Can’t Be Found On Google? Here Are 7 Reasons Why They Can’t Index Your Site

Are you struggling to get your website found on Google? Are you afraid your competitors are snapping up all your potential customers?

 

In order to place you in their search engine results Google needs to be able to “crawl” your website using a series of programs called spiders which move from link to link taking note of your coding and content. If Google can’t do that then your site won’t be listed in their search results!

 

QuickSprout have put together the infographic below describing the indexing process in more detail as well as listing seven common reasons why Google can’t index your site.

 

 

http://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2014/12/23/cant-be-found-on-google-here-are-7-reasons-why-they-cant-index-your-site/

 

How Could Photos Help Your SEO?

Many people are visually oriented, preferring a good photo to a written description. While a photo may not help a search engine, it probably would help a searcher decide if your link was worth the click.

 

Matt Southern of Search Engine Journal took a look at a recent development: Google Gives Business Owners More Control Over Photos Displayed In Search Results. What it means for business owners is options like having one photo for Google+ and a different image for other Google properties, like search.

 

How many different photos you use is up to you, but you can opt for different categories like interior or exterior photos, or shots of your team or workplace. If you want to explore your options, log into your business profile, go to the Photos section, and use the new intuitive feature to see what is possible.

 

People Like Pictures

 

You know that old saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words”? It’s an old saying that keeps being repeated because people like pictures. Images that actually reflect your business are going to be better than stock photos because they trigger a more specific response.

• Hey, I know that person! He handled my account.
• We ate in that dining room, the meal was delicious and the atmosphere is great.
• I loved that sweater because it was comfortable and it stayed that way after washing.
• Those lamps look perfect, we should go see them in the showroom.
• So that’s who I spoke to on the phone. She was so helpful.
• That business looks familiar…of course, I’ve driven past it. I should stop next time.

 

Optimize Photos According to Publishing Guidelines

 

If you use your own photos, then do your homework and follow image publishing guidelines. Make sure those photos are high-quality, too. That isn’t really as difficult as it sounds if you can find an enthusiastic photographer in your area. That person may already be on staff. [Or take your own product and staff photos!]

 

There are definitely some things to be careful with. Some of those things include attribution, image site maps, and formatting. You also have to be careful with the mix of mobile and loading photos.

 

But along with the increased complications of images, the fact remains that people like pictures and a search result with a good photo is probably going to be picked over plain text. That’s why Google is adding the photo options, and that’s why you should look into the possibilities.

http://www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/2015-03-02/how-could-photos-help-your-seo
 

Google Plans to Index Tweets in Real Time: How This Could Impact Your SEO

 

Years ago, it was commonplace to find real-time tweets in Google Search results. Twitter and Google had inked a deal that gave the search giant access to the social network's data stream. In turn, Google would display tweets in search results in real time. But that agreement expired, and in the middle of 2011, Google lost access to Twitter's data stream. 

 

Now, nearly four years later, the gang's back together.
Recently, Google and Twitter announced that they are working together again to index tweets as soon as they are posted.

 

How should a marketer to react to this news? In this post, I will focus on how you can benefit from the new deal between Google and Twitter. You will need to be active on Twitter to obtain these benefits, but I will include some tips for those of you who are just getting started -- you can still benefit from this development if you're doing the right things. The good news is that it will take some time for Google to implement changes based on the new data they will be getting from Twitter, so you have some time to get ready. But the sooner you get started, the better.

 

So let's dive into what the deal actually is and learn how you can take advantage of it.

 

What's the Deal With This New Deal?

 

Basically, this deal gives Google real-time access to tweets via a data feed, commonly called the Twitter Firehose. While the agreement seems to be in effect already, the two companies are saying only that it will take effect in Google Search sometime in the first half of 2015. The reason it will take some time to implement is that Twitter needs to figure out how to prep the data for Google, and Google needs to look at this data stream and decide what they want to do with it. However, one thing we know they will do is increase the number of tweets that they are indexing. What that means is that your tweets could start showing up in the search results.

 

Google actually does show some tweets in its search results today, but it's only a very small portion of what's on Twitter. My company, Stone Temple Consulting, recently did a study of 133,000 tweets to see how Google indexes tweets, and what we found is that Google indexes less than 8% of all the tweets we tested.

 

 

That's not a high level of indexation at all. To make matters worse, it also appears that Google is quite slow to index tweets, as you can see in the chart below:

 

 

Currently, that means tweets have little chance of getting indexed. In fact, the people whose tweets were most likely to be indexed, according to our study, had much higher than average followings. For people who are just starting out on Twitter, chances are that the indexation rate is near zero.

 

The new deal between Google and Twitter may well change all that. It's hard to predict just how many more tweets Google will index, but you can count on it being a significant change -- otherwise doing this deal makes no sense for Google.

 

As a result, you may have an opportunity to use Twitter to increase your presence in Google's SERPs. However, remember that Google will need a few months to implement changes to leverage the Twitter data feed, so don't expect instant results.

 

How Will Google Choose Which Tweets to Index?

 

Google has made no statements about what their plans are, so we don't know for sure. But, based on their history, we figure that Google is going to work hard to find the tweets that offer the most value to their audience. They will also most likely implement strong anti-spam measures.

 

While the new Twitter data feed will be valuable to them, frankly, it's an add-on. They will be conservative in what they allow into the results, and they will only include things that they have a very high degree of confidence are not spam.

 

As a consequence of that, trying to game this new arrangement will likely be very difficult to do. Google is going to look for signals that certain tweets have greater value. Here are the types of signals that could be available to them:

1. Links from third party web sites to the tweets. (This signal is already available to them today.)
2. Links from third party web sites to a user's profile. (This signal is already available to them today.)
3. How many times a tweet is retweeted, and by whom. They may get this info directly from Twitter, or they may use their own means to determine it. (This will be new data for them.)
4. How many times a tweet is favorited, and by whom. They may get this info directly from Twitter, or they may use their own means to determine it. (This will be new data for them.)

I don't see how this deal makes sense for Google unless they get the info on points 3 and 4 above, or at least number 3. This would mean that Google can use retweet data, and the knowledge of who is performing the RTs to determine which tweets have the most value. This is the source of where I see significant potential value for companies and publishers.

