- Press release if written with fresh, new content is bound to bring to your website many new visitors, which is what SEO at its core focuses on.
- It can help in providing a better exposure for your website and business among online audiences
- PRs can act as a good means to get quality backlinks for your website (again an SEO advantage)
- 4. You have a chance to explore new avenues, as new visitors get to know more about your services
- 5. The search engine spiders too love crawling sites releasing genuine PRs (good for your SEO)
- 6. Your search engine visibility and ranking can shoot up, if the PR is published on good directories that have high page rankings
- 7. It is a great tool, if your business is new and you think affording marketing campaigns can cause a burden on your wallet.
- 8. PRs if written effectively are adept to improve your site’s ranking on SERPs ( the core offering of SEO)
Archive for the ‘SEO’ Category
8 Things that Makes Press Releases Imperative in SEO
Friday, May 17th, 2013
Press Release (PR) is a kind of newsletter, which can help in making announcement about any new development at your company. A part of any business’s online as well as offline promotion, this is a loved method by Google, the search engine leader. Press releases are considered much more than just a company’s sales pitch and ad letter. It can help in engaging your customers by keeping them informed about the new launches and movements of your company. Releasing press releases whenever something new is added to your work portfolio, is good to make the press informed and to keep your valuable clients updated.
Let’s See How Press Releases Play a Crucial Role in Search Engine Optimization
If still unaware that how a press release can be of help for your online marketing campaign, here are few pointers, which may give you the answer.
Essential Aspects of Optimizing a Page for SEO
Friday, April 12th, 2013
With large number of business websites and ecommerce applications, the concept of SEO continues to take higher priority for building the visibility and popularity of any business among target audiences across the world. SEO or Search Engine Optimization can be described as the method of earning traffic by using organic or free listings that are offered by search engines. Web pages, websites, videos, and online documents are presented before the user by search engines, based on ranking that is decided as per the relevance of the page in terms of user’s query.
Two Main Areas of Focus in SEO
- On-Page SEO
- Off-Page SEO
- Meta Description and Keywords in Meta Tags
- Use of Keywords in Image Alt tag
- Relevant Keywords and Quality Content
- Link Building
Challenges that SEO Consultants face in their Profession
Friday, March 15th, 2013
Do you feel that an SEO consultants’ job may not be that demanding? Well, your mindset will change after reading this article.
SEO consultants work synchronously with clients occupied in different spheres of business, and work towards resolving the various website related issues, and requirements put forth by them. The following points describe these challenges, and may help clients in appreciating the work and efforts offered by the consultants.
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Competing with Sites Which Use Unethical Techniques
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Dealing with Diverse Attitudes of Clients
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Assuming That SEO Consultants Can Resolve Any Website Related Issue
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Instant Results and Emphasis on Poor KPIs
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Delaying SEO Till the Final Web Development Stage
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Tackling the Issues Related to Rates and Payments Per Link
Step up the Number of First Page Listings on Google
Tuesday, February 26th, 2013
Earlier, when one entered a search query in Google, the result pages that were displayed were observed to have a few ads inserted with the relevant results, which gave an overall impression of clean and organized pages. Nowadays, the search pages are viewed as platforms for building rankings and increasing the visibility of the company. With better control over the first search page positions, online businesses can have improved power over their brand image, and make them accessible for more online users. By controlling increased number of organic links associated with its brand one the first search page, companies can market their brand in an efficient manner.
