Archive for January 30, 2012

30 Jan 2012
internet marketing • seo • small business

Freshness and Internet Marketing


The Freshness Factor (no, I’m not talking about fabric softener).

For years and years and years I’ve been touting the benefits of adding new (fresh) content to websites and blogs.  I have to suspect that some of my clients think I’m just fishing for more work (as if I have the time to do that!) but anyway, the truth is that new content on a website is how the search engines know that the site is alive and working.  Otherwise, you might as well hang the “closed” sign up.

Well, The Daily SEO Blog had a great article about this very topic and you can certainly explore it and see the details but I’ll try to break it down for you.  The article lists how fresh content influences rankings on the search engines.

1) The Inception Date – this is the date when Google first becomes aware of the particular website page.  We can’t influence how this changes, the inception date is firm.

2) Page Changes – how much content changes on website pages?  This means adding text, removing text, graphics, etc.  The amount of change on your webpage definitely plays a role in website rankings.

3) Rate of Change – how often do changes occur?  Daily, weekly, monthly?  Never?  Ugh – there’s no industry on the planet that doesn’t have SOMETHING new happening.  Is there?

4) New Website Pages – “Websites that add new pages at a higher rate may earn a higher freshness score than sites that add content less frequently.”  I couldn’t put it in any better terms.

5) Importance of Content - You may think that you can get away with just adding a few lines to your website pages here and there and consider your job of adding freshness all done.  Well, the search engines DO have a sense of what is important content and what isn’t.  Semantic phrasing plays a part in this but the bottom line is that the better the new content is, the better your chances of getting more traffic.

6) Incoming Links – always a factor when marketing websites, incoming links are important.  The words of the link, where the link is coming from and how often new links are added.  So, this means that the more relevant and helpful your content is, the more other people will link to it and the more incoming links you’ll have.

7) Quality of Incoming Links – if you get a link to your website from another website page that is “fresh” you’ll gain more points than if you get a link from another website page that is “stale”.  Not too much you, as the website owner, can do about this unless you specifically solicit certain websites to link to you.

8) Alerting Sites of Incoming Links – as time goes by, your website will change keyword phrases, etc.  It’s important to alert the other websites that are linking to you of these changes.  Is it THE most important thing in this list?  In my honest opinion NO, but it should be kept in mind that it’s an issue that eventually should be managed.

9) Old Data = Less Time Spent On Page – so, if your website has information that’s outdated, when a visitor lands on that page, the amount of time they spend on that page is not going to be very much.  The search engines can see this decline over time.  This can hurt you.

10) Don’t Throw Out The Baby with the Bathwater – what I mean is don’t dump your old pages.  If the information on them is still relevant, there’s no need to remove them from your site.  They will continue to come up for certain queries.


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eckweb | No comments
11 Jan 2012
seo • small business • social media

How Does Google + Affect SEO?


Yesterday I received in my email box an article from a client. His company offers executive recruiting services and he’s very much on top of his company’s marketing campaign. Which is great! Anyway, he sent me an article about Google + and their new project.

Basically, Google is now adding information from your Google + account onto your search result pages.  This will only work if you’re signed in to your Google account while you’re doing your searches.  The article read, “The change is live now, though not everyone will see it until it fully launches over the next few days.”  So, this morning I opened my computer and guess what I saw???

How Does This Google+ Thing Affect Your SEO Campaign?

The answer to this depends on who you speak to.  I mean really, we can all try to predict what every political candidate will do based on what they say but the truth is, no one knows what they will actually do until they’re in office.  So, no one really knows what’s going to happen to SEO with the implementation of Google+ integrated into their search results.  But, it doesn’t mean you should do nothing.  After all, not voting shouldn’t be an option.

Okay, so, to the what, how and why.

1) Google+ is a social network.  It’s Google’s version of Facebook and Twitter.  The idea of integrating Google+ into search results is twofold, in most opinions.  For one thing, it’ll help Google to boost their Google+ program.  Second, they are following the study by Nielson that 90% of people trust their friends when it comes to referrals or recommendations.  So, it makes sense that if you’re searching for a tire shop and your friends have recommended a tire shop on their Google+ then guess what, that particular tire shop (or shops) will show up on your search results.  (Of course, only if you’re signed in to your Google account).

2) So, I’ve been talking about search engine rankings for a few years now, saying how irrelevant they have become and that the only true measure of a successful Internet marketing campaign is the traffic and of course, the conversions through a website.  But this new Google+ feature, pretty much ends any argument that rankings have any importance anymore.  So, don’t focus on where you find yourself on a search result.  It’s all about the traffic and the sales that come through from that traffic.

3) eConsultancy did a great article, basically an interview of several SEO superstars (we can call them that, can’t we?)  You’ll see that there are varying views on the implications of Google’s new move on search results.  What I concluded from it is that Google+ is important, but the effects are yet unknown.

4) I can’t help to think though that social networks like Facebook and Twitter are mostly used just for that, “social” and not really for business.  Although certainly there is no reason for businesses to avoid them.  They really have to embrace them these days.  But, again, do I mix my friends with my business partners on my social networks?  Not really.  I would rather not.  After all, my life is not all business.  I mean, do I really want my business partners to know that I am a complete Gleek and that I love westerns and sci fi movies?  (Well, now they know).  So, what’s the answer?  I really don’t know at this point.

What Should You Do With Google+ And Your Business

My personal recommendation, as someone who has been doing SEO for 12 years now (OMG, can’t believe it’s been that long) is the same as I’ve had for facebook and twitter.  Integrate them, if you can, into your business marketing model.  I don’t know if Google+ per say will be a huge effect because the bottom line is that by 2014 the majority of Internet users will be on mobile units.  That means tablets and smart phones.  So, how many of those are signed in to Google?  That’s the real impact, I think.  If 80% of your potential customers will be coming to your site via their smart phone and they’re not signed in to a Google account then Google+ means nothing to you.  (Well, 20% is nothing to sneeze at either, but you know what I mean).

I think the real “take away” here is that social media is not going away, ever.  If you own a business and you’re marketing on the Internet then you HAVE to integrate social media into your marketing campaign.  The reality of this statement though is that you cannot really outsource social media.  I mean you can, there are companies that will do it for you, but they don’t know your business like you do.  You don’t want ghost writers writing about your company.  So, take the time to do it yourself or have someone within the company do it.  Or share the responsibility amongst several people in the company.  It’s that important, it really is.


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eckweb | No comments
03 Jan 2012
business tips • small business • social media

Social Media Glossary


I’m often accused (and rightly so) of being nerdy and geeky and some of that is because I know the “lingo”. In other words, I know what Klout is and I use Hashtags in my tweets and I love Widgets. I only know these and more because I read about them often and I’m sure if you read the same things that I did you would be just as nerdy and geeky as well. (Not sure if that’s a good thing or not).

Anyway, my business coach sent me this great link with descriptions of 120 social media terms that you might not be familiar with.

So, take a look, see what you’re familiar with and any that you may not be familiar with, take a moment to learn about it. Who knows, you just might like it!


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eckweb | No comments