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
 

Old SEO vs New SEO: What You Should Stop Doing and What to do Instead

The process of optimising a website for search engines like Google (SEO) is a constantly changing field, and it’s important to keep up with these changes if you want to succeed online.

 

Using old techniques that Google now considers spammy may work in the short to medium term, but you can be sure Google will catch you out eventually and slap you in the face with a penalty that could take you months to recover from.

 

For what’s hot and what’s not take a look at this infographic from Digital Marketing Phillipines.

 

 

http://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2014/12/08/old-seo-vs-new-seo-what-you-should-stop-doing-and-what-to-do-instead/

 

6 Steps to Building a Loyal Online Audience

Are you looking for ways to build a loyal online audience? Do you know what a loyal audience can do for your business?

 

To be successful online you’ll need a group of brand advocates who will help to push your business forward. Those that will read your posts, share your content and recommend you to their friends, family and colleagues.

 

To help build that audience QuickSprout have put together their 6 steps in the infographic below.

 

 

http://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2015/02/27/6-steps-to-building-a-loyal-online-audience/

 

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

 

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/

 

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/

 

SEO is Dead! Here’s What You Should be Doing Now

We’ve been harping on for a while now that content marketing is the new SEO. CopyBlogger have taken this theory that one step further and claim that SEO is officially dead and has been replaced by the term OC / DC which stands for Optimising Content for Discovery and Conversion.

 

Their infographic below takes you through the steps they believe have replaced the traditional SEO methods of keywords and link building. Whilst we agree with the principal, we won’t stop using the term SEO just yet.

 

 

http://blog.red-website-design.co.uk/2014/04/28/seo-is-dead-heres-what-you-should-be-doing-now/

 

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

 

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

 

9 Professional New Year's Resolutions You Should Actually Keep

I never used to make New Year's resolutions. They seemed like a forced, trite way to make a change in my life. If I really wanted to change, why would I wait around for January First? I figured I'd be better off just making sporadic changes throughout the year.

 

Well, that strategy hasn't always served me well. Waiting until I "felt ready" to change often enabled me to push aside goals that were important to me but not time-sensitive goals -- like learning photography with a new camera I was given -- in favor of more time-sensitive goals, like making next week's brunch plans with friends.
 

But I got fed up with constantly pushing my goals back. I really did want to change. So one December, I decided to really commit to creating solid New Year's resolutions ... and it actually worked. By putting specific, time-bound goals in place, I was much more likely to achieve them. 

 

The great thing about resolutions is they don't have to just live in your personal life; they can be a powerful aid to help you grow your business, too. If you're looking to set resolutions for next year but are struggling with coming up with some solid, achievable ideas, keep on reading. Here nine resolutions you could pick for next year, and give you additional reading and resources to help you actually accomplish them.
 

1) Master Excel

It might seem like an old-school skill, but knowing how to use Excel can come in handy far more often than you think. The next time you have to create a custom report based on two data sources, track the growth of your marketing, or make a chart to prove a point to your boss, you're going to wish you knew how to use the program.
 

2) Improve Your Design Skills

You've probably heard all the hype about visual content already -- you just haven't buckled down to start creating some yourself. 

 

Well, 2015 is the year to do it. As more and more content on the web becomes visual, you're going to need to be able to create the content yourself -- or, if you have a bigger budget, learn to better communicate with contractors and agencies to create it for you.
 

3) Hire New, Awesome Teammates

I'd venture a guess that most marketers are strapped for time and resources -- which means you'll be looking to hire new talent in the upcoming year. 

 

If you're going to choose this resolution, be sure to take your time. It's all about hiring the right candidate, not a warm body that can tweet on your company's behalf. You need to ensure that you have a solid job description and a vigorous screening process to ultimately find a solid teammate. This process could take weeks, months, or even a full year, so get started as early as you can.
 

4) Develop a Mobile Strategy (Seriously)

For several years, you've heard about mobile becoming an important focus for marketers ... but have you truly invested the resources to learn about mobile, and adapted your marketing strategy accordingly? 

