Did you know: Search engines like Google LOVE valuable content and reward you for it? Search is not all about keywords anymore; it’s about creatively combining keywords, context, and topic. The more you do this, the more Google will love you and show you through increased rankings and impressions.
If you have had experience running a Pay Per Click campaign using Google’s platform AdWords, then you know how important it is to organize your campaign properly and allocate the right amount of your ad spend budget to each campaign. The execution and overall success of your advertising campaign will depend on each campaign's targeted locations, demographics, keywords, landing pages, and how all of those relate to each adgroup and overall campaign.
Would you believe me if I told you that the first page of search results for "SEO Services" is different for John Doe in downtown Seattle using a laptop as opposed to someone sitting three miles away searching the same term using a phone? It's true.
That's why I want to smack some sense into any web marketing agency that claims they can get any website on the first page of search engine results. It's a very misleading statement, and simply too vague to be credible.
When people talk about duplicate website content, they're referring to when the same content shows up on more than one page of your website or when you use content on your website that can be found on other sites on the web. This includes, but is not limited to:
"Should my business be using Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads or an organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy?" I get that question all the time. And of course, my answer is, "It depends. What are your goals?
What? You mean it's not a straight "yes" or "no." Of course not. The answer is significantly dependent on what your company goals are. Are you selling a new product or service? Is there a great deal of education involved in purchasing your product or service? Is there a large barrier to entry for your product? Are you well-known in your industry? These are just a few of the questions you need to answer before looking at PPC or SEO.
Ever since Google came out with its Hummingbird update to its search algorithm, there has been much talk about the value of keywords. Does Google still care about keywords? Will Google know what keywords to rank my page for if I were to focus on broad topics or concepts?
Executing an advertising campaign using any medium can be significantly challenging. The question of whom to target, how to target them, and what message to convey can sometimes leave an advertiser with too many questions to handle. As the inherent nature of the online community is to be wary of promotions or messages on the Internet, it makes the task of delivering the communication even more challenging for the online marketer.
Client: "I want to rank for the keywords X, Y and Z."
Me: "Why do you want to rank for those specific keywords?"
Client: "Because that is what my product/service is..."
Me: "Ah, I see, but do your customers/potential customers use those keywords to search for your specific product/service...in your area?"
And that is a conversation I've had countless times over the years.
Keywords can be slippery little suckers to nail down. It's not just about ranking for keywords for the sake of generating any traffic; it's about getting ranked for the right keywords--the ones that your customers and potential customers enter into the all-knowing search box on Google.
Your website might be the most beautiful in all the land, with content so rich it makes your competitors tremble in fear. That's great, but if the back end of your website runs like a 1985 Yugo, Google is likely to give your site the big thumbs down when it comes to organic search results.
But do not fret just yet. Google provides several tools that gives you everything (well, almost) you need to fix, and eventually prevent errors.
In 2009, Google announced that meta descriptions would have no influence on search rankings. So why is it that we keep optimizing them, or (frankly) even care about them anymore? What impact do they have if they don't affect Google's search engine result pages (SERPs)?
Many believe that meta descriptions are no longer useful and shouldn't be bothered with, but that is simply false, and we are out to crush that myth.