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Caveman SEO

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It’s like nailing Jell-O to a tree.

Google’s constantly shifting policies regarding site quality, authorship, linking, and search results are enough to make a business owner go crazy.

Cave painting

I’m here to cut through the SEO insanity with one simple tip.

If you want your website to move to the top of the search engine results, consistently fill it with information that is useful to your customers and prospects.

That’s it. A caveman could understand it.

Following that strategy will never hurt you, because the search engine’s purpose is to find useful information.

Yes, you can hire an SEO firm if you’re in a super-competitive space or want extra help. Google even provides some ideas on what to ask an SEO company during the hiring process.

Don’t let yourself get caught up with anyone who uses the word “trick” when talking about search. Those are the things that could come back to bite you in the next Google algorithm update.

What the heck is an algorithm?

It’s basically the recipe Google uses to bake search results. You don’t need to worry about the algorithm, because its only job is to find good stuff for people who are searching. All of the “algorithm updates” are focused on finding better and better stuff.

  • When you’re writing marketing copy for your website, blogging, posting images or videos, do it with your customers in mind. Write naturally, and use words they use when they talk to you.
  • Next time you’re on a phone with a customer or prospect, take some notes. Better yet, ask them how they found you. If they did a Google search, what did they type? Talk about valuable information!
  • Take it a step further and imagine you’re writing for a customer who is visually challenged. The Google robots can’t “see” any of those beautiful photos you’ve posted unless you properly identify them with descriptive ALT tags.
  • If you haven’t updated your website since Clinton was President, it’s time to add some dynamic information. Brochure websites are not OK anymore. You don’t have to blog, consider adding some user-generated content via forums or community, pulling in a news feed, posting some photos from around the office. Just make it something that adds value.

Stop stressing out about Penguins and Pandas, and focus your full attention on your customers. You’ll never go wrong.

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Photo Credit: williamcromar via Compfight cc

Leading Your Business Through The Google Landscape

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By Georgina Stamp

As the leader of an online business there are many responsibilities that you carry upon your shoulders; one of these is ensuring that your business survives each and every hurdle that Google has to throw at it. Most of these obstacles come in the form of changes to the way in which Google works and how it views and verifies the authority of websites. In order to efficiently lead your business through Google’s changes you need only follow these straightforward steps.

1. Your Website

Your main priority during Google’s updates should be the functionality of your website; ensuring that it’s clean, easy to use with plenty of unique content that’s appropriate for your target audience.

Google analyses each page of your site and estimates whether it is useful for a user so key aspects include content that is exclusive to your website and text that is not stuffed with search terms that you would like to rank for. With a strong focus on content, you should look at adding a blog/guides section where you can add content on a regular basis for the benefit of your visitors. This is something that search engines value greatly.

Creating an optimised, user-friendly website is the first step towards leading your business through the Google landscape.

2. Website Links

A link to your website on an external site is the equivalent of a recommendation in the eyes of Google; this means that the more links that you place on authoritative, quality websites that are both relevant to your site and that post regularly, the better your own site will appear to be.

This strategy is essential if you want your online business to survive Google’s updates and changes as a lot of organic traffic to your website is dependent upon where Google ranks you – and this depends partly on how many “recommendations” you have received from high quality websites.

In the past, websites were able to accrue backlinks from all sorts of websites with little attention to quality or relevance but Google has put a stop to this and even punished some with penalties.

3. Social Media

Another method of leading your company into a brighter future is through the use of social media; Google includes social media as another tool by which they can judge your reputation and your authority.

It’s essential that you build a following, post unique content frequently and interact with your audience on the various social channels.

The best social channels for you to utilise include Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn; when using the first three of these social channels we recommend that you attempt to communicate with both your audience and relevant authoritative figures.

It’s also important to keep an eye on your social metrics – the aim is to acquire more followers, likes or be in more social circles than vice versa. Not only will this look good to the individuals that may be interested in what you’re sharing, but it’ll also increase the likelihood of Google noticing an increase in your reputation.