 

If not, spend some time next year developing a mobile strategy and overhauling your website, emails, social accounts, blog, and any other online content to be mobile-friendly.
 

5) Blog Consistently

Blogging is like working out: You've got to do it consistently to see great results. You can't just publish once every few months and expect to rack up the views, lead, and customers. 

 

If you're struggling to keep a tight editorial calendar, then commit to blogging consistently this year. It doesn't matter if you decide to blog every two weeks, every week, or every day -- the point here is to pick a frequency you think you can accomplish, and stick to it. Once you develop a solid, reliable cadence, then you can work on increasing the volume.
 

6) Don't Forget About Your Old Content, Too

If you already have a solid publishing cadence established, you might want to take the New Year to look back at your well-performing content. Take time to identify the posts that perform best for you, and then figure out how you can squeeze even more juice out of them. Next, apply those experiments' findings to the posts that are "second tier" -- the ones that are decently successful, but could be even more so if you optimized them. 

 

Spending time optimizing content you've already created can be a great way to keep your evergreen content fresh for readers and search engines.
 

7) Run Big, Strategic Tests

Many marketers tend to run small, haphazard tests -- a subject line A/B test here, a CTA color change there. But all of these incremental tests might not really make a difference in your marketing. 

 

In the new year, think about running larger, more strategic tests to get to the heart of what your audience enjoys. Challenge conventional best practices. Make big changes to your marketing. Make your experiments as statistically valid as possible. By doing bigger experiments, you'll have a better chance of getting big results.
 

8) Invest in Better Measurement

Ahh, marketing ROI ... one of the most notoriously difficult things to measure, but also the key to unlocking career growth. So why not make it your New Year's resolution next year? 

 

If you're going to tackle this in the New Year, I'd highly suggest setting up a coffee meeting with your counterpart in Sales within the first two weeks of the year. To justify your department's impact, you're going to need to tie your activities to the bottom line -- and your Sales team can help you do just that. Meeting early and often in the process will be key to your success.
 

9) Move to the Next Level of Your Career

Regardless of what "next" means for you -- changing your title, getting more responsibilities, starting your own thing -- you can set out to accomplish it this year. While it may take longer than a year to fully accomplish the career goal, setting up a plan for yourself to make big, life-changing moves isn't a bad thing. If your goal is really really monstrous, try breaking it into a year-over-year plan, and using the first year plan as the basis for your resolutions. 

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/new-years-resolutions-marketers

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

 

How to Create a Successful Blog Strategy: A Step-by-Step Guide

Today, age and experience no longer necessarily determine your credibility. Instead, people care about your ideas, your generosity, and your willingness to take risks and learn from mistakes -- those are the kinds of things that can give you a voice in the conversation.

 

We've witnessed a blogging revolution over the past fifteen years, where individuals have become famous on the back of 500-word snippets or rants that resonate with some online audience. Many of the thought leaders of our time became well-known because of their blogs. But as more people blog, the quality of blog content is becoming more important -- and this is especially true for businesses who are blogging to get found on the internet.

 

 

It isn't enough to simply have a blog -- businesses need to spend time creating a blogging strategy that allows for high quality content creation so you can, slowly, build a reputation for thought leadership that will pay off big time in the long term.

 

It's the strategy part that trips up a lot of businesses. I've found that documenting your blog strategy is a great way to bridge the gap to successful execution. Check To help you get started, here's a nine-step process for creating a successful blog strategy for your business. Each step is marked by a question. Adapt it based on your business needs and experience. 

 

1) Purpose

 

Why does your blog exist?

 

What to document: One defining statement articulating the purpose of your blog.

 

Before you can dig in to the strategy of your blog, you need to clearly articulate its underlying purpose. Take a moment to ask yourself these questions:

• What is the greater purpose your company is trying to fulfill?
• What story supports this purpose?
• Who shares your passion for this purpose?
• Is your team aligned with the meaning of this purpose?

If you can answer these questions with some clarity and then collate them into one defining statement, you create a powerful anchor for all future blogging (and marketing) decisions.