 

Maximize your engagement on Twitter, and you are sending out signals that your tweeted content is valuable. So how do you get more engagement?

 

How Should You Maximize Engagement on Twitter?

 

This was the subject of another study my company did recently on Twitter engagement. This particular study focused on what factors within your Twitter content cause increases in retweets and favorites. By far the most significant factor was the use of images in your tweets:

 

 

Here you can see that your chances of getting at least one retweet are more than doubled for most low and moderate social authority accounts. That's quite a significant difference. Our data also showed that you can also get five to nine times as many total retweets by including images. That's a big deal!

 

Other factors that matter, though not quite as much as images, were the use of hashtags and implementing longer tweets. Factors that mattered less were time of day, including links to content off of Twitter, or mentions of others.

 

While the above info can definitely help you optimize your own presence, you can't forget the importance of developing relationships on Twitter. Focusing on key friendships and relationships with influencers is a big key to success, especially if your presence on the platform is not currently that strong. 

 

Imagine someone with a highly influential account retweeting your most important content. This could be gold for you, as it can make Google aware of the content very quickly. The influencer's tweet with the link to your content may appear in search results and help expose it to much wider audiences. Of course, this may also result in more links to your content as well.

 

Even if Google does not get information in the Twitter data feed that allows it to understand who is retweeting whom, Google could still use link data to better understand whose profiles are most important. Then, they can place more value on their tweets, and place them within their index, driving traffic and exposure to that tweet. If it contains a link to your content, your traffic and exposure could go up.

 

Summary

 

Will this fundamentally alter the digital landscape? No, but it does mean that a strong presence on Twitter will have more value than it did before. To capitalize on this shift, do the following:

1. Increase your time invested in Twitter.
2. Create engaging content that people will want to retweet and favorite.
3. Build relationships with others who will help amplify your content.
4. Make sure to build relationships with influencers whose tweets are more likely to get indexed by Google.
5. Watch the indexation of your tweets grow while you build your own influence on the platform.

As the full partnership takes effect, we may discover other ways to optimize our Twitter strategies for search, but until then, preparing for the shift using the steps above is a wise move.

 

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/google-twitter-indexing-tweets-data

 

4 SEO Tactics to Embrace in 2015

Remember when the meta keyword tag was popular? Or when a good SEO strategy was to put keywords in everything (URL, title, description, headings, images ALT text, side nav, main nav, footer nav, in the keywords and 231 times in the body content)?

 

Welcome to 2015, where the world of search is a completely different game. In fact, in 2015 you need to check site pages to be certain keywords aren’t overused in key elements.
 So why are so many SEOs still recommending that webpages include the "targeted keyword" in the URL, title, headings, and corpus? Can you say penalty risk?

 

We can touch on a hundred different SEO strategies do improve your website, but below are 4 ways a beginner can start improving their site.

 

Hummingbird Made SEO Much Easier

 

Search engines no longer value pages filled with targeted keywords. Google’s Hummingbird algorithm drove a final nail into the keyword coffin. With Hummingbird, Google proved that they now understand what your page is about; they know the topic of the page, how unique the content is, and how well it’s written.

 

Searchmetrics released their annual white paper detailing ranking factors and rank correlations. What they found was that there is little to no benefit to strategically incorporating keywords in different page elements, and often sites can be negatively impacted. You can also read a summary of Searchmetric’s report on Moz’s website.

 

Practices that Will Strengthen the Value of a Website

 

1) Skip Meta Keywords

Remember in preschool when you’d draw on the walls and your teacher would say, "If you can’t learn how to use the crayons then I’m going to take them away from you"? You would laugh and continue drawing on the walls, only to have the teacher take your crayons.

 

Now imagine the crayons are Meta keywords and Google is that mean, old preschool teacher. Google took Meta keywords away because we didn’t use them correctly. Search engines have taken it a step further and declared that meta keywords could be a spam signal.

 

In 2009 Google’s Matt Cutts posted on the official Google Blog, "Google doesn’t use the 'keywords' meta tag in our web search ranking." Still don’t believe? Read Bing’s guidelines for webmasters to get the full picture.

 

Solution: Stop using Meta keywords
 

2) Don’t Stuff Your Content with Keywords

Nothing is worse than arriving to a site and finding content with keywords strategically (and awkwardly) positioned throughout. Let’s just put this one to bed here and now. Keyword density is no longer important and you should stop any and all strategies aiming at stuffing keywords into your content.

 

Instead, learn about an important concept known as TF-IDF, or term frequency-inverse document frequency. TD-IDF means that content should include different phrases and that some of those phrases should appear more frequently than others.

 

For example, a page about Nintendo should include the word Nintendo more frequently than the words Mario and Luigi, but Mario and Luigi should (probably) appear on the page because they are related to the topic of the page.

 

Solution: Let’s not over complicate the solution here. Cyrus Shepard wrote a comprehensive post about keyword targeting explaining what I’ll summarize in a few bullet points.

 

Optimizing Content for Users and Ranking

1. Decide upon a topic for a page or blog post
2. Extensively research said topic
3. Write content that is uniquely valuable to your targeted visitor
4. Verify that you have written a minimum of 400 words
5. Split the content into short paragraphs, consisting of 2-4 sentences, or bulleted lists
6. Add a headline to the opening of each paragraph to describe the upcoming info
7. Within the body content create anchor text links to a similar page on the site
8. Add a page title that speaks to your targeted visitor and the topic of the page
9. Make the page easily shareable on social networks

The result will be an authoritative, user friendly, search engine friendly piece of content for your site.
 

3) Don't Ignore Your Meta Description

This last one isn’t so much about what companies do, but instead it’s what they fail to do. Too often I see sites with a Meta description that has been completely ignored, or maybe worse yet, use a tool or plug-in to dynamically generate a Meta description.

 

You have about 215 total characters (or 512px by 100px) to persuade searchers to click on your listing in SERP. 215 characters include the page title and Meta description. 215 characters because SERP is dependent upon pixels and not characters (the letter 'W' is obviously wider than "I").

