SEO Tag

Setting Up Your Online Business for Search Engine Success

An increasing number of budding entrepreneurs are turning to the internet as the catalyst for their business endeavors. Many recognize the low startup costs, minimal overhead and instant access to a global market and dive into an internet business headfirst, not taking the time to research their options thoroughly. Just as with a brick-and-mortar store, it’s imperative to do your due diligence to conceive a marketable product with adequate levels of supply and demand, establish a breakeven point and determine if you have the time, money and perseverance required to make your business a success.

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Google’s Personalized Searches Could Change Rankings

Last week, Google rolled out an additional feature in its  personalized search results, which is based on your experience on the search engine.  This feature has been slowly rolled out to users signed into their Google Accounts.  An example Google likes to give is, searching for recipes. Lets say you simply search “recipes” and have clicked on epicurious.com a number of times.  Google will start ranking their site higher the next time you search for recipes.  It’s as easy as that.

It is a nice feature to have, but as previously stated, the feature was only available for users who were signed into their Google accounts and had their web history enabled.  That’s changing now and anyone using Google will be able to use the feature, even if you don’t have a Google account.  (more…)

Blogs and Search Engine Optimization

Ten Tips For Optimizing Your Blog For Search Engines

It’s not breaking news that blogs are great for search engines. Since blogs became popular and were documented in the main stream media, back around early 2004, the merits of their marketing reach and search engine prowess has been well-covered by the search and marketing industry. It’s almost as if blogs were specifically designed to appeal to search engines, in that they fulfill so many specific criteria search engines look for when determining ranking. Fresh, content-based websites with clean architecture, simple navigation and keyword-rich page titles are like honey to a bear, search engines are naturally attracted to them and once they get sticky, they keep coming back.

But getting your blog to really communicate well with the engines isn’t something that comes built in; there are some essential steps that you need to take in order to make it easy for engines to discover your site and subsequently, rank it higher. Follow these ten tips to optimizing your blog for search engines, and you’ll be well on your way.
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Google Search Algorithm Exploited

Relevant. Fast. Spam-free. These were adjectives that described the Google search engine and were the foundation behind the reason Google has a massive chunk of the search market share. But could that stellar reputation be in jeopardy? Recently, it’s been discovered that spammers have taken advantage of the Google ranking algorithm and used it to their benefit, utilizing black-hat SEO techniques to have malicious sites rank predominantly under certain keywords. After repeated requests and many documented examples of this activity, Google has finally officially responded and plans to adjust their algorithm to combat these techniques, an exploit that seemingly is a by-product of Web 2.0 and what is called “link velocity”.
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Social Media Versus Search

It seems like it’s impossible to get away from articles nowadays that start with the phrase “In these hard economic times…” But gear up for another, because in these hard economic times, companies are looking for any excuse to yield revenue and cut costs. Perhaps that accounts for part of the reason social media tactics are so very popular right now.

After all, sites like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace can disseminate information about your company’s products and services in a quick and (most importantly) free way. And this ability has many touting this means of marketing as the next best thing.

But there’s also something to be said for holding off on any fad that simply seems too good to be true. After all, any new marketing efforts require time and energy. Even if there isn’t any money required upfront, there is still the necessary dedication of manpower. And this can be viewed as tantamount to expense, because time is most certainly money. As such, before you or your company launches an organized social media effort, make sure it’s right for your business and make sure your business is ready for that kind of campaign.
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You Better Not Pout…SEO is Comin’ to Town

With economic troubles the focus of news reports across the nation, there appears to be a correlated trend in the world of search engine optimization (SEO). And that trend involves an increased interest in the practice.

While no simple list can explain this phenomenon, here are some possible reasons that SEO has found itself in the limelight in light of economic troubles.

Sales: The internet offers companies an amazing potential for income. For that reason, the urge to drive traffic to your site increases exponentially when the economy—and consequently sales—are down.
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