 

2) Buyer Personas

 

Who are your ideal customers?

 

What to document: A clear, detailed description of your ideal customer(s). 

 

Ideally, you'll tailor your blog content to people who might buy from you -- after all, your blog will become a great lead conversion tool. But who are these ideal customers? Once you can answer that question in detail, you'll be able to write blog posts that are better tailored to their interests. (Here's a helpful template for creating a buyer persona to get you started.)

 

Once you've arrived at detailed descriptions of your ideal customers, you'll need to research their behavior so you can adapt and tailor blog content for their biggest challenges, interests, and curiosities. But isn’t customer research expensive, you might ask? Sure, it can be -- but if you want to bootstrap it, here are a few places to start:

• Question and answer forums like Quora, Yahoo! Answers, and Fluther.
• Social media. I find LinkedIn Groups, Twitter Advanced Search, and Google+ Communities excellent resources.
• Tools that tell you about other content being created in your niche and how popular it's been with your potential customers (at least according to social shares). Examples include BuzzSumo and Topsy.
• Blog comments on other blogs your potential customers might read. What type of content are they already engaging with on other blogs?

One main goal of inbound marketing is to build trust with your audience. If you discover the information your customers seek and then become the go-to blog for providing that information, they will likely start to trust you. This trust gains momentum over time, and before you know it, that high trust relationship will bring your customers back time and time again -- and they'll probably bring their family and friends with them.

 

3) Competition

 

Which of your competitors have blogs?

 

What to document: A list of 5-10 of your closest competitors with blogs you could conduct a content audit on.

 

Do you want your customers seeking purchasing information from your competitors? This is a rhetorical question -- of course you don’t. But if your blog doesn’t provide the information your customers are looking for and your competitors’ blogs do, what choice do they have?

 

Try conducting a content audit of your biggest competitors. If they're ranking higher than you for crucial keywords, then write and promote better content for those keywords. If you see gaps in the content on their site, capitalize on those gaps.

 

4) Keywords

 

Which keywords are you targeting?

 

What to document: A list of 5-10 keyword groups you want to rank for and their associated long-tail keywords you can include in blog content

 

Keywords let search engines understand what your content is all about. When one of your customers searches for a specific phrase, you want them to find your blog (or web page), not a competitor’s. But what are your potential customers searching for? You'll need to dedicate some time researching which keywords they tend to type into search engines, and then including those keywords in your blog posts.

 

Just remember: Google's algorithm is constantly changing and is becoming more and more intuitive -- and old tactics like keyword stuffing will hurt your ranking nowadays. Instead, marketers are better off writing copy that engages humans first, and search engines second. 

 

5) Distribution Platforms

 

Where will you distribute your blog content? 

 

What to document: A list of the platforms where you will distribute your blog content.

 

Rand Fishkin, SEO Expert from Moz, once quipped: "'I hit 'publish' for the first time, and everyone just showed up' – said no blogger ever."

 

I love this quote. Writing quality blog content is a great start toward running a successful business blog, but the hard part is getting that content discovered and turning your platform into an authority.

 

But creating blog content can be time consuming, especially when you aim to command authority in your niche with well-researched posts. One tactic I've found very useful is repurposing your blog content. Take a look at the content you used to write a blog post -- the ideas, research, structure, and stats -- and using that same information in a different form. You'll reach a wider audience and engage with people that may not have read your blog the first time.

 

There are many things you can do to get better results from your blog. Here are a few:

• Take key quotes and takeaways from your blog post and schedule them across your social media networks, including links to the blog post. Even better, put these quotes into images using a platform like Canva and post them on social media.
• Split up the blog post as a string of emails to your community, with links back to the blog post.
• Create a SlideShare using content, stats, and so on from your post.
• Create an infographic. This isn't as hard as it sounds, and all you really need is PowerPoint.

 

6) Promotion

 

How will you promote your blog content? 

 

What to document: A list of potential influencers in your niche, as well as all the other promotional tactics you will use to get your blog content discovered.