By following these simple steps you can stop fearing changes from Google and start taking advantage of organic traffic for your online business.

Author’s Bio: Georgina Stamp is a dedicated member of the team at Marble Hill Partners and spends a lot of her time assessing individuals with leadership qualities.

Ideas & Infographs: How to Build a New Age Marketing Machine

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by Mihaela Lica

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The Right Balance of Human & Machine Outreach

Human powered search engines to artificial intelligence (AI), technology not only astounds us, but at times confounds us as to its proper uses. The same holds true for PR, marketing, advertising, even yelling at your next door neighbors for their dog barking. How and what you use to convey your messages is a crucial part of success, no matter what your goal. SPAMMING current or potential clients is only one negative where mechanized marketing is concerned, the “who” of method is just as crucial. How the message is received, this is the rub for all corporate, business, or personal community.

The infographic below reveals a good balance and some insight into how a new age marketing machine should be built. Using the right proportion of personable and technological (mechanical) power can work wonders for your business outreach. Conversely, the wrong mix will lose conversions, make some angry, and become an overall burden on your personal and business brand. You can’t grow your business to its potential, without thinking of how your message is perceived, adopted, and reverberated.

[Click the image to see the isolated infograph and again to see it full size.]

Understanding Marketing Automation

Marketing mechanization is then, in a real sense, just an extension of a good, standard communications strategy. Even “brick and mortar” PR & marketing firms do not SPAM their constituents with post office clutter, the balance is still crucial. Ask any great communicator today about chosing the right mix, and you will invartiably get the simple answers presented in the graphic above. Of course the long tail of overall communications strategies is complex, and for in depth professionals to implement, but you see the value.

Even in your personal mailbox, you can see the wisdom of correlating what you enjoy looking at, versus what really turns you off about newsletters and other communique. For the expert that comes up with the best balance? Well, the sky is the limit, wouldn’t you say? We hope you enjoyed the data above, and please let us know your views on best practices too.

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Author’s Bio:

Mihaela “Mig” Lica founded Pamil Visions in 2005 where she uses her hard won journalistic, SEO and public relations skills toward helping small companies navigate the digital realm with influence and success.

You can find Mig on Twitter as @PamilVisions

Thanks, Mig!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Social Media Perspective: Are We What They’re Searching for?

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The Bigger Picture

The Living Web

As I get further on the quest to reconnect with the concrete world, I’ve gained new perspective. I’ve come to see that the problems worth solving are older, more familiar, and more interesting than the problems caused by the Internet.

Social media is important. The participatory culture is changing the very nature of human relationships. But that change is barely a glimpse. It hasn’t happened yet.

A little perspective: In a PEW Internet and American Life Project report released August 6th, Deborah Fallows offered some stunning research that might ground things.

Almost half of all internet users now use search engines on a typical day

PEW Chart of Daily Internet Activities

Email 60%
Online search 49%
Check news 39%
Check weather 30%
Research hobby 29%
Surf web for fun 29%
Visit social networking site 13%

30% of Internet Users are offline on a typical day.

The report explains that searchers are likely to have some college education, incomes over $50K, and are more likely to be men (53%) than women (45%). 58% of those with broadband at home search daily, while only 26% with dial-up search that often. The age ranges breakdown like this:

18 – 29 years 55%
30 – 49 years 54%
50 – 64 years 40%
65 years and older 27%

Explanations are given in the report.

Participation is big in our tiny corner of the Internet it’s not big in every person’s life. The participatory culture is hardly on the radar for most human beings. They’re not near here yet.

Few folks care about another fix for Twitter. Life goes on for most humans without a thought to a dashboard for organizing social networking sites. In the world of human problems, all of social media and social networking issues are a tiny dot.

Social Media Market Problems

Real people still have real problems — the kind that social media folks ALSO have. Social tools and social strategies that solve those problems are worth something.

Meanwhile, real people are searching . . . are we what they’re searching for?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Chart: via PEW, hat tip to Clickz