 

Plain and simple, Meta descriptions are a conversion factor. Meta descriptions are not a factor in ranking algorithms, though. Knowing that they impact CTR why would you ignore them?

 

Solution: Take time to write compelling Meta descriptions for all important pages of the site, and for any pages that can be shared socially. While 155 characters is target length, keep in mind that words aligning with the search query will be bolded, causing your description to be longer. So it would be advisable to keep the character length between 115-145 characters. It’s also important to include some form of a CTA or value proposition. Words like ‘decide,’ 'learn,’ or 'find out' can be considered calls to action in this situation.
 

4) Don't Forget to Markup Pages with Schema, RDFa, JSON-LD

Next time you search in Google or Bing, look at the results. Spot the results that contain more information than just a title, description, and URL. Those results have additional info because the html of the site is marked up to relay explicit information to crawlers. The result is more equity of SERP.

 

BuildVisible wrote a comprehensive guide to help with Microdata. They found that search listings with rich snippets would be clicked on up 25% more frequently.

 

Solution: Plain and simple, make microdata part of every site you create. Markup logos, images, addresses, phone numbers, business name, type of business, reviews, prices, software, and anything else that’s relevant to the site. Clients will thank you and visitors will appreciate it.

 

Conclusion

 

Once you’re using these tactics you can build upon them. Taking just these steps will help your site rank, but optimizing a website is a practice that doesn’t really end. You can stop improving certain pages, but the site as a whole can always be improved.

 

You may not be an SEO expert, but you’ll strengthen your website with the simple strategies above.

 

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/seo-tactics-2015

 

36 Tried-and-True Ways to Promote Your Blog Posts

There are lots of things you need to do to have a successful blog. Not only do your posts need to be well-written, helpful, and relevant to your target audience, but you've also got to make sure you're promoting them correctly so they get in front of people who could become your fans -- and maybe even your customers.

 

Luckily, you have many creative options when it comes to promoting your blog content.

 

In the infographic below from ReferralCandy, we hear from over 40 marketing experts about their favorite blog promotion tactics -- everything from relationship building to email segmentation to social media. Check it out.

 

 

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/blog-promotion-tactics

 

3 SEO Vulnerabilities to Avoid When Changing the Design of Your Site

Updating the design and structure of your site from time to time is a requirement of the age of online marketing. Designs get stale, technology evolves, and your customers are always looking for the next big thing, so eventually, whether it’s two years or six years down the line, you’ll have to rebuild your website from the ground up.

 

It’s an exciting opportunity for the entrepreneur enthusiastic about the future of the brand. It’s a new challenge and another project for the design and development team. But for the search marketer trying to maintain and build on their site’s current level of success, the whole process can be a nightmare. Pulling one version of your website down and putting another one up is like swiftly pulling a tablecloth out from under a set table without breaking or moving anything; it’s next to impossible unless you know what you’re doing.

 

Fortunately, many of us have gone through the process before and have escaped at least relatively unscathed. Chances are, you’re going to see a bit of volatility no matter what, but you can mitigate the effects by watching out for these three common vulnerabilities:

 

1. A Changing URL Structure.

The biggest problem you’re likely going to face as you update your website is a disconnection between your old URL structure and your new URL structure. In a perfect world, you would maintain an identical URL structure, thereby preventing the possibility of a discrepancy, but then you probably wouldn’t need to be updating your site in the first place.

 

There’s one critical danger here, which can have a rippling effect that permanently damages your domain authority and crashes your ranks. Your URLs have history with Google, and Google likes links with history. Its search engine algorithm has come to expect your site to be in a very specific structure and a very specific order, and when it goes to crawl your new site, if it doesn’t see what it expects to see, it triggers a red flag. Historical links, with lots of credibility, that suddenly disappear in favor of entirely new links can wreak havoc on your domain authority, putting you in the same position as a site for a brand that just launched.

 

The problem is compounded by external links. Naturally, you’ve built a number of links on external sites pointing to various internal pages of your domain in an effort to improve your authority. If any of those links become no longer relevant, the page rank those links pass will become useless, and you’ll have a profile full of dead links pointing to nowhere, further damaging your domain authority and possibly interfering with your inbound traffic.

 

Fortunately, there is a simple—but admittedly painstaking—strategy you can use to ensure this outcome doesn’t occur. First, you’ll need to set up a Webmaster Tools account and crawl your site or use an alternative tool to generate a list of all the URLs found on your current website structure—and don’t forget about all your subdomains! Then, if you can, do everything you can to keep that link structure as similar as possible.

 

For any old links that do not have an immediate counterpart in the new site, or for links whose names have changed, you’ll want to set up 301 redirects. Fortunately, setting up 301 redirects is easy, and once they’re in place, any traffic that would encounter your old URL will be automatically pointed to the new one. This should prevent any damaging crawl errors from Google, and will definitely keep all your inbound external links accurate and functional.

 

2. Design and CMS Pains.

Unless you’re working for a very small business, your new website is going to be in the hands of many individuals from many teams and many different departments. Everybody is going to have their own perspectives on what would be best with the site. Multiple opinions, collaborating together can ultimately culminate in the greatest final product, but you can’t forget about Google’s perspective.

 

Graphic designers want to make the most visually appealing site possible, but there are some design principles that need to be balanced in order to fit with Google’s priorities and prevent a nosedive in your ranks. For example, most designers would prefer a site designed with minimalism, with only a handful of links in the navigation and as little onsite content as possible. However, Google likes to see lots of high-quality pages, and without ample onsite content, the search engine may find it difficult to understand your purpose. There is always room for a compromise, so work with your designers to find a good balance that works for both of your goals.

 

Similarly, other members of your team may have strong preferences when it comes to selecting a CMS, either due to price or personal opinions. There are hundreds of CMS options out there, with varying compatibilities and functionality with SEO. Be sure to do your research and vet your options when considering a transition.

 

3. The Same Old Mistakes.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, transitioning to a new site is an opportunity to fix all the mistakes that were holding you back with the old site. Passing over this opportunity, or failing to give it its due attention, is a critical mistake and a vulnerability you cannot afford to neglect.

