Relationships between Google and the Competition

An SEO Analogy That Will Change Your Strategy

This  analogy is going to change your SEO strategy today! It explains why you should change your Seo focal point today and be more cautious of your competition more than just Google.

An analogy is a comparison of two entirely different things that can be used to clarify or explain one based on another. Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Steve Jobs and countless others have used them to be able to communicate their ideas in a better way.  As Sigmund Freud pointed out, “Analogies, it is true, decide nothing, but they can make one feel more at home.”

At some point, everyone uses analogies to somehow simplify things. Here is an analogy that will work great for your overall SEO plan.  I am going to compare SEO with a track and field racing event.

A little background about this Race!

The event is hosted by the organizer (Google), they set the rules and guidelines, and they have certain pre-requisites for each runner (website). There are many teams (competitors) but only 10 will get rewarded (ranking).

Something about the organizer – Google.

The organizer (Google) has requirements that the runners stick to. They cannot use performance enhancing drugs (spamming), the runners need to be within a certain weight and age-group (websites should be coded with the valid mark-ups and indexing potential). The organizer makes money by getting people into their arena and it makes more money by getting only but the best to compete with each other and yes, they do favour the older and popular slightly more. Google makes money by being able to produce the most accurate results for a search term. Without this credibility, we might as well go and use other search engines.  They are absolutely in love in finding the best runners.

Google only sets the race, it is absolutely non-personal in terms of runner evaluation and uses a program to find who the runners in the race should be. This program (Google Algorithm) gives a final score for each runner and Google is aware that some of the athletes know how to deceive their program and so they continually find ways to pull out runners who are trying to fool them.

Something about the runners – Websites.

The runners have exceptional skill at writing content, building website popularity and they always want to show off to Google that they should be the top choice for search terms. Runners are also aware that being at the top of the race brings in more money and popularity. The runners also know that the demand to see this race is very high and daily brings in more competitive runners.

Let the SEO races begin!

Before we start the race, we know one thing for sure. Google`s algorithm is dynamic – that it changes from time to time.  But these changes are always in favor of those who listen to their guidelines. Google`s work as an organizer is only to hold the location for the race and to make sure only runners that follow the guidelines can run.  The rest is then up only to the runners!

The runners however are highly dynamic; they are more aggressive than Google. It`s their strategy and their out-smarting of the competition that will bring them closer to the finish line. Mind only that no Google guidelines are being broken.

To Conclude:

Do you know the Google Guidelines well? Do you know what they favor and what they frown upon? – Than that’s all you need to know about having a baseline strategy for your SEO. However, that is only about 10% of this game.

90% of your focused SEO activity then,  should be directed at outsmarting your competition. Care should just be taken that no guidelines are being broken.  Starting today, you should take archives of the SERPs 3 pages back and every single runner/website should be looked at thoroughly. This way you can always be informed of what works for industry. Seos are clever – might as well pirate a few ideas!

How Do Businesses Use Social Media Successfully?

redkite.com.ph

Hi! – This is Marky. Today I am here to help you understand,

1. How you can setup your own business social media by looking at how others have set them up successfully.
2. Then we will look further into what options you have for social media participation.

We will conclude in the end of this blog, that the three important considerations before doing any social media then would be,

1. To use Social Media to Brand your business above anything else
2. To use social sites effectively (Different sites will need different content or posts)
3. To know what posts appeal to the humans on the other side of the screen.

Social media goes beyond just Facebook and Twitter. There are many niche sites that cater to specific industries.  Then, there are other social sites that perform different functions. Before we discuss how business use social media “successfully”, let us understand first how businesses these…

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Professional Webmasters – Functions and Costs

redkite.com.ph

Hi! Today, I would like to discuss the FAQs (Frequently asked questions) regarding

1) What webmasters do?

2) How they can help your business and

3) What they cost?

In general, webmasters are champions in understanding and analysing websites. While they are generally not web-coders or developers, they have a solid understanding of how the WWW (world-wide web) works.

Q1 – What do Webmasters do?

• SEO & GOOGLE WEBMASTER TOOLS

By Using Google Webmaster Tools, webmasters are able to communicate with Google-Bots efficiently. Google-Bot is the name of the crawler made by Google, they read websites. This is how they index websites into their database and through the application of their algorithm (PageRank), they are able to rank websites for specific keywords.

This function is fundamental for any SEO. The tools included in Webmaster Tools are:

• Search Appearance

Tells you how your website is structured, if there are HTML…

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SEO : Build Content, Links or Do Social Media?

