Showing posts with label search engine marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label search engine marketing. Show all posts

Monday, 16 October 2017

SEO 2017: 8 Crucial Rules for dominating google’s search results.


In this article by R.L. Adams, a software engineer, serial entrepreneur and author of the popular blog called Wanderlustworker, he discusses the 8 crucial rules to make your posts and your content popular in search engines, specifically Google.  As we already know, there are tons of rules and recommendations of how to be popular or how to rank high in the Search engines but these insights come from a person that not only know the theory but also practice it, so this article must be valuable for people looking to apply them. What is also really important is not that you have the right tactics or rules but that these rules are recent and that you can still apply them as time goes by, this is why this 2017 guide for dominating Google’s search results may result pretty relevant nowadays.

Let’s start reminding you that Google’s algorithms offer the most relevant and most organic search results quickly and accurately. Google’s algorithms are constantly changing and updating, this is why it is really important for you to be prepared and keep track of all these changes so you can become a master in SEO. The author explains us how some people understood the power of ranking and the way this algorithm worked and started coming up with several ways to “fool” them “by building massive link farms and content farm, spinning low quality articles and auto generating links in an effort to outgun other listings and secure the top spots on Google” according to the author. Google has reacted by updating and launching new and enhanced algorithms such as Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird to booth weed out the spoofs and scammers, but also to improve semantic search, which now resulted in a pretty good tool for humans given that these algorithms practically mimic how humans would read content, and interpret the semantic of the texts for Google to give you quality and relevant content.

R.L. Adams throughout this entire article explains us that Search engines is a matter of getting the greatest initial return for a GREAT amount of effort, it is not an “easy peasy” job he says that it is a slow and painful process, this is why he shares these 8 rules with us.  In order to be ranked on the top, there’s basically one thing you must master at performing and this is to get Google’s trust in order to do that you must do as follows:

#1 Indexed Age: A completely new article in the web is going to be less trustworthy than one that has been there for more time. Age relies on when Google discovered the domain and not when it was created.

#2 Authority Profile: this means quality links coming from quality content across the web, reliable sources and sources that already have authority and also diversity, not all links coming from the same source.

#3 Underlying content: Make sure you double check that your article is well written, keyword centered and highly engaging otherwise it might be harmful.

But let’s get going to what really matters, the reason why we are all here for, which is the rules to dominate SEO:

Rule 1: Always work to gain Google’s trust. (Already discussed how)
Rule 2: Age always comes before beauty. Google looks for link consistency over time besides how good your site looks like. Age is measured by its content and the links that are pointing to it and it takes consistency into account, you can not work one month and then abandon your site two months.
Rule 3: Quality will trump quantity every single time. Focus on doing the right thing once rather than several times so Google’s algorithm can consider your content as quality.
Rule 4: Content will always be king. Great content is shared often, make sure that your content can deliver real value to the readers.
Rule 5: Regardless of what you have heard, size really does matter. It is more plausible that you deliver value if the article or the content is long enough so you can elaborate your ideas. A study showed that the articles that were on the top rankings were over 2,000 words but they are not superfluous, size matter but also quality.
Rule 6: Keywords, keywords, keywords but don’t over do it. Make sure you include in the content the keywords that you would like to relate your article to, but just don’t over do it. Google’s algorithms prevent to top rank spam pages. There’s good news about Google’s algorithms, it is that they can now identify semantics, so you don’t have to be repeating and repeating the same exact word.
Rule 7: Step up your mobile game: Today if you don’t make sure that your content can be seen through a mobile phone or your page takes too long to charge in mobile phones, your are dead.
Rule 8: Location, location, location (Of your link of course). In order for you to top rank  one of your main tasks is that you have to be linked from high quality, relevant site and not garbage.

These are the 8 rules that have given the author the opportunity to succeed in SEO with his blog. He ends his article preventing readers from thinking that this would be an easy job, it is going to be really difficult but whenever you seed limitless amounts of free organic traffic coming to your site, everything is worth it.

 Read full article on:


Monday, 31 October 2016

Newly Launched Google Click-to-text Ad Extension

             One event worthy to note this month in the World of Digital Marketing is the Google Adwords launch of Click-to-text ad extensions. At this point, I am sure we are all familiar with the Click-to-call ad extension that has existed for years. So, why not bring out the option of texting? For the “call-phobic” generation we are today.

