplished in several ways too. You can use keywords that sound like they are used widely but actually are not, change a letter, add an extra letter, pluralize a word, or shift the structure of the phrase and presto! you are #1 and the company’s owner isn’t aware that they are not using competitive and accurate key phrases. But hey, you got a great deal right?

To rank high with competitive key phrases takes a great deal of work and marketing and no legitimate, experienced company will put forth that kind of effort for $200 a month. They would be out of business fast. But for a couple hundred dollars more, hiring the expertise you need, you will get the results you want and your revenue will expand exponentially! A dramatic increase in business and ROI is what you are looking for, and your investment more than pays for itself. Too many times we have taken over the work of SEO and marketing from another company only to find that they have not touched anything in months. The xml sitemap was last updated five months ago! The pages have not been adjusted and the website has not expanded in months. But, Hey.. Ya got a great price!

Another way SEO companies can take on clients for bargain basement prices (which is very appealing to budget conscience business owners who make decisions on SEO without this knowledge) is to use automation. Websites or software which post your pages to the search engines and broadcasts data with a click of the button. You may have seen these options available within your hosting company’s website or advertised on television from ineffective budget website building companies who always use templates. Automation can only get you so far. It is inept and ineffective and provides a false sense of security that you have done what it takes to compete and market your website to the search engines. Software cannot do the expansive and integral manual work that is crucial to successful SEO and marketing of a company’s website and online presence. Sure, you can get limited results from little effort or automation, but boy are you missing out on a big piece of the pie and a great deal of business!

We have a client that hired us for SEO, Link Building, Press releases, web design Blog creation, entires and syndication and Social Media Marketing and signed a long term contract to do so. The problem was they didn’t want to pay to build out and improve their website which was sorely lacking in content among other things. I honestly told them that it is imperative they build out their website design and improve it’s structure for us to be successful in our efforts. They said, don’t worry about that right now, it’s not in our budget. Well, we DO worry about the success of our clients. So we went ahead and restructured their website, built it out, re-designed the website and expanded it with relative industry content, links and coding… absolutely free. They are quite happy with the amazing results and it would not have been possible if we didn’t go the extra mile for them and provide these added benefits. This and the services outlined above are the type of commitment you need from the SEO company you hire. SEO, Marketing and web design go hand in hand and it’s complex work, effort, expertise and commitment on a daily basis is what it takes to succeed in a competitive environment. Just like anything in life, the more you know, the harder you work, the more successful you will be.

In today’s economy and challenging business environment with tight budgets, cost seems to be a major factor in determining vendor hires. But, on the other hand it is a total waste of money to pay for something you are not getting or a service that doesn’t deliver what you need.

Author – David Nagle

Social Media Marketing and it’s powerful reach
Few companies are using social media marketing to it’s full extent. Many think they have done their job by creating a Facebook Fan Page and posting news on it everyday, gathering a modest following, posting a video, putting “Like” links on their website etc. That is nice but you are not promoting and networking your business.

Facebook is approaching 1 BILLION users. What happens when you promote to 1,000 people that “Like” your fan page… Answer – each user has approximately 100 friends – your promotion reaches 100,000 people, of which many can help network your brand, purchase your product or service, and virally spread the word or pass on an important source for information. That is where we come in. We specialize in Social Media marketing, SEO marketing and diligently work the social media accounts of our clients for as little as $295 or a Full Marketing Plan with SEO, Viral, PPC, Geo, BL, and authorative communications from $895 per month. We give you expert daily SEO and a complex marketing plan each day to promote your website and web presence on Social Media and search. The returns are absolutely remarkable. What most CEOs do not realize is that Facebook is becoming a Search Engine / Social site / Community and advertising power house! We predict that within the next decade Facebook will challenge Google in searches and as a one stop communication and information source. Now is the time to start your marketing efforts on the world’s largest marketing platform. Let’s take a closer look… What you Need To know!

Do you have a custom Blog that is syndicated and fed to publications, social media, web resources, and a subscriber base? Is your product or service updated frequently on the social networks with promotions, interactive pages that feed traffic and revenue to your website and company? That is just the tip of the iceberg, as the purpose of Social Networking in the business world is “Networking” and “Marketing” your company to current and prospective clients and applicants. You must optimize your social network accounts and all activity, create interactivity, give incentives, promotions, and feed valuable information to your base in a timely manner. That basic marketing plan is a successful way to market your business online and virally compound revenue. To be truly effective, you must cross network and market your Social Media accounts with your web presence. Each Social Network venue has it’s own set of special tools, functions, and advantages that work hand in hand with each other as well as external online marketing opportunities and your company website. When used and employed correctly, they are a tremendously powerful marketing medium that brands your company and attracts new business more than any media source you may use. We have some clients that actually rely mostly on Social Media Marketing and referrals for new business because it is truly that effective!

