Posts tagged search engine optimization
What is Black Hat SEO?
Sep 2nd
What is Black Hat SEO
Black Hat search engine optimization is customarily defined as techniques that are used to get higher search rankings in an unethical manner. These black hat SEO techniques usually include one or more of the following characteristics:
- breaks search engine rules and regulations
- creates a poor user experience directly because of the black hat SEO techniques utilized on the Web site
- unethically presents content in a different visual or non-visual way to search engine spiders and search engine users.
- Keyword stuffing: Packing long lists of keywords and nothing else onto your More >
Local Search Optimization
Jun 8th
As we all know, more competition means more challenging and so does broader coverage. Therefore local search optimization is not as challenging as broader categories – but it still has its own challenges. Many of the same SEO rules still apply to local search engine optimization, but because of the improvements done on the search engines for the past 3 years with the interaction of social, it has become far simpler than we thought.
Basics of Local Search Optimization
Be Everywhere That Matters: From Google Places to local directories, local links and user citations are the primary influencers of high rankings for geo-specific terms. Local users go deep for information, so even small, low-volume destinations can result in quality links. They may not deliver that much traffic individually, but a few links from relevant blogs can get your business name and website address a long way on the search result pages including local community pages.
Ask for Reviews: If you’re a local business and are not collecting reviews, you should start considering to ask your customers to write reviews for your business since a lot of locals count on reviews and so do search engines especially for local search listings. After all, search engines More >
Social Media Marketing: A Step-Ladder for SEO Services
Oct 1st
One of the latest weapons in the arsenal of online marketers is social media marketing. Many Internet marketing companies will offer social media marketing services, but as a client and business owner, what does that really mean? Most business owners and people in general know social media as just that—an avenue for interacting with friends online—so what’s the benefit for the business?
While there are a few obvious answers (and many that are not so obvious), there is one particularly useful benefit of social media marketing for businesses that have just launched their website: It serves as an excellent step-ladder to your search engine optimization services and can win you instant customers while you’re waiting out their effectiveness.
To illustrate this, let’s first sum up the basic value of a social media presence to a growing or start-up business. Having social media accounts for your business on avenues like Facebook and Twitter basically allows a free method of developing a mailing list of interested customers and also lets you communicate with them.
Plus, your profile page serves as an appealing extra web presence for your business that requires little to no graphic design efforts. It also serves as a large online business card that More >
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Winemaking
Sep 28th
Online Marketing and California Winemakers One of the pleasantries of living in coastal California includes having access to some of the finest wineries and vineyards in the world. The lush country and landscape has attracted some of the world’s best winemakers—the climate is perfect for growing different grape varietals and the beautiful landscape and greenery pairs perfectly with a relaxing day of wine-tasting.
A good friend of mine is a winemaker at a small vineyard in a town called Lompoc, just outside the city of Santa Barbara. He recently bottled a pinot noir that Wine Spectator awarded a 96 to—something only 12 other pinots have ever scored equal to or better.
As we were chatting about this delicious and magnanimous achievement, it occurred to me that online marketing—particularly web development and SEO—are a lot like making wine.
Notice I didn’t say a “fine wine;” this analogy can work both ways! There are plenty of SEO “tricks” out there—and to a certain extent, even natural circumstances—that can spoil your harvest and ultimately ruin your page ranking and the effectiveness of your online marketing efforts.
But if done properly, with continued attention, a little patience, and the right amount of aging, you could create a web presence that More >
Marketing Concept: Don’t Rent Your Marketing, OWN IT! Search Engine Results (Part 2)
Aug 31st
We’ve already introduced the concept of “rent marketing” vs. “own marketing,” relating online marketing services and traditional advertising methods to the real estate market and the benefits each can have.
This concept can be extrapolated upon in relation to search engine optimization.
If you’ve noticed the results you see after searching for something on Google, there are three parts to each search results page that yield different information: sponsored links, Google Maps listings, and organic results.
Sponsored links and listings are marked as such—displayed with a yellow background on the first three results and also in white along the side bar. The next portion is the Maps portion of Google, you know, the map that pops up on top and showcases local businesses in a Google maps window, kind of like a directory listing. The third are organic listings that yield ten results per page.—in other words, the regular search results that appear based on what keywords you’ve searched.
Of those three divisions of results, one is falls into “rent marketing,” while the other two definitely classify as “own marketing.”
The advertised sponsored listings are exactly that—essentially businesses are paying to be listed on the top of the page based on certain keywords. You can put More >
Marketing Concept: Don’t Rent Your Marketing, OWN IT! (Part 1)
Aug 20th
If you’ve ever bought property or studied the real estate market, you may have concluded that it oftentimes pays more dividends and makes more long-term sense to own property vs. renting it.
Taking that concept and applying it to your marketing and advertising budget can pay off greatly because the same concept holds true: Having ownership of your advertising dollar allows your business to grow over time and you to yield returns throughout your lifetime—even long after you’ve stopped paying for services.
Think of this example: Spending money on temporary ads in media like the yellow pages, billboards or newspapers could easily rack up a several thousand-dollar bill over just a few months of run-time. That money is gone as soon as you spend it and your returns vanish immediately after the ads expire—and who knows if the ads will even yield you any real returns at all?
Consider this kind of advertising “rent marketing.” Just like an apartment’s benefits would cease immediately after you stopped paying rent (because you’d probably get kicked out), so too do your marketing returns end as soon as you stop paying for run time, because your ads essentially get evicted from their media as well.
So what’s an More >


