SEO Worldwide

Building a Solid Reputation

Your Online Presence

Your reputation matters. You think about how you appear to other people in your every day interactions with them, but in today's world, that's not enough. It's time for you to think about what happens on the internet. Here's an experiment for you- put your name into a search engine. What sort of results come up? What's the online community saying about you? If you're not happy with your online reputation, or just as bad, you have no online presence at all, it's time for you to make a change.

The Power of Social Media

So, how do you go about creating a more satisfying online reputation? Social media is the first step. If you don't set up your own Twitter, Facebook, and other profiles there's someone out there that'll be happy to do the job for you, and chances are it won't be flattering. Are you really going to sit back and let the future of your company be determined by someone who has a grudge against you? You need to be the one who's in charge of the information getting released through social media. Take control of your reputation before anyone else can.

Make an Effort, Get Long Lasting Results

By actively monitoring what's being said about you online and responding thoughtfully you can make a major difference in your reputation. Before responding to any criticism and complaints take the time to research what's being said. This is an opportunity for you to isolate the real, underlying issues so you can devise long term solutions. Your willingness to engage your customers in this way can make a major difference in how your business is viewed. Your online reputation can be one of your companies biggest assets. Take advantage of it.

Let's Face It, You're Not Perfect

Everyone makes mistakes. It's easy for the internet community to discover these faults, which means you won't benefit from trying to cover them up. Instead, own up to the mistakes your business makes and address them online. It's always best if your clients hear about things from you first. Being upfront and acknowledging your own weaknesses can go a long way and the internet is the perfect forum for you to do this. You know that care about your clientele and about preserving your own honesty and integrity. Now let your reputation reflect this.

 

3 Easy Steps for “Cleaning” Your Site

It’s official: spring is here! This time of year always brings with it feelings of renewal and rebirth; people traditionally take this opportunity to clean out there homes, getting rid of the old stuff they don’t want or need anymore to make room for the new. You should also be doing the same with your website. Now is the ideal time to take a fresh look at your site to figure out what’s working, what’s not, and what needs tweaking. Below are a few easy, quick ways you can do this.

Search for Yourself

If you haven’t done a search for your key terms in a while, this is the first thing you should do. If you don’t regularly do this, you are really putting your business or brand at a disadvantage. You may assume that certain things will show up on a search for your name or keywords, but if you don’t actually perform the search, you will never know. Doing this may bring errors on your site to light that you wouldn’t have even known about otherwise. You will be able to tell if your sitelinks are still relevant or if some small, insignificant page of your website appears in the sitelinks when there are many other pages that would be much more appropriate. Regularly checking what comes up on a search for your brand’s name or your key terms will enable you to keep tabs on whether your site has been hacked, which is something you will want to know about right away!

Check Google Instant

During this spring-cleaning process, you should also be checking to see terms come up around your brand on Google Instant. This is the quickest way to find out if there are any negative connotations associated with your brand that need to be addressed. The Internet is an infinitely huge place and there could be mentions about you deep within cyberspace that you had no idea even existed. If enough of these mentions happen, it will influence what comes up in Google Instant when someone starts searching for you. Sometimes businesses or brands get unfairly labeled on Instant because of some minor misunderstanding that snowballed out of control because they had no idea an issue even existed. Don’t let this happen to you—keep on top of the Google Instant suggestions that surround your brand on a regular basis so you can spot any potential problems before they get out of hand.

Perform a Top-to-Bottom Audit of Your Site

If you did a comprehensive audit last year and fixed all of your problems, don’t think that this means you can get out of doing it again this year. A lot of things can happen in a year to your site, things that you might not even have been aware of. Perhaps you hired a new developer during the past year who, unbeknownst to you, changed some things on your site. Even if this isn’t the case, it’s still essential that you take careful inventory of everything associated with your site on a yearly basis, including all of your templates, any broken links or redirection errors. If you are a retailer, you should also go through your entire sales process and regularly use your own products or services. Wouldn’t YOU rather identify an issue/problem area instead of waiting to be informed about it?

To be successful with your SEO and/or online marketing efforts, it’s essential that you constantly self-evaluate so you can make sure you’re aware of what kind of message you are sending out with your website. While it’s natural to want to move forward with exciting new plans and ideas, make sure that you step back every once and a while and get rid of the old to make room for the new.

Why You Should Be Using Long Tail Keywords

Conventional wisdom holds that when it comes to choosing keywords, you want to find ones that rank highly and are extremely competitive. You want to drive traffic to your site, right? So, you would think that the best course of action would be to find and bid on the most popular keywords that tons of people are searching for so you can get as many people as possible to find your website. But, just because people arrive at your site doesn’t mean they will stay, so sometimes it’s necessary to choose long tail keywords.

