SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION: 2013

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Double Your Traffic by Writing Irresistible Headlines

Dear blog readers,

Welcome to your issue of the SEO Advantage newsletter. You'll find access to our articles covering the latest industry news as well as tips and knowledge you can put to use right away. As usual, we'd love to hear your thoughts. Just click through to comment, hit reply to email us, or call 1-800-366-1639 to speak to one of our online marketing specialists directly. And have a great month!

Double Your Traffic by Writing Irresistible Headlines

2013-12-17 15:23:35-05

Ever wish you could learn the secret to writing attention-grabbing headlines? You know, forget the analytics and just go straight to what works?

The harsh reality is that visitors often don't finish reading the blog piece or article that brought them to your site in the first place. Why? Online readers have become expert scanners. In 10 to 20 seconds of viewing your content they will make a judgment call reminiscent of The Clash’s "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" If your headline doesn't grab the audience, they go.

According to The Nielsen Norman Group, the vast majority of your visitors will make a judgment within 10 to 20 seconds of opening your content whether they should read more – or whether they should leave.… Continue Reading

2013-12-18 10:24:14-05

Life gets busy. If you’re maintaining a Web site, you know it takes time and constant tweaks to keep it ranking at the top of search results. We’ve got 7 easy tips that can be done in 15 minutes to ensure your site’s rankings.

1. Review Your Sites’ Index Status. Google’s Webmaster Tools service gives you the ability to review historically how many of your pages are indexed over the last year. Go to the Health menu list and choose “Index Status.” You can view a report to gauge your overall site health. Detect and solve problems before they become big issues.… Continue Reading

2013-12-30 11:13:04-05

By now anyone serious about marketing their product or service online knows that Google favors websites that are updated frequently with original, engaging and authoritative content. A blog is a great way for website owners to keep fresh content rolling through their website because anyone, with a little bit of basic training, can create outstanding, shareable content in a short amount of time. And the best part is, the longer you do it the faster you can turn out quality content.

What Blog Software Should I use?

SEO Advantages manages hundreds of blogs for our customers and in almost every case we choose WordPress.… Continue Reading

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About SEO Advantage
SEO Advantage, Inc. is an online marketing /search engine optimization firm that helps businesses turn their web presence into a powerful revenue generation medium. Our clients enjoy dominance on Google, Yahoo and Bing through a suite of unique pay-for-performance search engine optimization and online marketing services implemented by a multidisciplinary team of SEO engineers, copywriters, and web designers. You'll find us referenced in books such as Writing Web-Based Advertising Copy to Get the Sale and the BusinessWeek bestseller The New Rules of Marketing & PR, as well as the popular ebook The Small Business Blogging Blueprint. Find out more today. Visit www.seo-advantage.com, call 1-800-366-1639 or email us here.

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Tuesday, December 3, 2013

SEO Roundup: November 7, 2013

Dear blog readers,

SEO Roundup: November 7, 2013

2013-11-07 09:00:07-05

Is your website ready for the holidays? With Thanksgiving coming up in a few weeks and the biggest shopping holiday of the year happening the next day, now is the time for eCommerce websites to harness that retail momentum.

If you’re still planning your holiday online marketing campaigns, here’s some help for you. The folks at Constant Contact have created an excellent Pinterest board full of ideas for ways small businesses can make the most of their holiday campaigns. For even more eCommerce-specific help, use the checklist at the end of this article to make sure you don’t miss any steps in your campaign.… Continue Reading

2013-11-12 13:22:09-05

Authorship was started by Google to eliminate spam and duplicate content. It helps search users receive quality content relevant to their search that is created by niche and industry authorities. Authorship protects authors' work and at the same time, builds the authors' credibility online. The search engine displays author information in search results. Here is a Google shared screenshot of how an author's information appears in search results:

A content marketing plan and search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial to get your content ranked. Websites must deliver compelling content in different forms (product pages, blog posts, and more) that are formatted for search crawlers to achieve page ranking.… Continue Reading

SEO Roundup: November 14, 2013

2013-11-14 09:00:01-05

Let’s start this roundup off with some data you can use. Ipsos OTX has released the results of a survey on the types of websites users visit more frequently, and this article breaks down some of the data for us. Unsurprisingly, search engines are on top, with social media a close second. Blogs make an appearance closer to the bottom of the list than some might expect, but that’s likely because search engines and social media are how visitors get to blogs, so they are obviously going to rank higher.