Do I focus on more Content, Links or  Social Media?

TO understand this, we may first have to approach the question – Are there any real guarantees in SEO?

Undergoing any SEO comes with numerous questions.  And do these questions have any grounds for any real guarantee

Questions from SEO clients :

When will I be in Page 1 and Rank 1?

How much money will I make?

How many leads and calls will I get?

 

According to Google Guidelines, there cannot be any guarantees in SEO. Because a guarantee in SEO means that a methodology works most – more than anything, that is a huge pivotal contradiction for Google.

The only Google Guarantee for SEO is this: Is your content the “most captivating” that it need to be on Page 1 rank 1 for Google users to Find?

 

So then starts the forum battles of SEOs, Social media and Content experts! The forum war goes this way..

SEO expert John – “Content itself wont rank.. you need high quality links”

Social Media Andrew – “If the content is good and it goes viral, you will gain organic links” – “Links itself is useless”

Content writer Jack – “If people pick up my amazing content, it will go viral in Social media and it will do well in SEO”..

 

Then John, Jack and Andrew produce statistics and then they cite websites or blogs like http://www.MOZ.com, searchengineland.com , http://www.socialmediaexamier.com, some will go back to basic like http://www.bruceclay.com and even http://www.w3c.com. It looks like a full-fledged religion/science war about the chicken and the egg.

 

The actual truth is that all are right but what is left out on the equation are circumstances and priorities for the SEO / Internet marketing campaign.. like..

 

1. Is the campaign for organic non-branded keywords?

2. How much competition exists for the keywords?

3. What is the quality and distribution scale of the competitor content?

4. What are the competitor`s link building vantage point? DO they have a loyal and steady network of people who link to their content easily?

 

So, the only reasonable answer to what rules.. content, links or Social media is that you have to do the homework first and then judge what works for each campaign.  

But YES! – you need content more than links as links are a result of the content and not vice versa. 

What you should and should not outsource in SEO?

I see a great deal number of posts and blogs even in seomoz.. dont know how those get through.. like.. http://moz.com/ugc/outsource-link-building-like-a-small-seo-company for example.. 

Clearly as you go below in the thread.. you see people are a little against it, the “outsourcers” and the “outsourcees” or SEO “enthusiasts”.. if we can call them that. 

What is fundamentally wrong with this, one may ask?  There are a few problems associated with being too much of a link builder “outsourcer.” The first being,  that you are thinking of savings and you miss the big point which is Link building is earned these days, you just cannot simply build them anymore.. you are wasting money and time. 

The rule is simple, you outsource when you need expertise and when you need the extra boost of experienced professionals who genuinely care about your customers. You do not outsource  when ( as the blog link above says) you need man power for $2/hr.. This is just ridiculous. Its like going back to 2005 all over again.. 

You look for Seo outsourcing companies, see their entire repertoire, check price costs and benefits, decide who to work with and hopefully you are not biased about outsourcing to countries like Philippines, there is so much that you do not know if you do decide to just work with US and UK companies.

SEO is about time and investment, the time when you decide to outsource is when you know you need both but cannot afford it at a US or UK SEO SEO-premium level.  That is when you look for good outsourcing companies for SEO or even web designs etc.. You cannot simply just say lets outsource cos its cheaper or lets just outsource link building .. SEO is an “in its entirety” kind of commitment.. Spend some time, research, talk to providers, talk to their SEO clients.. match them, compare them but you do not think that you are going to get a sub standard service.. just because you are now trying SEO from another country like the Philippines. 

That kind of thinking is unfortunate because you would be limiting whats out there.. For a fact I know, some of the most successful SEO companies based in the US and UK are using professionals like us, they are “re-selling” anyways.. and you would not know that.

Its the way this business works, you have to use your mind a little more, be patient and research. 

SO if you decide to outsource, make sure it`s “the whole enchilada”, there is no shortcut anymore. IN SEO everything is involved; from Content, Strategic On Page expansion, Off page expansions, referral traffic, layout, conversion and a lot more.. You will just not get the result with just a Link Building Strategy, there is none available at the moment, .. but don`t take my word for it.. try this link first .. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/

 

 

SEO vs Internet Advertising!

SEO is a form of internet advertising but not Internet Adverting!

Internet Advertising are those pointless banners,  useless pop up ads and all the other things we don’t like about the internet. On the contrary, SEO is about having your website come up to a visible level as a search result for a query.