 

When it comes to blog strategy, "promotion" simply means getting your content out there so people discover it, read it, and (hopefully) share it with others. There are lots of inbound marketing tactics for promoting your blog posts, but for the purpose of this post, I’d like to focus on influencer marketing.

 

Using an inbound approach to promoting your blog content requires a lot of deliberate effort up front. You need to identify key influencers in your industry -- people your customers perceive as credible and trustworthy. These influencers command authority in their field and provide access to authoritative sources.

 

First, create a list of influential people in your niche. Then, you can start placing deposits -- for example, if they have a blog, read it, comment on it, and share it. If they have an email list, sign up for it and respond to (some of) their emails with thanks, and encourage others to join up. If they have a book, read it, review it, and generously promote it to your network. In the words of Adam Franklin, “Lead with generosity."

 

It's important to remain in regular contact with your list of influencers. I schedule time into my calendar to place further deposits with certain people. Typically, this looks like a brief email message or a social share, but sometimes it might play out as something more meaningful. If you work hard on placing deposits you expand your network to a group of people that command great authority with your ideal customers.

 

Now you can leverage the combined power of an extended network next time you publish a blog post. Influencer marketing is just one component of my blog promotion strategy, but I believe it's the most important.

 

7) Headcount

 

Who will run your blog?

 

What to document: Exactly who is accountable for each role within your blog strategy.

 

You need to decide exactly who will execute on your strategy. As you can see from this blog post, there are lots of moving parts -- and if you don’t create ownership around each of those components, your chances of success decrease. Here are some examples of the roles you need to effectively implement a blog strategy. (Depending on the size of your marketing team and the skills available, you may find one person holds responsibility for multiple roles.)

• Keyword research
• Facts, stats and examples research
• Copywriting
• Editing
• Strategy and editorial calendar governance
• Creative
• Promotion
• Repurposing

 

8) Rhythm

 

How many blog posts can you commit to scheduling?

 

What to document: An editorial calendar and the number of blog posts you can commit to scheduling per week.

 

The beauty of creating a blogging rhythm and publishing that in an editorial calendar is that it’s not about frequency, it’s about creating accountability. It makes sure that every blog is optimized for keywords, CTAs and is developed and scheduled on time. This gives you a consistent stream of blog content that your readers can get in sync with.

 

Your editorial calendar should be designed to align with the rest of your blog strategy. I like to incorporate the specific promotional tactics, goals and resources required for each individual blog post.

 

9) Metrics

 

Which metrics matter to you?

 

What to document: The goals you aim to achieve from blogging and the metrics that contribute to those goals. (I recommend setting goals over a 60-day period. This gives you long enough to see whether your strategy is working, and allows you to then adapt and change your goals based on the results you experience.)

 

Traffic, likes, plus ones, re-tweets, follows, backlinks, subscribers… What do all of these metrics mean? How do any of them contribute to your bottom line?

 

Metrics are helpful, but they're pointless if you can’t track them back to a meaningful outcome. Perhaps the most important element of an effective blog strategy is accurately defining the goals you want to achieve. Here are three helpful questions you can ask yourself while defining a goal or outcome:

• Does this goal help us achieve our purpose, or is there something more relevant we can aspire to?
• Is this goal aligned with the initiatives of other parts of our business?
• Which metrics track the progress towards this goal? Are these metrics complementary or counterintuitive?

Answering these questions will help you set meaningful goals, and consequently, understand the metrics that will help achieve them. There is no exact science to measuring the effectiveness of your blog strategy, but this process creates a direct line of sight from your activity to a desired outcome. Once you understand exactly how many of a specific metric -- say, a social share -- contributes to a specific outcome -- say, a sale -- then your strategy becomes more targeted.

 

Growing an influential blog in your niche is a surefire way to nurture your potential customers. By creating regular content that solves the challenges of your readers and fulfills their biggest curiosities, you'll start to build a vault of trust and advocacy, which will inevitably contribute to the overall success of your business. Start with your purpose -- the big why -- and slowly unpack the individual levers that will contribute to your blog marketing performance.

 

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/blog-strategy-guide?utm_campaign=blog-rss-emails&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=15415390