 

Throughout the planning and design process, run an audit of your current efforts on your current site. Where are you ranking? How much traffic are you getting? Where is that traffic going and how is it behaving? What problems are inherent in your navigation, and what gaps are there in your meta data?

 

Your first priority when designing a new site, from an SEO perspective, is your navigation. It needs to be simple and intuitive, but fleshed out enough so that any new visitor will know exactly where to go. It also needs to have strong anchor pages with keywords related to your business, and clear sitemaps for Google to read and understand your site.

 

Second, you’ll need to examine which of your pages tend to attract or retain the most traffic, and look for ways to replicate its success in your other pages (in terms of design, content, and purpose). While not directly linked to the process of getting a new site up and running, this is also a good idea to review your ongoing tactics and find ways to improve them.

 

Even though the process is ripe with SEO vulnerabilities that could shake up your rankings or traffic flow, your website rebuild is an opportunity, first and foremost. Treat it as such, and you’ll be able to reap the benefits.

 

No matter how much you plan or how closely you monitor the progress of your site transfer, it’s likely that there will be some hiccups in your web traffic and search standings. Try not to obsess over them; as long as you dedicate yourself to following the same (or improved) ongoing best practices as you did with your old site, you’ll see similar patterns of growth with the new one. Remember that SEO is a long-term strategy, and any short-term volatility you experience during the site transfer (as long as you’ve accounted for the critical vulnerabilities) is temporary.

 

http://www.audiencebloom.com/2015/02/3-seo-vulnerabilities-avoid-changing-design-site/

 

The Ultimate Social Media Marketing Checklist Every Newbie Must Follow

Are you just starting out on social media as a platform to market your business? Are you unsure about what you should be doing in order to be a success?

 

Take a look at these handy checklists from Andrea Vahl to see how you are getting along. There’s one for Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, LinkedIn, Pinterest and YouTube.

 

 

 

http://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2014/08/05/the-ultimate-social-media-marketing-checklist-every-newbie-must-follow/

 

How Often You Should Post on Twitter and Other Social Media Networks

If you’ve been using multiple social media networks to market your business you’ll know that they aren’t all created equal. What is the norm on one network would be frowned upon on another, especially when it comes to the frequency in which you post updates.

 

For the recommended guidelines for each of the major social media sites take a look at the infographic below from Constant Contact.

 

 

http://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2014/07/28/how-often-you-should-post-on-twitter-and-other-social-media-networks/

 

10 Quick Tips For Marketing Your Website Effectively

Marketing your website properly is just as important (if not more important) as having a properly designed and developed website. In today’s digital world, having a website that works to increase revenue and sales is crucial, especially in a time where a nonexistent (or outdated) website could cost your company hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of dollars in lost sales.

 

It’s a necessity to have a marketing strategy in line with the goals of your company or organization, and in order to increase traffic and revenue at your website, it will take a heavy dose of effort to get your website where you want it. Use these tips below, and continue to research the world of internet marketing, there’s much left to be learned!

 

 

Without further ado, here’s 10 quick tips for marketing your website effectively…

 

1. Make a BIG deal out of the launch of your website!

 

You should be proud of your new site, and use this as a tool to contact your customers to let them know things are changing, and for the better. Market the new features your site will have both online and offline, and let it be known that you’ve invested in yourself.

 

2. Start a subscription-based newsletter.

 

Every company, in my opinion, should have some sort of informative newsletter. Your newsletter should be published on a set schedule, but only one that you can maintain. Ideally, your newsletters should contain informative articles. You don’t need too much content, but the content you have should be eye-catching, easy to read, and something that people want to see. If you bore your customers with your newsletter, you won’t be helping to market your website. Create a newsletter that compels people to do something… write a how-to on something related to your industry, or a top 10 tips that people might find interest in (wink, wink).

 

3. Add your website to your company’s voicemail message.

 

Even if it’s something along the lines of, “Leave us a message, or contact us on the web at www-dot-yourwebsitehere-dot-com. Are you seeing a trend here? It’s important to TALK about your website, and if you have something people want to see (which you should with that fancy site of yours!), your work will pay off.

 

4. Put your website on your company building’s sign.

 

This one’s sort of a no-brainer, but what better of a way to get people to scope out your company in the comfort of their own home. People driving by will remember your address, especially if you have an eye-catching sign, and make your website large enough and easy to read from a distance.

 

5. Tell Google when you’ve got new content…

 

Take this tip straight from Google themselves, “If your site is very new, we may not know about it yet. Tell Google about your site. One way to expedite Google’s discovery of new pages is to submit a Sitemap. Even if your site is already in the index, Sitemaps are a great way to tell Google about the pages you consider most important.” If you aren’t sure if your site has a sitemap indexed with Google, or you’d like help building your sitemap and properly publishing it, contact your web developer.

 

6. Use an email signature in your correspondences, and make sure that a link to your website is in it.

 

Not only will this provide for an easy way for your customers (or potential customers) to find your site, but it will also allow for an easy portal for them to visit you.

 

7. Yes, your website is up and running, but now how are people going to find it?

 

Many companies build a website and forget about it… YIKES! Use social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter to broadcast your website to those you are in contact with. For small businesses and start ups, word of mouth can be the difference between success and failure!

 

8. Advertising your site offline is equally important as advertising your site online.

 

Make sure your web address is in your literature and publications (business cards, corporate branding material, fax cover sheets, etc.)

 

9. Update your website AT LEAST once a month.

 

I would say less than once a week is too little, but it’s important to keep your content fresh, especially if you have an informational site.

 

10. Make sure that your website is built with valid code.

 

Check your meta tags are properly used, and each page has a proper title. Consult your web developer about these items, as they are all important for your website to have.

 

Realize that the key to successfully marketing your website is a never-ending, integral process that you NEED to do. Take the time to properly work on the items above, and dedicate yourself to doing it right. You just invested in your website, right? Why not make the most of it and start seeing your hard-earned efforts pay off!

 

http://2marketawebsite.com/10-quick-tips-for-marketing-your-website-effectively-2/

 

8 SEO Trends Every Website Owner Must Pay Attention To In 2015

Do you know what SEO trends will affect your website in 2015? Want to make sure you’re keeping up with Google’s latest guidelines?