Really what these numbers are telling us is to keep up the content marketing emphasis.… Continue Reading

2013-11-14 09:07:46-05

Authorship was created by Google in an effort eliminate spam and duplicate content. It helps search users receive quality content relevant to their search that is created by niche and industry authorities. Authorship protects authors' work and at the same time builds the authors' credibility online.

How Your Business Benefits from Google Authorship

Authorship is another tool you can use to drive traffic to your website and increase page ranking in search results.… Continue Reading

SEO Roundup: November 21, 2013

2013-11-21 09:30:10-05

In the midst of reading and gathering articles for this week’s roundup I ran across a case of plagiarism. I’m not talking about the obvious kind, like the scraping that one marketer recently discovered. This was a more insidious kind – the kind that won’t be caught by software, and the kind that some marketers seem able and willing to justify.

One marketer had written an original piece, while another blogger had published a blog post several days later that was simply a thinner, rephrased version of the first post. Blog #1 is a major industry player and a trusted source of SEO news and information.… Continue Reading

2013-11-26 08:44:57-05

Conversions – whether they involve purchasing a product or providing contact information – is the one metric pretty much everyone understands and is interested in. If you're working in the marketing department of a large company, conversions are likely the sole focus of your CEO and managers.

They hardly know what a click-through rate is, nor do they care…

What they want to know is how many people are purchasing, subscribing or otherwise becoming a lead.

Several elements have to coalesce in order for your sales landing pages to be successful – easy navigation, engaging design and copy are the top three that immediately come to mind.… Continue Reading

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Tuesday, November 5, 2013

SEO Roundup: October 9, 2013

Dear blog readers,

SEO Roundup: October 9, 2013

2013-10-09 15:52:32-04

Last Friday, Matt Cutts announced the release of Penguin 2.1, a refresh of the Penguin algorithm. As expected, everyone who saw a decline in traffic that day has attributed it to the update, and the Google Ads conspiracy theorists are shouting their unhappiness from the rooftops. There’s even a poll on SEO Roundtable where nearly 60% of respondents claim to have been “hurt bad” by Penguin 2.1 – an update that only affected approximately 1% of search results.

Guys, can we have some real talk here for a minute? Because I get it. I do. It’s frustrating to see a site start losing traffic.

SEO Roundup: October 16, 2013

2013-10-16 14:27:30-04

Think Twitter TV ratings are meaningless? Well, probably, but not to marketers. Why? Because if you’re blogging or managing social media, pop culture can be a huge source of material for references and metaphors, but Nielsen ratings tell us nothing about what shows people are actively talking about. Twitter TV ratings fill that gap nicely.

For example, yesterday Marketing Charts posted the week’s top ten TV shows according to Twitter. Looking at this list I see a few content opportunities right away. As a marketing blogger you could write a post about how to avoid becoming a marketing zombie and pepper it with Walking Dead references.

SEO Roundup: October 23, 2013

2013-10-23 16:37:08-04

We’ve talked here before about what actually constitutes an infographic, and thanks to researchers at Harvard and MIT, we now have some new information on what works when it comes to data visualization. The study concentrated primarily on what attributes make visualized data most memorable, and they discovered a few pretty interesting things. For example, according to the researchers, "A visualization will be instantly and overwhelmingly more memorable if it incorporates an image of a human-recognizable object—if it includes a photograph, people, cartoons, logos—any component that is not just an abstract data visualization."

That’s just one of many helpful insights from the study, which you can read about here.

2013-10-28 10:59:27-04

LinkedIn security Last week LinkedIn introduced a new feature they dubbed Intro. Intro’s stated purpose, according to LinkedIn’s blog, is to display the LinkedIn profile of people who email you on your Iphone, purportedly to save you a step in trying to glean info on people you don’t know that email you. Intro is supposed to help you quickly identify spam as well as instantly provide information to you that might be helpful in closing a deal.