Using Media- Images and Videos
Search results that no longer include just text, image search result extend the playing field, as they are also prominent on the search result pages. This method is highly effective since it is used to fewer websites, and so there is ample opportunities for businesses to stand out. They are also field specific and can be excellent for companies occupied in travel and tourism, and hospitality. Clicking on that image will direct the user to the web page where the image is located. Another form of visual element that is used for increasing the rank is using videos in SERPs. Video clips embedded on the site that are used in search results prove to be effective in building ranks.Focusing on Domain and Related Aspects
With Google taking effort to reduce domain crowding, it can show more than one listing for a business on the result page. With more number of individual ranks for the same domain, the businesses can have increased visibility. The view of the company’s sitelink on the search result pages can give a great idea about its ranking. With two categories of site links supported by Google, standard and expanded, businesses can plan towards taking hold of more area in the search result page, and thus earn more visibility. They also need to focus on quality alt text and anchor text in terms of original, concise, and relevant content, as the Google Webmaster tool can penalize unused sitelinks. Additional domains are debatable, however, can be effective in driving the search results. There are various instances that can help catch more listings relevant to the search, such as creating dedicated domains for particular products or services, or geographical regions. Sites related to newspapers and financial market updates, can take advantage of the opportunities offered by Google News. As long as the content adheres to the technical regulations and quality criteria set by Google News, articles can earn excellent listings. With this platform, current new content and updates are also displayed in the results with the queries that have topics relevant to them. An overview of results related to shopping queries shows that that although they look organic and display as such, they are not really organic. Local information that includes listings relevant to a specific locality of region, and map views is also seamlessly integrated with SERPs. They are most beneficial to companies with retail points, which are relevant to certain regions. Another popular strategy to earn better listing in SERPs is to focus on third party websites with excellent authority. Blogging as guests on other outstanding blogs that are relevant to the business or updating the social media pages can be useful. Read moreGoogle+ Ranking Second among the Largest Social Networking Platforms
Wednesday, January 30th, 2013
The popularity of social networking sites needs no introduction. The launch of Google+ shows excellent promise and it is proving itself to other major social network sites as a tough competitor. For those who were skeptical about Google+, the data from Global Web Index, a company specializing in internet analytics may come as a surprise. The research shows that Google has moved ahead of Twitter in the 4th quarter in 2012, and has secured the position as the second major social networking platform.
According to the report, Facebook still enjoys a lead ahead of the competition. As one of the largest social networking sites, it has over a billion members totally, with 693 million users who are active. Its growth, with reference to active user accounts was reported to be 33%. Using information compiled from 31 countries, which make up ninety percent of the population globally, Global Web Index established 343 million active users to Google+ and 288 million active users to Twitter. The data also showed that Google+ has earned a growth rate of 33 percent while Twitter has a growth rate of 40 percent.
The data from the report also indicated a comparison of the sites based on the worldwide population who use these social networking sites actively, on a monthly basis, with 25 percent using Google+ actively, 51 percent using Facebook, and around 21 percent using YouTube and Twitter. The video sharing services offered by Google continues to be appreciated, winning it some percentage points. YouTube moved ahead of Twitter to secure a position as the third largest social network. In the top-ten list of largest social networks, LinkedIn made to the 10th spot with over 100 million active usage and ten percent growth rate of active users.
The 5th to 9th positions in the list belonged to social networking sites that are popular in China, where censorship on internet is prominent. Qzone, Sina Weibo, Tencent, Youku, as well as Todou are some of the Chinese social networks noted on the list.
Looking Back at the Google Highlights 2012
Friday, November 30th, 2012
The year witnessed some standout changes put forth by Google, which had a great influence on SEO. SEO experts and consultants keep themselves informed about the various updates. Google continued to lay emphasis on quality and standards as a means of promoting the websites. The significance to trust, credibility, and reputation was heightened. Google also got assertive with responding to irresponsible web standards and poor quality. This goes to prove the importance and high levels set by Google for the content and design of a website.
The month of April introduced Penguin, which acted as a tool for penalizing websites that were constructed with artificial outbound links. Google made a strong stand to detach poor standard and artificial links. They can be considered as well planned and implemented steps taken by Google to highlight websites with good standards. Giving importance to credibility of links, it also disregards links that are unreliable. This gives an idea about the reaction and response of Google towards websites that make use of untrustworthy links.
Besides penalizing poor quality, Google also spots out and appreciates high quality. This has, certainly proved to be encouraging to the websites, and has shown that high quality is also rewarded. In April, the announcement of a crucial algorithm change issued its importance at reducing the rankings for the sites that has low quality. The algorithm focused on several bad practices, such as overuse of keywords and poor content.
- The practice of over-optimization also came into light. The misuse of the concept of relevance by using too many keywords on the page, or the use of numerous exchange links.
- Google has expanded its abilities with which the search engines can execute JavaScript and AJAX.
- Site-wide back-links were also brought to attention, and were held in comparison to the keyword counting process that Google uses.
- The increased number in static advertisements placed above the fold was also assessed and those risking content were penalized.
- Google also sets to identify those topics that offer freshness and quality. This ensures that the algorithm spots recent and updated information.
