SEO - Search Engine Optimization

Google announced this week that they will be rolling out more algorithm updates targeting Black Hat SEO and webspammers. You know all those SEO companies that promise #1 rankings and don't have a concern for the risk of getting your website banned from Google's index or demoting its' value to obscurity. Essentially they are looking for individuals and companies that are blatantly attempting to manipulate the Search Engine Ranking Results using whatever means possible. These techniques go against google's recommended webmaster guidelines and are considered Black Hat SEO. There are a couple fine example in their blog post.

Google believes that this algorithm change will only affects about 3% of queries in English. So it should not have a major impact on your results (if you are not doing anything against their guidelines). However, the complexity behind all of this is huge and makes performing SEO that much more difficult and risky.

A good portion of any quality SEO program will involve keyword research. Keyword (or more appropriately, key phrase) research is an ongoing effort and not just a one-time setup task. Every month we look for new keyphrase opportunities for our clients. We also perform this task for our own web properties and this is usually reserved for the weekends (or in this particular case, Sunday afternoon).

As we were researching opportunities today, we came across a nicely positioned phrase with a fair amount of traffic and surprisingly moderate competitiveness. We also noted that we currently did not rank for this phrase. This wasn't of grave concern at the moment because we had not targeted this particular phrase and we had not yet made any efforts to rank for it.

However, when doing a Google search and looking at the results, something quickly caught my eye.

We have been saying it for years...

Research and tactics used in Organic SEO can apply, somewhat, to your PPC campaign research and tactics. And vice-a-versa. However the keyword has always been "somewhat".

Today, more than ever, this is true and for those companies and organizations that are utilizing the web to its fullest possiblities for marketing will realize how to take advantage of these crossovers.

The most obvious of these symbiotic channels is Research. While researching key phrases for your campaigns, be it PPC or Natural SEO, you discover information about the key phrases. While some of this may only apply to one campaign or the other, certain elements of your research will assist with both. For example if a key phrase is highly competitive, you may decide to skip it for Organic SEO because of the cost and effort to compete naturally (it may be out of your budget), but meanwhile for a PPC campaign, you can decide to compete with the understanding of a higher cost-per-click for the particular phrase.

Google has been testing some algorithm updates recently and last week has decided to put them into effect. The Google Page Layout Update, as it is now known, takes into account the content that is "above the fold" on a webpage and will reduce the quality and authority of pages that do not provide quality content above the fold (namely excessive ads at the top of the page).

Google's "Distinguished Engineer", Matt Cutts wrote:

We understand that placing ads above-the-fold is quite common for many websites; these ads often perform well and help publishers monetize online content. This algorithmic change does not affect sites who place ads above-the-fold to a normal degree, but affects sites that go much further to load the top of the page with ads to an excessive degree or that make it hard to find the actual original content on the page. This new algorithmic improvement tends to impact sites where there is only a small amount of visible content above-the-fold or relevant content is persistently pushed down by large blocks of ads.

Social Media may be the hot topic of the day (or the last several years actually), but when it comes to finding useful information, the majority of consumers still rely heavily on search (and other specialty niche websites). A recent article over at searchengineland.com indicates that Search Trumps Social For Local Business Information.

Research from the Pew Internet & American Life Foundation found that during a survey in early 2011, a majority of people (51%) looking for information about bars, restaurants and clubs, use the internet for their research. The types of internet technology they use are as follows:

• search engines – 38 percent
• specialty websites – 17 percent
• social media – 3 percent

As for other types of local business, just under a majority (47%) use the internet. Of those:

Well, check out the video below and see for yourself....

I guess the short answer is, as long as you follow Google's guidelines than SEO is not considered spam.

It is going to be up to each individual website and their SEO team to determine the right blend of onsite optimization, content creation and link building that will work for them, without upsetting the mighty "G".

Interesting how, in the video above, Matt Cutts is once again pushing site speed as a ranking factor. "One of many ranking factors" as is always stated. I just find it funny how that particular ranking factor (site speed) always seems to be mentioned....

Looking for a quick, very basic tutorial of what Search Engine Optimization actually is?

The folks at SearchEngineLand.com along with Common Craft have put together a fine little presentation about "What is SEO". If SEO has piqued your interest for you business (and it really should) but you don't quite understand it just yet, take 3 minutes of your day and watch the video below. It is well worth the effort.

We are big fans of RavenTools.com and love the tool set they provide.
They have a great online suite of applications that make organizing and managing SEO campaigns a breeze, especially multiple campaigns. Not to mention the tool set is agency friendly with full user and permission control.

Raven Tools Firefox tool bar has become a "must-have" component in our browser (I am still waiting for the Chrome version...).
The raventools toolbar makes it very easy to interact with your web properties and perform many of the more tedious SEO tasks (such as tracking links in your link building campaigns) or quickly accessing differnt personas for your different websites.

However with the recent new updates to Firefox (versions 4, 5 & 6 coming out very recently) and the fact that I have to maintain a browser across at least 4 different computers (My main office PC, conference room PC, Laptop & home PC) I have had to do many updates recently. And each time I update, I would always do a google search for the raventools toolbar or raven toolbar for firefox or maybe even raventools firefox toolbar. However, my search never turns up relevant results.
I eventually found the answer I needed in the raventools knowledge base:

Firefox Toolbar

2nd Annual Regional Small Business Conference & Bootcamp

Don't miss out this Thursday, May 19, 2011 at the Anne Kolb Nature Center in Hollywood Florida.
From 8:00am - 2:30pm.

Registration is FREE

The Cities of Hollywood, Dania Beach, Miramar, Hallandale Beach and Pembroke Pines along with Broward County's Office of Economic and Small Business Development, South Florida Regional Planning Council, Greater Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, Greater Dania Beach Chamber of Commerce, Regions Bank and Liberia Economic and Social Development, Inc., have partnered to host the Second Annual Regional Small Business Conference and Bootcamp on May 19, 2011.

The event is FREE and seating is limited. To register, contact the City of Hollywood Office of Business & International Trade, 954.921.3388

A recent Small Business Search Marketing Survey by American Express OPEN and Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) shows that more small businesses are using Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, etc...) to attract new business than Mass Email Marketing, Organic SEO and Pay-Per-Click Advertising.