How LinkedIn Intro Works

The way Intro works is pretty simple: every piece of email that you send or receive is filtered through LinkedIn’s servers, where information contained therein is scraped and analyzed.… Continue Reading

SEO Roundup: October 31, 2013

2013-10-31 09:00:25-04

In case you missed the news, LinkedIn has a new iphone app and some . . . interesting ideas about how it wants to use your data. Stephen gave us the details on LinkedIn Intro earlier this week. Definitely worth reading, especially if you’re considering downloading this app.

On the lighter side, if you’re looking for a last minute Halloween costume, here are some fun ideas for online marketers. Before you go looking for that white sheet and quill pen for your ghostwriter costume, though, check out what’s going on in SEO and online marketing this week . . .

Content Marketing:

As someone who skims through literal dozens of generic, regurgitated list posts while curating this roundup each week, I am buying everything this blog post is selling.

2013-11-01 09:06:37-04

We’ve seen it all here at SEO Advantage over the last 14 years, and during that time we’ve heard from lots of people and companies in the SEO industry.

Often these contacts are initiated by fellow marketing firms hoping to guest post on our blog, and of course we see resumes from people with all levels of SEO experience. That results in a lot of research and vetting of people and businesses who want to be involved with our company. Because of this, we’ve developed some standard practices for vetting the people who get in touch with us, so that we can easily confirm that their SEO skills match their claims.… Continue Reading

2013-11-01 10:50:55-04

Copywriting and offensive language Not every copywriter wants to avoid offensive language. In some venues it's what the audience wants and expects. If you're a marketing copywriter, though, you're not writing for an audience you choose.

Unless they tell you otherwise, chances are your clients would rather err on the side of caution when it comes to the possibility of offending potential customers – and before you start railing against political correctness, remember that clients aren't paying you to fix society's sensitivity toward certain words. They're paying you to create content that reaches the right audience, and that's trickier than you might imagine.

For a lot of people, certain ways of speaking and writing are common in their communities and families.… Continue Reading

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Wednesday, October 2, 2013

SEO Roundup: October 2, 2013

Dear blog readers,

SEO Roundup: October 2, 2013

2013-10-02 16:50:47-04

Actionable advice is one of our favorite things to find and share, so you can imagine how much we love this nearly exhaustive list of SEO tips from some of the top marketers. There are 47 tips in all covering a range of topics. There’s a lot to digest at the link, so be ready to put some time in. You’ll find it well worth it.

Another one of our favorite things is a website with great call to action. Unfortunately, a lot of sites miss this crucial component, which is why Nathan wrote this fantastic call to action guide on our blog.

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8 Things You Need to Know About Hummingbird, Google’s Latest Search Algorithm Update

Dear blog readers,

8 Things You Need to Know About Hummingbird, Google's Latest Search Algorithm Update

2013-10-02 14:30:27-04

The largest search engine in the world is updating, the company announced on Thursday at a special event in the garage where Google was born. Google tied the news to its 15th birthday and announced a new search algorithm, "Hummingbird." It's named Hummingbird due to it being fast and precise, according to Google. Google began using the new algorithm a month ago.

What's a "search algorithm?"It's an Internet technology term for the system Google uses to sort the billions of web pages and other information it has when a browser searches for something. The search algorithm returns the search result with what it believes are the best matches.

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Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Ranking Your Content With In-Depth Articles

Dear blog readers,

Ranking Your Content With In-Depth Articles

2013-09-10 11:22:38-04

This month Google announced the addition In-depth articles to the first page of some search results, which reduces the number of “regular” organic results on the first page to nine and adds two more search results, for a total of three “In-depth articles” links. The aim of in-depth articles links is to provide a deeper look into broad topics that have mass appeal. As an example we conducted a broad search for “Syria” and at the bottom were greeted with these new links.

How to get your article listed in Google’s In-depth articles search results

Fortunately Google has offered some advice for website owners and operators who want to have their content included in the In-depth articles section:

Use schema.org markup for your content
Include Google Authorship markup in your content
Use rel=”next” and rel=”previous” for paginated articles.

SEO Roundup: September 11, 2013

2013-09-11 14:19:42-04

This week Yahoo! launched it’s new logo, and the internet collectively shrugged its shoulders. Among other things, the new design has been compared both to a logo for a cosmetics company, and to something far more appropriate for the graphic sensibilities of the 1990′s.