- In September, Google brought forth the announcement that exact match domains, which characterized low quality, would be targeted.
- In the same month, an update was put forth by Google targeted to increase the number of domains shown in the search results.
- The algorithm, Panda, was designed to focus on websites that made use of poor standard of content. It also witnessed thirteen updates since November 2011. It has been effective in motivating websites to clean up substandard content and take efforts to design and plan well written content.
Google Clears the Air and Web Space with Disavowing Links Tool
Thursday, November 1st, 2012
If you own a website, chances are that you have been plagued by bad links – these could have been placed either by someone who considers you competition, or via automatic malicious links. Such links could create problems with search engines, because your site could very well be blacklisted.
In such a scenario, it is essential that you remove all such links, but sometimes, you find yourself helpless, because you are unable to do so.
With the launch of the new disavow links tool by Google, there was an air of cheer amongst all those people who were being bogged down by bad links on their sites. While some of the bad links were being placed manually, there are those which make their way onto a site, with a malicious intent.
While this tool is meant to remove the bad links that people are finding difficult to delete from their site, it is definitely not meant for making life easier for you.
Googlerepresentatives cleared the air that this tool is not for those people who would just want to make a list of the bad links on their site, and expect all of them to be cleared off. Rather, this was meant only and only for those links, which owners of websites are not able to remove, even after repeated efforts.
So, if you are also facing trouble with non-removable links, then you might want to get in touch with the Google team and try out their disavow links tool.
Top Heavy 2: Google Updated the Page Layout Algorithm
Friday, October 19th, 2012
In association with the updates on Google’s search algorithm, the announcement of its Page Layout filter refresh, which was discussed in January, is also referred to as the ‘Top Heavy’ update. With a brief glance over the last few updates, one can observe that the Panda Update 20 and the EMD Update 1 occurred over the 27th and 28th of September 2012 and the Penguin Update 3 and the Top Heavy 2 rolled out on the 5th and 9th of October 2012.
Described as a ‘minor’ update, it had a significant effect on 0.7% of the queries in English language. It is related to feedbacks from the users who respond that when they click on a search result, they find it difficult to search the actual content, and are dissatisfied with the overall experience. The users prefer to view the content immediately rather than scrolling through the various ads. Thus, the update can affect websites that do not have relevant “above the fold” content. If the click on a website reveals a significant part of the initial web page dedicated to ads, or lack of visible above the fold content, the website may not secure high ranks due to low browsing experience.
Although called as “Page Algorithm” update, it has been aptly described as “Top Heavy” as it targets web pages whose top portions are heavy with the ads. The second refresh associated, the Top Heavy 1 released on the 19th of January, 2012 affected less than 1 percent of the English query searches, while the Top Heavy 2, released on 9th of October 2012 had an impact on 0.7 percent of the same. As suggested by the update statistics, it can be observed that those who make changes recommended by Google are now free from the effects of the Top Heavy updates.
Various services have analyzed the impact of the Google updates like Top Heavy on various search results. One can view these graphs and illustrative charts to get a better idea about the impact of the Top Heavy update.
Google Panda Updates: A Look at the Road Travelled
Friday, September 21st, 2012
A name well known in the field of search engine optimization, the Google Panda was brought forth to target the poor-quality sites and lower their ranks. Since its first rollout, Google’s Panda continue to be updated. The focus has been on improving the overall quality of the websites. The first Panda update from Panda 1 to Panda 2 had a huge impact. The updates are not usually announced and sometimes, Google announce them short notice after the fact.
Following a series of updates described to be minor; one of the significant revisions was the rolling out in international languages beyond English. After a belated statement from Google describing one such minor update to be major, the Panda 3 had also arrived. The Panda 3.5 update went unnoticed because its occurrence was at nearly the same time as the Penguin update. The ranking modifications and changes that indicate a Panda update were cloaked under the Penguin update.
Updates and renewals of the Panda algorithm on a monthly basis, targeted at poor quality pages, may even be so minor that they go unobserved. Many wonder that without the point system and discarding the level of the update as ‘major’ or ‘minor’, a consecutive increment in the update serial number could have yielded a result of Panda 19. So, can the Panda 20 be expected any time soon?
The evolution of the algorithm is designed to target those web pages that are of low standards and lower their rankings in the search results.