In-Depth Articles: The Newest Google Real Estate

This past Tuesday Google announced that it will be adding a new "In-Depth articles" section to its search results page. These articles will appear inside a block in the middle of Google's results page, and will include longer form in-depth articles from high-quality sources. Google discovered that about ten percent of its users search on Google as a way to attain more meaningful skills and knowledge, and they need deeper, more sophisticated articles to accomplish this. This allows online businesses and SEO specialists to attain even more Google real estate than ever before, but this new section of Google results is not terribly simple to break into. There are many steps to follow, and businesses should contact their SEO specialists to make sure they are up to date with this new development. Here are some quick tips that Google laid out in its press release that will help companies take advantage of this new resource.

First, for articles to be considered, authors must utilize the Google+ Authorship markup. Authors must have a multi-layered Google+ account, a simple head shot, a byline containing their name on each page of their content, and an E-mail address on the same domain as their content. Once these steps are completed, Specialists must also utilize Schema.org "Article" markup in their content coding to ensure that Google spiders can quickly analyze and rank their text. Schema.org "Article" markup is a somewhat confusing field, so businesses would be wise to find a specialist that has experience in this style of coding. Also in the coding field, specialists must utilize rel=next and rel=prev tags for multi-page articles to help Google to view the content as a sequential passage. And finally, companies should use a proper schema.org organization markup to connect their site to with an iconic logo. This will help the company's logo to show up higher in Google rankings to ensure a stronger brand for their content.

All of these steps, on top of the creation of stellar content, must be utilized if online businesses wish to be a part of this new section of Google. By doing this, companies will have more avenues for SEO growth to add into their content marketing campaigns. In-depth articles can already be seen for searches of broad topics like music, movies, art, and history; however, Google has made it clear that this section will not be included on every single SERP (search engine results page) out there. It is clear though that this new section will allow companies to identify and engage potential customers who are willing to spend time reading and researching their field, rather than just the every day one-click passers bye.

The Google Algorithm, SEO, and Content Marketing

The Google algorithm seems like it is changing so fast that no one is able to keep up with it. Google’s swiftly pushing for Content Marketing and away from SEO.

SEO use to be the best way to get yourself on high ranks with Google. SEO use to just be the process of gaining as many links as possible to your primary website. You were able to do this through spun articles, bought links, and all types of different techniques. These techniques are now big no-no’s when it comes to SEO. Honestly, SEO is becoming a thing of the past and Content Marketing is the way of the future.

Content Marketing is generating links to your website because you are posting content that people actually want to read. Its finding topics related to your primary site and making the public interested in them to the point where they will share your business with others.

Hopefully this short summary was helpful for you,

For a fuller description, please go here! 

Why Consistency is Important to SEO

You may have heard the saying “SEO is a marathon” before. That is true, and like any marathon, you have to keep a steady pace to reach the ultimate goal, first page rank.

Whether you are a SEO company, or you are doing your own private SEO you will have to remain consistent. SEO isn’t just a one-and-done type of thing, even if you achieve first page rank.

When you start out doing your SEO, you should be doing work for it daily, making sure you have good content on blogs, social media, and other places you would like to share your business. You will want to be making posting at the same time every day. The consistency will show Google that you are putting in good effort that you are trying to achieve a higher rank.

After the first few months of doing SEO, when you start seeing higher page rank, you can be less aggressive with your SEO postings. Limiting yourself to one or two postings a week, this will show Google that you still care about your SEO. You should continue to be consistent with your SEO work so you won’t lose page rank or authority. 

In the end, consistency is important for your SEO. 

Signs of a Great Keyword

Signs of a Great Keyword

One of the most important aspects of SEO is keywords. Keywords is the soul of SEO because it is what you want to be found for. So it’s obvious that if you have bad keywords, you will have bad SEO. Therefore, how do you choose the best keyword for your website? What you should be looking for is the Commercabiliy of the keyword. Commercabiliy probably isn’t a word you are familiar with, but it will soon become a word used to describe the best choice of a keyword in the SEO world.