Elsewhere this week we’ve found plenty of links to new SEO and online marketing articles and resources that – unlike the new Yahoo! logo – are timely and interesting. Check out what’s worth reading on the web right now . . .

Content Marketing and Copywriting:

Feel like climbing on your soapbox for a good blog rant?

2013-09-13 10:41:28-04

Last year, we spent a little time discussing the emerging Google social media channel. Like any new social media channel, it didn't catch on with everybody. But over the last year or so, we've seen things develop dramatically with this exciting social media outlet, especially in its relationship with search rankings.

There's no doubt that social signals have taken on increasing significance over the last few years…but how significant has been the subject of much debate.

Recent chatter and research on the topic has confirmed to us that social signals, especially Google+, are becoming a fairly significant source of higher search rankings.

SEO Roundup: September 18, 2013

2013-09-18 17:13:55-04

If you’ve been following the back and forth between marketers and Google’s Matt Cutts regarding Google+ and the effect it may or may not have on search rankings, then grab some coffee and get ready to sit a spell, because it’s time to look at some numbers.

On the heels of our own recent discussion, a study was presented at SMX Advanced, and an author of the study has summarized the results. Essentially, the research found that while Google+ definitely drives link discovery and may drive indexing, it has no direct affect on search rankings. We’ll keep watching this very hot topic.

2013-09-20 15:10:40-04

Yesterday afternoon Eric Enge of Stone Temple Consulting hosted an online discussion with several SEO panelists including Dr. Pete Meyers of Moz, Mark Traphagen of Virante, Marcus Tober of Searchmetrics, and Joshua Berg of REALSMO.

The initial focus of the discussion was a study performed by Eric Enge to measure the impact of Google+ on SEO. A summary of the study can be found on Eric’s blog. Nearly all the panelists agreed that there were fundamental flaws in the methodology of the experiment, yet the debate it sparked provided several insights into how you can view the role of the Google+ platform in relation to your other SEO efforts.

2013-09-24 08:57:17-04

In August we told you about a Guardian article that pointed to a surge in the number of “click farms” and the resulting consequences for companies like Hasbro who pay these companies for Facebook “Likes” and Twitter “Followers”. In the previous post we warned that paying for people to “Like” your product could be compared to buying fake reviews, which is illegal under U.S. Law.

Today Reuters reports on 19 companies that were caught buying fake reviews on Yelp, Google Local and CitySearch during a yearl-long sting set up by the New York Attorney General, which will result in $350,000 worth of penalties.

SEO Roundup: September 25, 2013

2013-09-25 13:31:39-04

Well, that was great while it lasted, but it appears the days of easy access to keyword data from Google have come to an end. The reaction from the online marketing world has covered the range of human emotions, from intense anger and suspicion to acceptance.

There’s really no reason to panic, though. The need to constantly adapt to the changing world of SEO is what attracted many of us to online marketing to begin with. This is just another new puzzle to solve. Our industry will adjust to this change the same way we’ve adjusted to Panda, Penguin and everything else that’s come our way.

2013-09-27 10:00:09-04

Although most small businesses are now investing more in web marketing over traditional avenues like the YellowPages, most are still missing a critical component on their websites – the call-to-action.

What can be included in a call to action?

A call-to-action can include:

Specials
E-mail newsletter signups
How-to guides downloads
Demos
Interactive tools
Contact information

To be clear, the CTA doesn't always need to immediately convert a visitor into a customer. If your offer is rather complex and expensive for example, you don't exactly want to jump right out and say "BUY NOW."

One way to think about it is meeting a girl in a bar – you're not going to walk up to her and immediately say "let's go back to my place shall we".

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SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Double Your Traffic by Writing Irresistible Headlines

What Blog Software Should I use?

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

SEO Roundup: November 7, 2013

How Your Business Benefits from Google Authorship

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

SEO Roundup: October 9, 2013

How LinkedIn Intro Works

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

SEO Roundup: October 2, 2013

8 Things You Need to Know About Hummingbird, Google’s Latest Search Algorithm Update

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Ranking Your Content With In-Depth Articles

How to get your article listed in Google’s In-depth articles search results

What can be included in a call to action?

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