 

It’s essential for any website owner wanting to be found online to understand what Google is looking at when they crawl their site and, perhaps more importantly, what makes them decide who should rank above who.

 

Take a look at this infographic from CJG Digital Marketing for their 8 trends to look out for.

 

 

http://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2015/01/27/8-seo-trends-every-website-owner-must-pay-attention-to-in-2015/

 

The Penalty-Proof Way to Build Backlinks

Ranking penalties, as the result of Google algorithm updates, have plagued search marketers and webmasters since the search engine got serious about defeating spam back in the late 2000s. The Penguin update of 2012 and its subsequent iterations were responsible for most of the link-related ranking volatility of recent years, distributing penalties to sites with irregular, irrelevant, or otherwise non-valuable backlink, leaving many to abandon or dramatically overhaul their offsite SEO strategies.

 

Today, backlink building is still an integral part of any SEO strategy, as a means of increasing your site’s domain authority and making it easier to rank for almost any phrase. While there are modern tactics to build a high quantity of links without earning a penalty from Google, the safer approach is to incorporate a long-term, penalty-proof system of link building, which will keep you safe in the short-term and protect you against any future Google updates.

 

Step One: Choose Your Sources Wisely

Your first step is to build and maintain and inventory of quality external sources where you can build links. Consulting and abiding by this list will protect you against penalties based on the type of sources you use, and help boost your domain authority even further by increasing your relevance and building meaningful associations.

 

As a general rule, you should scout for sites that are authoritative (meaning they’ve been around for a while, they have value for their users, and a respectable amount of traffic), and sites that are directly related to your industry. You can find these sites by performing regular Google searches, using an aggregated news feed, or by examining the link profiles of your competitors using a free tool like Open Site Explorer. Collect a long list of these possible sources and begin making requests for your links on a rotating basis.

 

Be sure to avoid the following types of non-authoritative sources:

• Article directories. Article directories exist for the sole purpose of publishing random articles for the sake of building backlinks. Such sites are few and far between since Google began their crackdown, but stay far away from them regardless.
• Link farms. Link farms, much like article directories, exist solely to help other sites build backlinks. They publish hundreds of links pointing back to your domain, but all of them are very low quality and will likely result in a penalty.
• Payment-based sources. Google has an explicit policy against paid link building, which means that any links you pay for (other than advertising or affiliate links) can earn you a harsh penalty.
• Irrelevant blogs or forums. Forums, blogs, and directories can all be quality sources for backlinks—but only if they are relevant to your specific field. Posting a link on an irrelevant forum, or in an irrelevant conversation, can do more harm than good.

 

Step Two: Post Like a Person

If the search engine giant suspects that your link was built through automation or by a scheme to improve your rank, it will penalize you. So if you post like an ordinary, unbiased user with no ulterior agenda, you’ll be in the clear.

 

There’s no “trick” to getting past these evaluations of Google’s algorithms. Instead of trying to make your post look like it was posted to improve user experience, bypass that step and post content that is actually valuable.

 

The biggest key here is relevance. When you find a thread on an industry forum that seems like it might be a good fit for a link, read through it before you post. If your company doesn’t have anything to do with the topic, move on. If there’s a blog post that elaborates on a topic mentioned or substantiates a claim made in the thread, post a link to it! And don’t just post the link and be done with it; take the time to write up an explanation of why you’re posting the link, and why you think it would be helpful to the conversation.

 

Similarly, you’ll need to ensure that all your guest blogs and offsite content align with the expectations and standards of your offsite sources, and of course, ensure that they are well-written. Keep your hyperlinks to only what’s necessary or what’s helpful in understanding the article.

 

Step Three: Diversify

 

Another key in making sure you avoid any penalties in the future is to diversify your entire strategy. You’ll want to include as much variation as possible in every step of the process if you want to hedge your bets against the search engine’s next moves and stay ahead of the game no matter what.

 

First, you’ll need to diversify your sources. Hopefully, you’ve got a fairly long list of potential sources to draw from; take advantage of its entirety. Rotate your sources regularly, and never post too many links on any one source.

 

Second, you’ll need to diversify your timing. Don’t post all of your links on one day of the week or even worse, one day of the month. Spread your links out at random times over random days in an irregular pattern. Links look more natural that way.

 

Finally, it’s a good idea to diversify your link structure. Avoid posting the same link to your homepage over and over again. Instead, use deep links from your interior pages and blog posts to vary your external posts—it will also help ensure that your posts are specifically relevant to the conversation at hand. For good measure, be sure to build a significant number of linkless brand mentions as well. Brand mentions pass authority without garnering the negative attention of excessive backlinks.

 

Step Four: Audit Regularly

Unfortunately, maintaining solid best practices throughout your implementation isn’t enough to fully protect you against the possibility of a penalty, or even against the possibility of error in your own work. If you want to maintain the quality of your strategy and catch potential problems early on, the best course of action is to audit your backlink profile on a regular basis.

 

There are a few ways to do this, but the easiest is to consult a link-based search tool like Open Site Explorer, which we mentioned above. Here, you’ll be able to review all the links on the web that are pointing back to your site, and evaluate them for diversity, appropriateness, and authority. If you find any links that are irrelevant or questionable, you can easily get rid of them by asking the webmaster to remove them. If you find that your strategy doesn’t include as much diversity as you’d like, or if you spot too many patterns in your posts, you can adjust your process accordingly.

 

Plan on implementing a full backlink profile audit at least once a month, possibly more often if you have an aggressive link building strategy in place.

 

Put these steps into action for your entire offsite SEO strategy, and you’ll protect yourself against whatever new algorithm updates Google throws at you. Google’s entire motivation in rolling out updates is to make the web a better place with more relevant, accurate content—so if you focus on creating the best possible online experience for your visitors and modern searchers, there will be nothing for the search engine to penalize.

 

http://www.audiencebloom.com/2015/01/penalty-proof-way-build-backlinks/

 

Was Your Site Hit By Google’s Panda Or Penguin?

Was Your Site Hit By Google’s Panda Or Penguin? This Flowchart May Help You Find Out.