The Commercabiliy of a keyword focuses on two main factors when doing a keyword research: Searches per Month, and CPC.

First let’s look at searches per month. When doing keyword research you will come across two different types of searches per month, local and global. Local just means in the United States. So if your business strictly works in the US you would look at the local monthly searches. Then there is the global monthly searches, which you would look at if your business services the entire world.

The second is the CPC, which is another extremely important part of Commercabiliy. CPC is an acronym for Cost Per Click, which is a dollar value that is put to a keyword.  The Return on Investment is what gives the keyword its value, be it large or small. Companies associated with that keyword bid on how much they think it’s worth and that’s what determines the CPC for a keyword. The larger the CPC for the keyword, the better the ROI of it will be, making it an important keyword to be optimized for.

So, why do you need to look at both of these factors when deciding what keyword will be the best for you? Let us say that you have a keyword that has 10,000 searches per month with a CPC of $2. Well, the search volume is great, but the value of the keyword is only $2, which means that the companies associated with the keyword do not see the value of it and therefore the ROI on the keyword will be very small. That keyword does not show good Commericability and will not be a good keyword to be optimized for because it will not have much or any ROI.

Now you look at a keyword that has about 5,000 searches per month, but it has a $20 CPC. This is a great example of a keyword with good commericiability. This means that the keyword is valued very high and is one that businesses want to be optimized for and it is important to have for your business. The searches per month might not be as high as the last example, but the ROI will in turn be higher. A keyword with these stats will be a good keyword to start your SEO for, because it has great Commericability.

In conclusion, Commericability is very important to your SEO needs, you will want to look at these factors along with others when choosing a keyword to be optimized for. If you want to know more information on Commericability go here. 

I Fought the Law and the Law Won: How to get Back Page Rank

So, you got caught doing black hat SEO didn’t you? Google found you out and now you want to get your rankings back. You may think it is too late to ask for forgiveness from the almighty Google, but it might not be. There are a few things you will need to do for Google to reconsider your page.

First you will have to do is clean up your mistake. Take out all of the things that make you a user of black hat SEO: Spam links, paid links, cloaking, etc.

Then you will have to submit a re-inclusion request, asking Google to look over your site again and apologizing for your black hat SEO. You will have to be extremely thorough. Tell them everything that you did wrong, and pretty much confess all your sins. Google will most hopefully take your apology and tell you to never do it again.

But if that doesn’t work then you are going to have to abandon your domain. Move on, never look back. Because your rankings will never go up again, you should just leave and start fresh. Just remember, if you fight the law, the law will win. 

Google Fashion Trends: White is the New Black (Hat)

New to SEO?  Looking to employ a digital marketing agency to manage your online campaigns and content marketing for you? It can be very confusing to find the right fit as there are so many snake oil merchants with empty promises that will hurt your site more than helping it. You must be very careful to avoid companies that use black hat SEO tactics, as these can have devastating effects on your website. We've listed the main tactics to steer clear of; if you see anyone offering these services then we advise you run away, and fast!

The first black hat tactic we're going to discuss is the placement of links on what's known as a "link farm". These types of sites are solely created for the purpose of creating unnatural links to increase page rankings. The danger is that your website link will find itself next to undesirable businesses, such as those related to gambling or health products. Google is constantly working on their algorithm precisely to battle links such as these. Just look up services such as Build My Rank to see how such strategies can pan out.

You will also want to avoid any service that uses black hat software to blast out low-quality links. Remember, the quality of links is much more important than the quantity. Cheaper services will often try to tempt you by advertising an impressive number of links that they can point at your website. 1000 links from web 2.0s, bookmarking sites, article directories and social media for only a few dollars sounds like quite a good deal at first glance. However, what these providers leave out is the fact that Google does not like low quality links or an unnaturally high amount of them. Rather than help your site, these links will result in your business disappearing from the search engines.