Social Media Marketing is also supported by internal marketing techniques, the engine that drives the Social Networking vehicle forward. Digital communications via video and interactive calls to action, digital newsletters, emails and live feeds with interactivity to communicate with your company on a regular basis are just some of the underlying support mechanisms used to market your brand and offerings and keep your market interested and in touch.

A good marketing company will work and build your marketing plan each and every day and generate new income for their clients and keep updating the functionality and employing the broad spectrum of applications that become available within each venue. For instance, The FBML application will soon be phased out in favor of new applications supported by Facebook such as IFrames. In each case, the results will be a steady increase in quality clients, renewed interest from current and past clients and build your brand and base. Your company’s website will also realize increasing visits from month to month and all this translates into consistent revenue increases and larger market share over time with increasing revenue that far exceeds Investment – ROI is the fundamental objective of successful marketing… and Social Media | SEO marketed correctly and with dedication is what so many Companies are lacking in today’s competitive environment.

Author – David Nagle

What is happening online with Staffing Companies?

I have spent several weeks reviewing several hundred staffing company websites, the coding of their pages, which is easily accessible, their SEO (or lack thereof) as well as misuse and misunderstanding of social networking. The big question I ask myself is how can so many of these companies fall so far behind with regard to the latest marketing strategies?

The Beginning
I remember when I was marketing the first Travel Nurse Staffing company back in the late 80s, ah yes, times were good and the revenue was flowing! Then came the big recession of the early 90′s and unless you got competitive with your rates you lost clients. Leadership can get complacent and lazy… and before you know it, you have lost market share and have been left in the dust. Today I can see this happening with web based marketing. These executives may not realize it but their online presence represents who they are and tells a greater story of their corporate culture. I can identify several hundred staffing company websites that need a MAJOR facelift not to mention script and coding that is compatible with the latest browsers and operating systems. In the office their site may look “ok”, but in fact, to the outside world there are many different browsers that display their site in horrible ways with major functionality issues. This is especially true with mobile devices which display things quite differently that the home PC.

SEO and Staffing Websites
Now let’s talk a little about Search Engine Optimization. Looking at the coding in many of even the most popular company websites, I can see the same mistakes made over and over. Key phrases being used are not structured correctly nor are they supported by the content. And even the basic rules of SEO have been ignored, not thoroughly implemented, or have errors that will damage their search results. I can even see meta tags promoting the web designer who developed their website instead of the company’s website! Most executives have no idea this is even going on. And some are insulted when it is suggested they need to take a look at their deficiencies.

Social Media Marketing
This is an area where just a handful of companies are using social media to it’s full extent. And I mean very few! Many think they have done their job by creating a Facebook Fan Page and posting news on it everyday, gathering a modest following, posting a video, putting “Like” links on their website etc. Not even the largest Travel Nurse company who is popular across the country has an interactive IFW!

Facebook is approaching 1 BILLION users. What happens when you promote to 1,000 people that “Like” your fan page… Answer – each user has approximately 100 friends – your promotion reaches 100,000 people, many of whom are medical and healthcare personell. The problem is about 95% of staffing companies haven’t a clue how to use Social Media effectively and are utilizing only 25% of it’s full potential. That is where we come in. We specialize in Social Media marketing and SEO and diligently work the social media accounts of our clients for as little as $500 per month. The returns are absolutely remarkable. What most CEOs do not realize is that Facebook is becoming a Search Engine / Social site / Community and advertising power house! We predict that within the next decade Facebook will overtake Google in searches. Now is the time to start your marketing efforts on the world’s largest marketing platform. Let’s take a closer look…

Do you have a custom Blog that is syndicated across all platforms? Are your job postings updated daily on the social networks with online applications on Facebook? That is just the tip of the iceberg my friends. The purpose of Social Networking in the business world is “Networking” and “Marketing” your company to current and prospective clients and applicants. You must optimize your social network accounts, create interactivity, incentives, and market that in various ways. To be truly effective, you must cross network and market your accounts. Each Social Network venue has it’s own set of special tools, functions, and advantages that work hand in hand with each other as well as external online marketing opportunities and your company website. When used and employed correctly, they are a tremendously powerful marketing medium that brands your company and attracts new business like no other. We have some clients that actually rely mostly on Social Networking and referrals for new business because it is truly that effective!