 

Columnist Janet Driscoll Miller has put together this handy flow chart to help you determine if your site has been hit by one of Google's infamous algorithm updates.

 

I regularly receive emails and calls from desperate website owners trying to understand why they saw sudden drops in traffic to their site.

 

Unfortunately, most of these site owners don’t have time or know-how to follow the algorithm updates, so they’re often baffled about what the cause might be.

 

When I’m contacted by one of these site owners, I first try to determine if the root cause was an algorithm update.

 

Because algorithm updates tend to have a specific timetable associated with them, I find them often easier to identify than other site changes — especially since many website owners do not thoroughly document changes made to page content or other areas of the site.

 

This lack of documentation can make it difficult to ascertain exactly what actions may have led to a rankings loss, whereas losses within a certain window of time may correlate directly with an algorithm update, often making the problem and the solution faster to diagnose.

 

In conjunction with Search Engine Land, I developed this flow chart to help others follow a process to determine if a Panda or Penguin algorithm update may be affecting their sites.

 

The flow chart should only be used as a guide, however. It is not a guarantee but rather a potential indicator that your site may have been hit by one of these updates.

 

 

 http://searchengineland.com/site-hit-panda-penguin-flowchart-may-help-find-209384

 

What is Retargeting and Why Should You Use It?

While you may not have heard the term retargeting before, you have definitely seen it in action. For instance, have you ever been browsing the web and seen an ad promoting a product or website you just looked at or visited? It can be kind of creepy, actually, until you understand how retargeting works. This post will look at what retargeting is, and how you should be using it for your business!

Example of retargeting (a.k.a. remarketing) on Facebook

 

What is Retargeting?

Retargeting is essentially a type of advertising strategy that lets your ads ‘follow’ your website visitors around the web. It is an extremely popular strategy that many big brands are now using for one simple reason: it works.

Typically, when you purchase an ad spot, you have the opportunity to put a static banner ad on a particular site. If you are using Google AdWords, for instance, your static banner ad gets shown across their network, either next to search results or on their display network (or both).

"With retargeting, however, you have the opportunity to have your ads shown to visitors who have already visited your site."

This is HUGE! These people have already visited your site, so you know they have an interest in what you’re selling or promoting. Retargeting lets you reach out to these visitors, and target your message in a more specific way.

How to Use Retargeting for Your Business

"Remarketing or retargeting, when done right, can result in better conversion rates, increased brand recognition and improved advertising ROI."

Rather than having to introduce your business or products to ad viewers, you can jump right into the good stuff: convincing them to come back and buy from you.

Following are 5 ways to make the most of retargeting for your business.

1. Target visitors who have abandoned their cart

If you have ever bemoaned the number of visitors who leave your site and abandon a full shopping cart, you are going to love retargeting! According to this infographic, ad retargeting brings 26% of lost customers back to complete their purchase. Try offering a discount or free shipping to entice customers to come back and complete the checkout process.

2. Offer a free product related to the product they looked at

This could be a product sample, related eBook or even free shipping. The point is to entice them back to your site by offering something of value. This can also be a great way to get these visitors into your funnel and email list.

3. Cross-sell to existing customers

Retargeting can also be a great way to reach out to existing customers to entice them to buy products related to what they have already bought. For instance, for customers who have already purchased cameras from you, you could promote camera accessories like tripods or carrying cases.

4. Reach customers who are part of a limited time membership

If you offer any kind of free trial on your site, you’ll love this one! Set up a retargeting campaign that advertises to customers who have signed up for your trial. When it starts getting close to the end of the trial, target your ads to remind your customers that their membership is going to expire.

5. Create general ads for all website visitors

If the strategies above feel a bit daunting, no problem! Start by simply creating a remarketing campaign aimed at all visitors to your site. Entice them back by offering a free eBook, free shipping, or even just promote a great piece of relevant content.

"Retargeting is a powerful strategy that all business owners should be incorporating into their marketing mix."

‘Banner blindness’ is alive and well, and remarketing can be just the way to make sure your ad stands out and gets noticed!

http://kimgarst.com/what-is-retargeting-and-why-should-you-use-it

What Are The Best Times to Post on Social Media?

Are you sending out your social media posts at the right time? Do you feel your posts aren’t getting noticed?

 

The best time to post on social media is very common question but is quite difficult to answer. There are a number of factors that can affect this such as the type of business you are, the social networks you are using, or even your target demographic.

 

There are certain noticeable trends when it comes to timings though and QuickSprout have put those together in the infographic below.

 

 http://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2015/01/07/faq-what-are-the-best-times-to-post-on-social-media/

 

Boost Your B2B Marketing With Google+

Despite a rocky beginning, Google+ has grown significantly in the past years and now is the second largest social media network with over 500 million active monthly users. While its numbers continue to climb steadily, there are still many marketers who have yet to embrace it as an effective tool for B2B marketing. In fact, only 39 percent of B2B marketers use Google+ to reach out to interact with current and potential customers. If you are daunted by the task of learning yet another new social platform consider this: 70 percent of brands now have a presence on Google+. There's no better time to get started on Google+ than now and the following steps can help you increase your follower base.


 

Engage with Others

 

Social media is all about interaction and this holds true for Google+. The difference is that Google+ focuses more on finding people who share the same passions and connecting with them. This makes it much easier for you to find people who are actually interested in your industry and start meaningful conversations. There are several ways you can do this:

• Circles - Circles gives you control over how you consume content as well as who you share your content with. This targeted sharing ability can improve your engagement rate and retain your niche following.
• Communities – Like Facebook Groups, Communities brings together people who share similar interests. As with all groups, you should take the time to listen more than you speak. Keep track of what others are saying and leave thoughtful comments to other people's posts. The more informative your comments, the more you will position yourself as an expert on the matter.
• Influencers – It's easy to find and add people on Google+. All you need to do is search for a name and then add them to the appropriate Circle. Once you add them you then can read their updates and comment when appropriate. The more you interact with these influencers, the better your chance of capturing a portion of their and their audience's attention.
• Hangouts – Hangouts is by far the most popular feature of Google+ for good reason. You can video conference up to 10 people and record these sessions to share with people who could not attend. It's a great way to connect with others and create content for your content marketing strategy.