If you are looking for Internet Advertising, you are looking at your advertising Budget at a 100% focus. Its like saying I have $x and what can I get with $x in terms of impressions and visits.  Its a faster, half-strategic plan and as usual is half in results.  The forte here is to pay more and reach more so that x% of people will interact.. The following places are where people do Internet Advertising.

1. Google and YouTube Ads

2. Social Media Ads

3. Email provider Ads

4. Newsletters

5. Banner ads

As you look into this list, you probably acknowledge that these ads are almost useless and we usually skip them always. Ever wonder now why YouTube has a big “SKIP AD”  on every ad video..

On the other Hand, SEO and Internet marketing is much nobler and much more strategic. Here what you invest is time.. not money– there is a cost but its not anything close to Internet Advertising.

In Internet marketing and in particular SEO is about making search vs result relationships.  How you or your webpage can be endorsed by Google as a better result page. Multiply this by a 50 or 100 pages targeting 100 Kws and you understand how this really works. Not only is it “non-obtrusive” — you may realize that there is no “skip this”.. in a result page..  the people actually need and want this information..

SO that`s the biggest difference.. One is obtrusive, temporary and based on money spend-ability and the other is permanent, accepted and built on time, patience and information.

 

All you need is this One Reason to Outsource Seo!

Why is seo such an outsourced activity in marketing. To understand this better, continue reading –> When Does Seo End?

This reason is  the actual nature of Google and organic seo itself. To further clarify this, we need to understand organic seo, how much work is needed to be done to get good rankings? We also need to understand that Seo and internet marketing as a whole is an inexact science and trial and error is almost always there whether you are working for rankings, lower bounce rates or building links.

To get at organic seo growth, you need loads of good content and lots of blogosphere and social media sphere participation. You will have to have good links increase the popularity of your webpage/s. All this tried to imply 1 thing, that Google organic growth itself demands time and time demands money.

Seo is an inexact science and you will have to try a few things before you get your perfect marketing mix, this also eats time and money.

If you truly want to dominate and stay on top for your keywords organically, you will have to think about making it run on some very low profile. Outsourcing Seo allows you to do just that.

“Remarkable” Content for SEO

I recently read “InBound Marketing”  by Dharmesh Shah and Brain Halligan. These guys are the founders of HubSpot. If you have used twitter grader or website grader, you will know what I am talking about.

The book starts off really well and I particularly liked how they classified good content. They used Seth Godin`s term “remarkable” content which means content that is worthy of someones “remarks“. This I thought was an amazing and alternate way than to just keep saying “Good Content” or “Original Content”. And as you keep thinking of it, it hits the nail squarely on the head about what is the best kind of content writing for SEO.

Most people when starting websites or starting SEO on their websites just start using too much of their competitors ideas and eventually this “remarkable” content concept gets set aside.

Writing original content is the only real basic thing that will get you your SEO results, it is the only guarantee that will get you the conversion points you want and it will make you come out as a thought leader. Read more about why be a thought leader?

Original remarkable content gets shared, it gets appreciated and it makes you come out on top. Just like in the gold rush era, sometimes internet marketing and Seo can be about following others trails and taking a lot of chances because the rewards can be amazing. The tendency is there to just start doing something. But fortunately, unlike the gold rush era, Seo isn`t about actually finding the Gold in Google, the gold is actually already in your website, in your linking ideas, your remarkable content and your care for communication and networking. With these in place, Google will follow you.

Getting to #1 in Google with the right attitude

 

 

We all want to be there! We all want the #1 spot and just wanting that could be the biggest mistake because it could trigger you into making some very wrong SEO moves such as : 

Rushing : Seo is an organic task and will need time. Rushing and trying to move faster means compromising content and link quality. Any experienced SEO will tell you that it takes time and strategy all the time. There is no sure formula, the only formula is quality of content and links. 

Wrong Evaluation : Making fast and rash judgement in changing strategy mid-way is also one of the hindrances to SEO. Google Indexing and link building takes time to manifest and there are chances that making premature SEO decisions could have you chasing your own tail. 

Wrong reasons to be #1 : If you want to be #1 to just make money, this is the biggest distraction. Making money comes with a good following. Good following comes with good content and syndication. Put effort instead to change your goal perspective, think of being #1 in content, link and human readership satisfaction. The rest will come by itself. 

So if you truly want to be #1, you have to think a little different. You can only get there by being serving to others. This is where the true secret lies. 

Read Why keep a cool head in SEO? and watch some videos on Google Guidelines. You can also read the rest of this article in more detail at Why chasing Ranking isn’t Good For SEO.