What are Long Tail Keywords?

To put it simply, long tail keywords are terms that are usually 3-8 words in length and are much less generic and more specific than the popular, highly ranking keywords. These keywords are very detailed and drive traffic to a niche topic. For example, the generic keyword ‘chocolate’ can be made into a long tail keyword by adding qualifiers such as ‘dark’ and a location such as ‘Boston’. So, when someone performs a specific search for a store selling dark chocolate in Boston, if you have this long tail keyword, chances are good you will rank highly for the term.

Why Use Long Tails?

For starters, long tail terms are the way actual living, breathing humans search. When someone searches for something, they most likely type in a fairly specific terms so they can quickly find what they’re looking for. It’s actually easy to rank for these types of keywords and your site will appear more natural to the search engines, which will increase your relevance. Using long tail keywords is more conducive to writing creative, attention-getting content, which, in turn, will increase your rankings. Another benefit of long tail keywords is that the traffic they do drive your way is more likely to convert than highly competitive, generic keywords. This is because when someone searches with a long tail keyword, they’re more ready to make a purchase or sign up for something compared to those who use a more generic term.

Where to Use Them

Long tail keywords can make great, descriptive titles for your different web pages and articles. Don’t just haphazardly throw them into the titles; instead, you need to work them into it creatively so it’s sounds readable and is enticing to the human reader. You’ll also want to include the long tail keyword in your article, but do so sparingly so as to avoid appearing as though you are engaging in keyword stuffing, which is a big no-no no matter what type of keywords you are using.

Just remember, popular isn’t always better. While generic keywords get lots of hits, meaning lots of people are searching for them, this high number does not guarantee conversions. Long tail keywords, while searched for by less people than the generic ones, are more likely to provide you with the conversions that you are seeking. So, get creative and think outside the box when it comes to your keywords!

Is Google Places Biased Against Local Businesses With No Storefronts?

Local business owners who either do not possess a physical address or prefer not to have it published should consider using an alternative to Google Places. Google doesn’t have a consistent policy in place when it comes to these businesses and this lack of guidelines seems to actually encourage spammers.

Certain types of businesses don’t operate from storefronts and instead operate within a certain service area, such as computer repairmen, locksmiths, and painters. Perhaps they operate out of their homes and, understandably, do not want their addresses published. In the past, Google suggested such businesses get a P.O. Box and have their companies represented by a floating dot in the general vicinity on Google Maps. Google later then made the declaration that Google Places is only for businesses with physical addresses and those submitting P.O. Boxes are not complying with quality guidelines will be removed.

The problem arises when Google doesn’t uniformly enforce this policy. If you take a few minutes and browse Google Maps, you will find business listings with P.O. Boxes. So, why is Google not removing these companies from their SERPs? It wouldn’t exactly be rocket science for Google to determine which listings do not conform to their guidelines and remove them, but, for some reason, they haven’t done so.

With their inconsistencies and unclear guidelines, Google is, in effect, punishing honest businesses and allowing spammers and unethical businesses to prosper. Some companies fabricate addresses simply to get placement on Google Maps. These unfair and unclear practices need to be resolved if Google wants to remain a leader in the local search arena. With all of the competing search engines and location-based based programs that have emerged during the past year, Google needs to get their act together or watch their brand deteriorate.

Yahoo Holiday Layoffs Put Around 600 Out of Work This Season

The year has evidently not been kind to the Web giant, Yahoo. Although Yahoo’s home page remains popular and it’s email client is reportedly the most popular in the U.S., Yahoo has laid off 600 employees this week. Although the timing is terrible for those out of work just in time for Christmas, the company is making harsh decisions in an effort to turn itself around after years of steady decline.
The current CEO has been trying to breathe life back into the company since she took over two years ago, but with limited success. As a dramatic illustration of Yahoo’s decline, consider that although Microsoft offered $45 billion for the company back in 2008, the company is now only valued at less than half that.

The now-former Yahoo employees will likely be sought after, though perhaps not as intensely as former Googlers. At SEO Worldwide we extend our well-wishes to the ex-Yahoo employees, hoping they find positions quickly and get settled before the holiday season closes. We’ll be interested to see how the next year treats Yahoo; although it’s not as favored as Google for search, it is certain that the face of the Web wouldn’t be the same without Yahoo.

Apple’s Ping Using iTun.es for Link Shortening

Apple’s social networking service, Ping, has perhaps not been the huge success Apple was hoping for. Despite starting out with the iTunes user base of over 160 million people, it’s uncertain how many people are actually using Ping itself. Business Insider even listed it as one of the 15 biggest tech flops of 2010. Nevertheless, Apple has continued to steadily improve the service with Twitter integration in November and playlist sharing just a few days ago. In another recent improvement, Ping has started using their own URL shortening service, iTun.es, to shrink links.