 

Create Quality Content

 

Content marketing continues to be the most effective way to build an audience and this is where Google+ really shines. Unlike other social sites, Google+ gives you the ability to format your text to be bolded, italicized or striked through for additional emphasis. As well, there is no character limit to your updates, so you can use it almost like second blog platform. There are also standard features you can use to improve the reach of your content like hashtags and @mentions.

 

Like other social networks, your posts should provide informative or entertaining content first and promotional content second. Once you've built a large following you can level off the ratios a bit, but even then remember that your content should always provide some kind of value to your followers. The more you share the more authority you will build, but it's still best to practice some moderation. Keep it to 2-3 updates per day if possible.

 

Encourage Easy Sharing

 

Social shares are one of the many signals included in Google's search algorithm so it stands to reason that shares and +1s on Google+ will greatly impact your search engine ranking. And in a way it does. When people are logged into their Google+ account, they receive personalized results based not only on their previous searches but also their Circle. The best part is that the improved search ranking doesn't just apply to your followers, but also the followers of the people who +1 your content. This means that if a major influencer +1's your content, you can potentially get a lot of exposure.

 

If you want to take advantage of this huge boost in your search rank, the easiest thing you can do is add a +1 button for each article on your site. If you want your Google Plus followers to +1, sometimes all it takes is to ask.

 

Master Google+

 

It will take some time to see the fruits of your labor, but the longer you use it, the more you'll understand how you should approach your target audience. Keep track of the posts and updates that do the best and try to see why it performed so much better than others then apply this information to future posts. You'll soon see your follower count and engagement rate grow and you will most certainly boost your B2B marketing with Google+.

 

 http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/boost-your-b2b-marketing-google-0
 

Why Social Media Is Important for SMBs, Plus 5 Helpful Tools

The internet is an extremely powerful tool for businesses that want to build an online presence and attract customers. Unfortunately it can be overwhelming and intimidating, especially if you have other areas of your business that need attention, such as finances and overall management.

 

Fortunately, it isn’t that hard to make the jump to social media. Facebook and Twitter are both great social networks to start on, and by far the most popular. With billions of users on Facebook and over 500 million users on Twitter, it’s not too difficult a task to reach customers from around the world.

 

So where to start? First off, you should treat customers on social media just like you would in real life - they’re not robots, and neither should you be! Be friendly, timely in your communication, personable, and most of all engaging. For example, treat customer issues just like you would at the counter - and instead of marked down price tags, try promoting online promo codes and even freebies. There are literally countless ways that you can leverage social media to market your SMB.

 

The good news is that there are hundreds of available and affordable tools online to help you manage your social media accounts, allowing you to focus on other areas of your business. Some of these tools can help you schedule posts throughout the week, give you a general overview of your accounts, and even allow internal team collaboration to handle customer support tickets via social media. Below are a few affordable tools worth mentioning:

 

Buffer

Buffer is a very simple scheduling tool, that you lets you schedule social media posts as far in advance as you’d like. You no longer have to post manually to Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn - buffer lets you send posts to each of these social networks, and even has a nifty queue feature so that you don’t have to manually set a post time. Other features include basic analytics and team collaboration.

 

It’s only $10 a month to start, and pays off quickly - saving you hours of manual social media posting.

 

HootSuite

 

HootSuite is an all-in-one social media dashboard that lets you manage your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and even Google+ pages all at once. It’s similar to Buffer in that you can schedule posts (even in bulk), but goes one step ahead by displaying your social media feeds and lets you engage by way of like, comment, mention and favorite.

 

HootSuite pricing ranges from free for management of 3 social media profiles, to several hundred dollars for unlimited team collaboration and social media profiles. You’ll probably want to start out with their $10/month tier, which includes management of 50 profiles and a bunch of cool team features.

 

Feedly

 

Feedly is the next generation RSS reader - it lives in the cloud, so that it can display your feeds across several devices including desktop, iOS, Android and more. RSS feeds are great for discovering relevant content to share via your social media channels.

 

The best thing about feedly is the built-in social media sharing integration, and it even works with buffer. Feedly is free, but to make use of most of its sharing features, you’ll need to pay $5/month.

 

Mention and Google Alerts

 

Want to track a certain topic, or are you looking for media coverage about your business? Mention is a great app that sends you notifications whenever one of your saved searches finds something relevant, so that you don’t have to manually search across the internet. Mention searches social networks, websites and the overall internet for articles that include your search terms. You can then share the content directly from the Mention app. Pricing starts at $29 for 3,000 “mentions” (web results containing your search keyword).

 

Alternatively, you can use Google Alerts to track media coverage and topics across the web. It’s free, but the only drawback is that it searches for content only through the Google search engine, so it can miss important content at times. I use both Google Alerts and Mention, just to make sure I’m not missing anything.

 

Social media can be an extremely powerful outlet for your customers to get the best updates and deals from your business. That one Tweet can go a very long way!

 

http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/why-social-media-important-smbs-plus-5-helpful-tools

 

Tips & Tricks for Searching Google Like a Pro

Sometimes, I wish Google would just read my mind.

 

I usually have this thought after trying variation after variation of pretty specific search terms, like "recent social media statistics," without finding what I'm looking for. You'd think those search terms would return relevant results -- it's not like I typed in "cool shoes" and hoped for the best. But they don't -- and after a few attempts, I just want to hand over the reins to Google and say, "Can you please just find me what I'm looking for?"

 

Alright, so Google can't quite read your mind (yet ...), but they do have lots of operators in place to help you find more relevant search results.

You just have to know what those tricks are and how to use them. 

 

  

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/google-search-tips

 

How Google Works

Ever wonder how Google manages to serve you just the content you're looking for? You put in a few words, and within a few microseconds, you've got pages and pages of results ready to address your query. It's so fast, so accurate, and so comprehensive, it almost seems like magic.

 

Almost. But we all know there's more to delivering great search results than waving a magic wand.

