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Google - SEO & Social Media Marketing

SEO Silver Bullet?

Is there a shortcut to Google success?

As you might imagine, the work I do for clients covers a broad spectrum.  A basic project typically involves research to establish the most popular keywords associated with the company’s products or services.  That is usually followed by a domain name research, and then configuring the domain, installing the blog, adding email addresses and other one-time set up tweaks.

Once this setup work is done and the website and/or blog are configured and optimized I will then meet with the client and show them how to use WordPress and manage other aspects of their domain.  I encourage all of my clients to buy my book, SEO & Social Media Marketing Guide, not because I need the $10, it’s because everything they need to know at this point is detailed in the book.

Additionally, I go to great lengths in the book to explain what they need to do and why these things are necessary to get traction online.  I also cover the basics of WordPress usage and optimization, which will serve as a great reference source as they assume management of their website.

The project I just described is something I do for clients who are looking for someone to help them get started.  As a result, once this has been put in place my relationship with the client usually ends…temporarily.  Unfortunately, people who hire me to provide this “starter package” often contact me again a few months down the road.  Their questions or pleas for additional assistance are usually the same.

I heard from two such clients this week, both asking me virtually the same questions.  In essence they wanted me to tell them how they could avoid all the hard work and jump to page one on Google.  At this point, I usually ask a client if they have read my book and followed of my instructions.

No doubt you can guess their response.  Their negative reply is usually followed by a number of reasons that include their busy schedule, commitments, this lousy economy and a host of other excuses that quite honestly are all valid.

The problem with starting from scratch is that there is nothing to compare it to.  In other words, if a person had a website and it was generating sales or business leads and website disappeared for some reason, you would know that the work involved in rebuilding had a payoff equal to X sales dollars or X business leads.  Justifying the time and work required would be much easier.  When you are starting from scratch the big unknown is how much work and time will be required before you start seeing a return.

What usually happens during this building phase is that those things that we know generate business tend to require more of our time.  The end result is that the new website or blog and the effort required to manage them loses priority.  The client, like the rest of us, has only so much time they can devote to an additional project, and this is usually when I hear from them again.

My schedule does not always permit me to take on a new client (or an old client for that matter) but there is one suggestion that I give to all clients.  Take my book and give it to your receptionist, secretary or hire a college kid and tell them to read the book and follow my instructions.

SEO requires time and effort to implement. 

Social Media marketing demands interaction and personal involvement. 

There is no silver bullet or way to cut in line and land on page one of Google search results.  However, if you follow my blueprint you will obtain your objective.  It requires time and involvement, but the payoff he is exactly why you contacted me in the first place.

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8 Reasons Why Google+ May Win the War for Social Dominance

Could Google+ cause the MySpacing of Facebook?

using google plus social network 8 Reasons Why Google+ May Win the War for Social DominanceIn its present configuration, Google+ is much different from Facebook, but that hasn’t kept people from speculating as to which platform is better and who will win the yet to be launched social media application war.

Spending a few hours over a crap table in Las Vegas years ago taught me that I was incapable of foretelling the future and I have resisted prophesying upcoming events and outcomes ever since. However, if we were to consider possibilities…

When the smoke clears and a ceasefire has been ratified, the Google+ vs. Facebook war could end up being little more than the Chevy vs. Ford or PC vs. Mac debates. On the other hand, if Google has learned anything from their past missteps Google+ could cause Facebook to follow its predecessor MySpace into the realm of forgotten space.

The Facebook Argument

The main argument we hear from Facebook defenders is that from Buzz to Wave, Orkut to Voice, Google has failed in their previous attempts to launch a social media product. They claim that Facebook will find it easy to counter any Google threat, but I believe this is where their line of reasoning is vulnerable so here’s my two cents.

  • Google owns the global search market. What do you use for search?
  • Google owns online video, a critical gear in the social machine.
  • Google owns almost 25% of the browser market.
  • Google owns sophisticated cloud-based business applications that will enhance their G+ business offering TBA.
  • Google provides some of the best tools and resources for webmasters and web surfers alike.
  • Google’s embedded base of Gmail users and toolbar integration will jumpstart user acceptance.
  • Google’s greatest advantage is what they have learned from Facebook’s and their own mistakes; knowing what not to do can often provide a tactical advantage far more valuable than knowing what to do.
  • Google has a world-class team of computer programmers and behavioral scientists designing a platform using a clean slate (no legacy code) and guided by some of the top marketing brains in the universe.

From a business perspective where the goal is to drive traffic to a website, Google+ in conjunction with the +1 button will obviously be incorporated into the ranking algorithm so adoption and participation is a must. You have to ‘Like’ (pun intended) Google’s odds of being able to out-Facebook Facebook.