Although Apple reportedly purchased the iTun.es domain back in 2006, they have only just now started using it for link shortening. Previously, Apple was relying on Twitter’s own t.co URL link wrapping service. iTun.es is not available for stand-alone use (you can’t go to the website and shorten links directly), but appears fully integrated with Ping.

There’s no way to tell yet if Ping will climb into a dominant social media presence, but Apple is clearly not content to let it slide into obscurity without giving it their best effort.

Foursquare Releases Its New API Worldwide

Foursquare has just released its new API, “APIv2”, which has been in the works for more than a year and has been enhanced to provide a more streamlined, focused interface. The changes made to the API make it easier for users to connect to Foursquare using third-party applications and offers developers ample opportunity to create new and engaging applications.

This new API makes Foursquare’s server more responsive and provides developers with all the data used by the mobile applications so they can devise new ways to enrich user experience. From helping users to better visualize their check-in histories to creating new and interesting ways to display and use badges, the new API is sure to inspire competition and creativity among developers looking to create new apps to engage and enthrall users.

Android has already released a new Foursquare application built completely off the new API, features a more streamlined check-in process and provides a first look at the new API in action. Foursquare introduced its first API a little over a year ago and, since then, many businesses have utilized the interface to create new and exciting ways to use this service, so with the release of APIv2, the future of this program looks extremely promising.

Google Launches eBook Store

It appears Google has decided to go into direct competition with online e-booksellers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble. What began as a project to catalog and index all print books worldwide has now come to fruition in the form of a Google eBook store. While Google still shows a section for free books, it is clear the focus has shifted to a standard storefront showing prices ranging at first glance from $6-15 USD.

According to Search Engine Land, Google already has 50 million books from over 100 countries scanned into its servers. Over three million of them are available as eBooks at launch, with many thousands of them for sale. Revenue sharing is in place with over 4,000 publishers and a number of booksellers.

The big advantage Google has over existing eBook sellers is the lack of platform-specific formatting on any of its books. Theoretically, any device with an Internet connection can access the books. Google has made sure to make it easy for users to put down a book on one device and pick it up another at whatever point where they left off.

Books from Google Books will still show up in searches as they have before, as there has been no algorithmic change influencing search.

Google Announces Algorithmic Change to Devalue Scammers

The New York Times recently published an article about a businessman who has made it his goal to encourage bad reviews. He discovered, quite by accident, that negative reviews can often result in more links back to his website, and the biggest signal for Google of the relevance of a site is how many links it has. He went from being lethargically unconcerned about customer opinion to actively harassing his customers. For a while, apparently, it was working quite well for him, ranking him at the top of Google searches for many brand-name goods. Google responded quickly to the NYT article, however, and his “strategy” has come tumbling down.

Google was understandably concerned about how best to handle this situation. They wanted a more broad solution than simply blocking the individual. On the other hand, they did not want to implement a comprehensive “sentiment analysis” system and run the risk of burying controversial subjects. They settled on an algorithmic change designed to weed out the aforementioned merchant (and all his myriad of websites) as well as “hundreds of other merchants” Google deems to be like him. Of course, to make it harder for someone to game it, Google did not go into detail over the specifics of this new algorithmic remedy. Their full response is detailed on their official blog.

Google + Groupon = ...Grougle?

Rumors have been flying these past couple of days regarding Google purchasing the online coupon site, Groupon. Figures have ranged from $2-$6 billion, making this potentially the most expensive purchase by Google to date. Nothing is certain, but this morning negotiations were reportedly up to $5.3 billion with $700 to be earned over a certain time frame.

Is this a good buy for Google? Only time will tell, of course, but the brand has gained strong traction in the past year or so. The coupon site has millions of users receiving their “deal of the day” in their inboxes, meaning Groupon has a massive email list of active users. Businesses across the country are taking advantage of the exposure Groupon can provide them, and customers are, for the most part, thrilled with the bargains they’re receiving. But what makes Groupon so much different than any other service out there? What makes them valuable enough to be worth billions of dollars over their other direct competitors or even services like YellowPages?

The brand name, of course, already has a strong following. That is a valuable asset for any company, and especially so in the online market. There is also, of course, the aforementioned email list. Finally, consider the value Google might see in integrating a service like Groupon with their recent push into Local.

Whether or not this is a good purchase for Google -- indeed, whether Google actually even closes the deal -- remains to be seen. Either way, however, it is clear Google is continuing its push to grab and hold the Local market from every angle possible.