Duplicate or spun content is another major issue when using black hat services. Google is a huge fan of unique and useful content.  As usual, you get what you pay for.  This type of content is more expensive and far more time consuming and black hat service providers will therefore use existing web content for use on their SEO projects. They will use what is known as a "spinner", which is a program that uses synonyms to attempt to spit out unique and readable content. Unfortunately, there is not a single program on the market that can do this easily or without heavy manual work and so you will often be left with low-quality drivel that Google will most definitely not look kindly upon.

If you have a legitimate business and want to remain that way, then we highly recommend staying away from cheap services that offer low-quality black hat backlinks. While it's possible that you may enjoy a boost in your rankings, it is almost guaranteed that it will only be temporary. In the worst case, your site will be penalized and blacklisted by Google and will require a lot more work to reestablish yourself at the top of the search results. For this reason we always recommend opting for an ethical and transparent digital marketing agency that only uses white hat SEO methods and quality content marketing. It may take longer and cost you a little bit more money, but your business will be safe from Google penalties and thus be more profitable and less costly in the long-run.

The 10 Commandments of SEO and Content Marketing

  1.       Thou shalt not have any search engines before Google.

There are literally dozens of search engines out there, but which one does everyone know of? Google.  Don’t focus on trying to rank on other search engines. If you rank on Google, you’ll rank everywhere else too.

        2.       Thou shalt not take the name of Google in vain.

This is to say, don’t slander Google or begrudging dismiss Google as too difficult to rank on and therefore you give up.  As long as you’re actually writing and distributing quality content then Google will reward you eventually!  They just have to filter through all the spam first.

        3.       Remember to keep religiously Blog posting day.

One of the keys to effective content marketing through blog posting is being consistent with your posting.  Have a set time either once or twice a week that you post a piece of content every time.  Not only does Google recognize the consistency, but users will appreciate it as well when they can expect and look forward to your next post.

        4.       Honor Google and online users.

Don’t post cheap or spammy content!  Don’t add to the garbage that black hat SEO companies spill all over the internet.  This makes more work for Google and users as they must sift through page after page of useless gibberish to find the quality content they are looking for.

        5.       Thou shalt not use Negative SEO against a URL.

Using the negative SEO tactic against another site is very inefficient and could backfire.  For example, if you target a competing website to overtake them in the ranks, you may succeed in dragging them down, but you and all of your other competitors will all move up to fill the gap.  You could have used that time to promote your own authority and overtake all of your competitors.

        6.       Thou shalt not backlink to other websites.

Of course there are times where linking to another website is required and the ethical thing to do.  Try to create as much original content as you can so that you have other sites linking to you instead.  Also, linking to a bunch of other sites does in theory lower your authority since you’re giving authority to others by linking to them.

        7.       Thou shalt not steal/plagiarize content.

Yes, if you quote someone else or copy their content without your own perspective changing the content, then you are stealing and plagiarizing their work.  Treat others well and most of the time they will return the favor.

        8.       Thou shalt not bear false content.

If you don’t know about something you’re writing about, there is this great tool that is quite amazing that is essentially a free database of the sum of human knowledge called “the internet.”  Educate yourself on what you’re writing about instead of making low quality content that is for the most part wrong and any fact checker could call you out on.

        9.       Thou shalt not covet they neighbor’s website.

A colorful and shiny website, maybe made using flash, does look great, but it is a very poor platform for SEO purposes.  Having a great looking and optimized SEO website is possible with the right digital marketing agency.  Find a good company that can give you the best of both worlds!

        10.   Thou shalt not covet they neighbor’s backlinks.

With the current state of the Google algorithm, backlinks have become not as important as they were in the past.  Focus on creating good content that you can be proud to have your name attached and that will carry more weight with Google then a bunch of random and spammy backlinks.