It has only been around for a month so like everyone else I am new to Google+ but so far I like what I am seeing. I find it far more intuitive to use than Facebook was in the beginning. It seems to have a more professional feel to it than Facebook and as a Gmail user, I like the toolbar inclusion.

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The Case for Building Backlinks

If you don’t have links pointing to your website, Google will not take your site seriously. PERIOD!  In other words, if no other website on the Internet sees value in linking to your site, Google will virtually ignore you.

When Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google in 1998, the core metric used to establish the value of a website were the number of links pointing to it.  Their theory was simply that links were essentially votes for a site’s significance.  If you had 100 websites dealing with blue widgets, the site with the most links had to be the best site about blue widgets.

Remember, this is an automated process; a software robot (or spider) crawls a web page and follows every link emanating from that page. There is no human interaction, no site judging panel that decides which blue widget site is the best. The Google algorithm ranks a site’s value using hundreds of parameters that include everything from compliant HTML, the age of the domain, proper SEO, external links and dozens of other weighted factors.

Links pointing to your website are still extremely important.  In fact, it is rumored that although Google provides a method for site submission, they prefer to discover your website by following a link from another site.  Links are very cheap insurance that contribute to your ranking in search results.

How to get quality backlinks

To obtain links by hand is a grueling, time consuming process. To get links via an automated submission tool is no longer effective and in some instances can actually hamper your efforts. Face it, you need backlinks and you need a reliable process to achieve good results. If you are looking for a cost-effective way of building quality backlinks, watch this video.

If you have read my book or attended one of my seminars you already know how important links are for improving search results and generating traffic. Find out what hundreds one-way links can do for your website?

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Content or links – which comes first?

A reader made a comment on a previous post and asked some great questions that I’m sure many of you have, so I thought I’d answer his questions in this post.  Bob wrote…

What do you think of the Bluehost deals for SEO? I just signed up for their $99/month service for one keyword. They will put a 4 page wordpress site up for me and start creating links to it. They do 3 keywords for $199.

I’m reading SEO for Dummies now and may get your ebook as well. Am I better off writing my own keyword-rich content (or hiring freelancers to do it on Fiverr, iFreelance,etc) and learning to do links myself. I have plenty of time and little money. Thanks,

Bob, you asked some excellent questions and believe it or not, you’re already doing some ‘off-site’ SEO by asking your question here and including a link to your site in the comment form.

You said that you have “plenty of time and little money”, which is a common problem many of us share. If that is the case, spending $99 or $199 per month for links is not a good idea…yet.  Let me explain…

In the most recent Google algorithm update a few months ago, they targeted sites that had very little content, or redundant content. Hundreds of thousands of websites virtually disappeared from the Google index, or found themselves on page 98,000.

We need to remember that Google’s goal is to provide what it believes are the best results for a particular search query. A website with little or no content will not rank well regardless of the number or quality of links pointing to it. So, that should answer your question about Bluehost’s linking deal.

At the risk of shameless self-promotion, Bob, I would strongly encourage you to get a copy of my book before you start paying for links or any other SEO services. In my book, I discuss basic page design and critical SEO factors that you need to include, and I hate to tell you that your site is not scoring well at this moment.

‘Local Search’ is one of Google top initiatives and the only piece of information on your page is a phone number. Unfortunately, that phone number is part of a graphic and Google can’t see that your phone number is area code 650.

You have two images on the page and your primary logo image is named, “he_logo.jpg”. Renaming that image to something such as, “san_mateo_electric.jpg” would give Google more information to index.

The only text on your entire page is www.HillsboroughElectric.com and that doesn’t give Google enough information to display your site in results for any search query.

As to creating content for your website, I would encourage you to do this personally before you consider outsourcing.  Nobody knows your business or industry as well as you, so share that information on your site.

Once you feel that you have the basics covered, feel free to outsource, but know that you will need to rewrite almost everything you get from such a source. With the exception of some excellent talent in the Philippines, most outsource firms employ people where English is a second language and most articles will read that way.

Bob, you’re on the right track, but you need to do things in the proper order. You don’t want links before you have some content posted. In fact, you really don’t want to do anything proactively until your site can stand on its own explaining who you are, what you do and where you’re located.

My book, the SEO & Social Media Marketing Guide was written with people like you in mind. People who know they need a website, but can’t afford to hire a professional firm and are not sure where to start or what to do. This is why I offer a “No questions asked guarantee!”  If my book doesn’t meet your expectations – get your money back.  Just one idea could make you thousands!  But, I want you to take 60 days to review my book and decide if this information isn’t worth much more than the cover price.  With no risk, you have nothing to lose!

Best of luck to you, my friend and thanks for taking the time to comment on this blog.

PS: I love the look of your site so far and the pic, now you need to feed Google with a bunch of keyword-rich text.

PPS: If you need links, how about 650 one-way links…see this.

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