 

So how does Google actually work? Neil Patel at Quick Sprout put together the following animated infographic to break down Google's process for finding and serving up search results. Check it out below:

 

 

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-google-works?utm_campaign=blog-rss-emails&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=15434572

 

The 7 Top Social Media Trends That Will Impact Your Marketing In 2015

2014 saw the world of social media take some new turns; some for better, others for worse. We’ve seen mobile use skyrocket; activity on social media during TV shows rise (according to research by Virgin Media) and the arrival of shopping via Twitter.

 

 

But with the year coming to a close, it’s time to have a look at which of these social media trends will take centre stage in 2015’s social landscape.

 

1. Mobile as Priority

 

According to Roger Katz of clickz.com, carriers’ shelf space for mobile handsets with screens sized 4.7 inches and over has grown from 4% to a third, whilst the number of daily active mobile users on Facebook has grown 15% in 2014 alone. If these stats aren’t enough to send a clear message, consider that the number of mobile-only users on Facebook grew by 34% – a startling spike that suggests mobile is no longer a secondary channel. It’s fast becoming first-choice.

 

Taking Facebook as a guide, Katz suggests ‘mobile-aware’ should become ‘mobile-first’ and think about how their social presence can cater to the mobile user. Big platforms have already been doing this, with Facebook creating its separate Messenger app and purchasing smaller mobile apps like WhatsApp, Instagram and Karma.

 

Twitter, on the other hand, recently purchased the MoPub ad exchange platform in 2013 and even Google Adwords is focusing more on mobile-centred display ads.

 

2. Paid Amplification

 

A recent Forrester report stated that organic interaction on Facebook brand posts has shrunken to just 0.073%. For a while now, Facebook has been pushing its promoted posts feature as a way to further monetize the platform and allow businesses to increase their outreach. And Twitter’s promoted tweets, have become more prevalent, attracting more users with each quarter (Thomas Armitage, site-seeker.com).

 

Katz believes brands ought to “ditch thinking about social media as a free-place market”, and instead take the time to think about audience segmentation and the needs of their particular audience.

 

Once brands have chosen carefully which social platform(s) to focus on, they can invest money into expanding their reach; capitalising on promising demographic and/or encouraging engagement from otherwise passive users.

 

3. Social Shopping

 

The idea of shopping via social media is probably an obvious one in hindsight, but it wasn’t until Twitter rolled out the idea earlier in 2014 that marketers started to consider it as a realistic possibility. With the integration of a ‘Buy’ button in certain tweets, visible only to a small segment of users, Twitter was able to test out the service through select brands like (RED) and Rihanna.

 

Facebook soon followed, rolling out a ‘Buy’ button trial of its own, and even microblogging site Tumblr recently announced it will try out the feature.

 

If engagement rates are satisfactory and there’s no decline in user-base, the chances are companies could be making more of this new feature. And for good reason too – social ‘buy’ buttons would potentially enable them to increase their sales; acquire concrete revenue figures from specific social media activity, and involve users in their brand in a whole new way.

 

4. Vlogging

 

Vlogging is becoming an increasingly common advertising channel for brands both large and small, giving blogging a run for its money as consumers’ go-to platform for reviews and advice. With the growing emphasis on unpolished, human-centred and consumer-generated content, companies are realising that customers want to hear the truth from other customers – not so much brands themselves.

 

YouTube is a platform with over one billion unique monthly visitors, and the second largest search engine according to Laura Harrison of Socialnomics. It has a wide demographic of 18-54, and videos are known to be shared “12 times more than links and text posts combined”.

 

A brand can either host its own vlogging channel or offer indie vloggers free goods in exchange for reviews and exposure. With the rise of young ‘celebrity’ vloggers like Zoella, Alfie Deyes, Tyler Oakley and Lily ‘Superwoman’ Singh, it’s now a strong contender for engagement that brands would be crazy not to take advantage of.

 

5. Social Wallets

 

Earlier in 2014, a Stanford student leaked hacked photos that revealed a line of code in Facebook’s Messenger app that suggested a payment and transfer platform could be on the cards. The payment system would allow Facebook users to not just make payments for goods over social media (hence the integration of a ‘buy’ button) but also send money to friends via direct debit.

 

The concept yet remains inactive, but if it were to come to fruition it would make social media a financial arena as well as a social one. Were users to trust Facebook and other networks with their money, these players would certainly enjoy increased power as a result (and brands would no doubt be able to cash in on this new relaxed willingness of users).

 

When we consider the rise of mobile contactless payment systems such as Apple’s iPay and EE’s Cash On Tap, combined with social media users’ shift towards mobile, the idea of social wallets makes perfect sense.

 

6. Interest-Based, Not People-Based

 

The last couple of years have seen a wave of new social platforms enter the foray; from image-based sites like Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr; to Google+ and Ello. The changing trend here has been in how we consume our updates (images over text-based; short GIFS and videos etc). But a new trend emerging is altering the kind of updates we choose to consume.

 

Newer platforms like Foodie, Fitocracy and PlantWorking are geared towards individual audiences rather than taking a ‘everything, everyone, everywhere’ approach. While Foodie is a place for chefs and cooks to share and explore recipes, Fitocracy allows gym bunnies to share workout plans and talk fitness, while PlantWorking is a social network for gardeners.

 

The main takeaway here is that new social networks are likely to be more interest-focused in 2015, uniting users through common hobbies and passions.

 

7. Continued Quest for Personal Privacy

 

With an increasing level of publicity surrounding data sharing and privacy on the internet, several platforms have tried to step it up a notch in 2014 by promising more privacy to their users.

 

Newcomer Ello, for example, promises never to sell user data, whilst Snapchat, Whisper, YikYak and Telegram have each taken a different approach to the social stratosphere. These platforms allow users to engage in conversations privately among their friends, or in some cases, connect with strangers while still keeping their identity private.

 

However, incidents such as the Snapchat hacking and Whisper’s secret compilation of posts and locations (for use in its own search database) have proven that the battle for privacy is not yet won. Ryan Holmes of Time.com has commented that the pressure for privacy will only grow stronger in 2015.

http://www.jeffbullas.com/2014/12/24/the-7-top-social-media-trends-that-will-impact-your-marketing-in-2015/