Search Engine Land published this article earlier this month, in anticipation of the launch of Google Adwords Click-to-text extension:


Adwords also published a blog post on GoogleBlog before the launch of extension, linking within the post to a Best Practices Guide: 

Drive Conversations with Message Extensions: Google Best Practices.



            So how does Click-to-text extension work exactly? As we can see in the example taken from Google above; essentially, it’s another extension underneath the ad with a choice of call to action. Once the user clicks into the extension, their SMS application launches in their smart device. The advertiser can even incorporate a prewritten message tailored to their product or service, then the user has the option to edit the text before sending it.
          
            It seems about time for a search engine to incorporate this type of extension, as it is obvious that many people value the option to continue the conversation at their convenience; just look at the prevalence of live chatting now offered by many retail sites. Not to mention “Nearly two thirds of smartphone owners use messaging more than five times a day to communicate with others. And people aren’t limiting their use of messaging to social communications - 65% of consumers say they’d consider using messaging to connect with a business to get information about a product or service, or to schedule an in-person appointment.” Quoted by Google on their blog. Also quoted in the blog are some positive feedback from advertisers already using the extension, the TravelPass Group claimed that “The conversion rate on message extensions is 41% higher compared to other ad extensions.”


Now with enough evidence that introducing the new Click-to-text ad extension was indeed a step forward taken by Google Adwords, let’s get to the nuts and bolts of the operation. The message extension will be charged the same way as any other clicks on the ad, the advertiser is able to publish the extension with campaign and ad groups, as wells as scheduling the appearance of the extension during certain periods of the day. The timing of this particular extension is important because during after business hours, it is recommended to set up an automated response to incoming messages. To optimize the usage of the Click-to-text ad extension, there are four overall guidelines: Create clear and relevant message extensions, set up a great conversation over text, measure the value of the messages you receive, and boost the performance of your messaging extensions. These guidelines can be found in greater detail on the Google Adwords support website.



Rose Yin, Yauheni B. 


Sources: 
http://searchengineland.com/click-to-message-extension-google-adwords-launch-261228
https://adwords.googleblog.com/2016/10/click-to-message-ads-bring-new-and-easy.html
https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/7182126utm_source=inside_adwords&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=messaging


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Friday, 30 September 2016

Current Black Hat SEO Methods

Black Hat SEO practices is an issue in Digital Marketing worthy to be addressed. To start off exploring the current trends in black Hat SEO, we should refresh ourselves with the definition of SEO: Search Engine Optimization which “is a marketing discipline focused on growing visibility in organic (non-paid) search engine results. SEO encompasses both the technical and creative elements required to improve rankings, drive traffic, and increase awareness in search engines.” The key elements to note in this definition are first, ‘organic’; meaning non-paid results opposite of SEM: Search Engine Marketing. Secondly, ‘discipline’; meaning that there are rules and guidelines to follow. So, Black Hat essentially means the mal-practices of SEO.

This article from Positionly.com identifies and presents the common Black Hat practices in SEO:

The list of common practices include:
  •         Paid links: Which is explained by it’s title; when people pay for links for SEO.
  •         Spam comments: Commonly seen and identifiable by all of us, those obviously bot generated comments sprinkled across the web; containing links.
  •         Duplicate content: pasting sections of identical content across multiple domains, resulting in skewed organic search and poor user experience.
  •      Cloaking: Masking totally different content with relevant URL and presenting it to the user, in order to create false click through rate.


These are only some of the common practices of Black Hat SEO. I believe it is important for us marketers to be aware of these practices, as they are rather prevalent. Also, it is important for us as users to recognize when a click lands in faulty web-content as it could be the result of Black Hat SEO.
However, the most crucial part remains in knowing the consequences of such practices; and to avoid being tempted by these acts, as most of them are simple to execute. The consequences of Black Hat SEO could but rarely result in banning of the website, but penalization is common; which involves paying negative SEO and lowers your website rank. Ultimately eliminating all efforts of the Black Hat practice, and probably losing much more in the process.
So as Marketers, we have to ask ourselves the final question: will it be worth it?


Rose Yin


Article '8 Risky Black Hat SEO Techniques Used Today' 
@positionly. "8 Risky Black Hat SEO Techniques Used Today." Positionly Blog. N.p., 08 Oct. 2015.     Web. 30 Sept. 2016.
Source: 'The Beginners Guide to SEO' 
"SEO: The Beginner's Guide to Search Engine Optimization from Moz." Moz. N.p., 04 Mar. 2014. Web. 30 Sept. 2016.