Social networking is also supported by internal marketing techniques, the engine that drives the Social Networking vehicle forward. Digital communications via video and interactive calls to action, digital newsletters, emails and live feeds with interactivity to communicate with your company on a regular basis are just some of the underlying support mechanisms used to market your brand and offerings and keep your market interested and in touch.

A good marketing company will work at it each and every day for their clients and keep updating the functionality and employing the broad spectrum of applications that become available within each venue. For instance, The FBML application will soon be phased out in favor of new applications supported by FB. In each case, the results will be a steady increase in quality candidates, applications and renewed interest from current and past clients and staff. Your staffing company’s website will also realize increasing visits from month to month and all this translates into consistent revenue increases and larger market share over time. Increasing revenue and ROI is the fundamental objective of successful marketing and that is what so many Staffing Companies are lacking in today’s competitive environment.

If you do, your website may as well be a broken down vehicle off the information super highway. Manual search engine submission is the best, most effective and preferred method when it comes to optimizing, marketing and submitting your website to the search engines.

Search engines expect every details of the site to be filled in manually through their website mechanism. Automated submission through back door is considered as a SPAM in most of the popular search engines and directories.

The Search Engines!
There are hundreds of general and niche search engines which are eager to accept your website if you submit the required information in the right category according to the submission guidelines. The question is how you are going to do the search engine submissions and which search engines are you going to submit in? Certainly you don’t want to submit your mortgage site in a “health directory” or place it in the sports category of a general web directory.

Don’t automate me!
You may have come across “Completely automated search engine submission service that submits your site to 90,000 search engines on a click of mouse … IN SECONDS!” and lot of other software’s which claim to automatically submit your website to thousands of search engines and directories. The rates of these submissions are very cheap and so is the result of these submissions. Chances are your website will be blacklisted by some of the popular search engines and directories. Consider the facts before you utilize a software or service to do automatic search engine submission.
Every search engine and directory is unique and the have various features which differ in Different categories and sections. (Some may have as less as 12 main categories while others have more than 3000 categories classified into sub categories and inner categories. The category names are not consistent across the directories)
Different types of form input. Some search engines will ask for a very few details of your website whereas a dedicated account is needed in others for submitting your website. You need to do a detailed registration by providing phone numbers, address etc.
Registration and confirmation methods. Most of the search engines and directories need a confirmation from your email to avoid automatic submission CAPTCHA (IMAGE Confirmation) – A picture with numbers which have to be manually entered. This is also to avoid automated submission.
Approval of your website.
Maximum number of submissions per user (some of them restrict to a single submission per user)
Frequency of submission..
The popular search engines and directories are opposed to automated submissions and it is considered as a SPAM. No automated software or service can take into account the above different features of search engines and directories while submitting the web sites. The fact is most of the directories do a manual review on the submissions and will find out the automated submissions sooner or later and block them.
What is manual search engine submission and how is it better than automated search engine submission?
Manual search engine submission is the process of analyzing where and what to submit in the search engines and directories by experts and doing each and every submission by hand ensuring a good acceptance rate for your website.
Manual search engine submission involves Analyzing your website, doing the submission text with title, description, key words and creating a unique account.
Collecting the appropriate search engine and directories for submission and submit the website in the right category.
Modify the submission text as per the need of various search engines and directories.
Confirming the submissions (Image confirmation, email confirmations) wherever needed and co coordinating with the editors of search engines and directories whenever required.

The advantage over automated search engine submission is –
First and foremost, manual search engine submission is the only acceptable method of submission to a search engine or directory. Automated article submission is considered as SPAM which is obvious from the various confirmations implemented by them.
A directory is organized into categories and subcategories. Editors review each submission manually and evaluate the submission. In manual search engine submission the websites are submitted in the related directory, search engine under the right category which is not possible in the case of automated submission. Automated software can’t adequately submit to any article directory because it cannot study the directory’s structure and decide which category is best suited.
Websites are submitted according to the different input systems of various directories by manual submission. Whereas automated submission just posts a set of predefined data irrespective of the input fields which results in an incomplete submission followed by rejection.
No search engine or directory is skipped in manual submission. Any Image confirmation (CAPCHA code) and email confirmation is done immediately which is not possible with automated software. Incase for any reason the search engine, directory is down or the website submission is not through, then it will be done another time.
More emphasis on niche search engines, directory related to your website theme.
Very high acceptance compared to an automated search engine submission.