Search Engine Marketing Blog: piloSEO

Search marketing has come a long way in the last 10 years or so. Back in the mid to late 90’s the amount of information available to the average business was pretty sparse. If you wanted to dig around you could probably find quality information. The problem was that it was hard to find and since the industry was so new most business owners had a difficult time figuring out what was good and what was bad. Today there are plenty of great resources for search marketing information no matter what level of knowledge you have. On top of that there is a lot of good information that is fairly easy to find. That being said there is still a ton of really bad information out there and many business owners don’t realize that until it is too late.

Most businesses realize the importance of search and Internet marketing and in many cases they have at least a basic understanding of SEO. That being said there are still far too many businesses that don’t understand the basics of SEO and they are sitting ducks for the scammers who are peddling search marketing services that are worthless at best and harmful at worst. If you are a business owner and are looking to expand your reach and exposure in search engines there are a few things you should look out for.

• First and foremost avoid any SEO or SEM company who spams you.
  • If an SEO is violating the CAN-SPAM Act it is a good bet that they will have no qualms about breaking search engine rules and guidelines. You my see some short terms success but in many cases they are offering services that will end up getting your site penalized or even banned from the search engines.
• Avoid Companies who guarantee rankings in organic search.
  • Legitimate SEO’s will all tell you that there is no way to guarantee rankings. In most cases the guarantee is that you will rank on your name or some no name search engine, which they probably own. Everyone loves a guarantee but legitimate SEO’s will tell you that guarantees in organic results are impossible but they will utilize proven techniques to optimize your site so it has the best chance to rank well on your chosen keywords in the major search engines. If someone guarantees a result ask them what the keyword is and what engine they are talking about.
• Research the company online.
  • It’s easy to find information about most SEO’s online. Do some research and find out what others are saying about them. If you see a bunch of negative comments the chances are they are not going to provide you with the service you want. The SEO world is well connected and a few minutes of research will go a long way in determining whether an SEO company is doing the right thing or not.
• Avoid SEO’s who tell you that they will submit your site to search engines.
  • Search engine submissions are pretty much worthless now. On top of that they are free and easy for anyone to do. If a company is charging for this alone they are ripping you off. Be especially wary of SEO’s who say they will submit you to thousands of search engines or resubmit every month. Like I said, for the most part it is worthless and at worst if it is done over and over it could end up hurting you.
• Avoid SEO’s who are secretive.
  • If an SEO won’t tell what they will do or why they are doing it they are probably trying to hide something that will end up hurting your business. Talk to potential SEO’s and find out how they work. Good SEO’s will tell you and you can then research their plan to make sure it sits fits in well with your business plan.

This is just a short breakdown of a few things to look out for when you are trying to find an SEO. Even though most businesses are more knowledgeable about SEO there is still enough misinformation out there to confuse many business owners so it is important to know what to look for and what to avoid. Don’t jump into bed with anyone. Good SEO is not cheap and when done right it will be well worth the initial investment. It is important to make sure you are spending your money wisely so make sure you learn as much as you can and ask questions. Google provides a good list about what to avoid when hiring an SEO. Use this resource as well as any others you can find before beginning your search and with the proper research you should be able to find an SEO that will help your business do well in the search engines and help you add to your bottom line.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Page Rank, PageRank, PR, TBPR…no matter how you say it, it will not go away. Last week, and a week or two before that, we saw a big blow up in the blogosphere about Google manually reducing TBPR for sites who were selling links and then later blogs who were engaged in a lot of cross linking between their various blogs. The outrage was huge and in many cases the reasons for the outrage were legitimate. Sites should be able to sell advertising any way they want and Google has no right to tell webmasters how to run their sites. On the other hand Google can do whatever they want with their index and their “tools”. Obviously, the fact that Google is essentially the Internet to many people clouds the issue and getting a black mark (or little less of the green mark) can hurt sites in some people’s eyes. But why is that? Is it really Google’s fault that so many people consider the TBPR to be a sign of a sites authority? In a sense they share part of the blame because they put it out there and say that it is a sign of a sites popularity (even though they provide a disclaimer about its usefulness that most users don’t read). While I do believe that Google has some responsibility for the way TBPR is viewed IMO SEO’s share much of the blame.

Most SEO’s scoff at those who talk about TBPR as being an important metric. We all talk about how meaningless it is and when someone mentions it when discussing problems with their site we tell them it is not important. I believe this to be true. We all know that it is out of date and does not reflect the internal PR that Google uses as but one factor in their algorithm. The recent blow bares this out too considering that the big sites that were hit with a TBPR drop did not drop in the SERPs and continued to receive normal traffic levels from Google. So in effect this “penalty” seemed to be a show of force from Google with no real penalty behind it. But we still talked about it every where. Of course, many outside of our industry read these blogs and discussions and did not take away the point that TBPR is not that important. Nope, they saw all of the discussion and it reinforced their misunderstanding about the importance of TBPR.

Now we have a new PR update and many sites have lost a point or two and everyone is talking about it. Go to the Google Webmaster Groups and look at the number of PR related posts there. I am sure that you can go to almost any SEO or webmaster related forums and see the same thing. IMO most of these drops are not because a site lost any PR but that Google has in effect moved the goalposts (thanks Robbo) so now it takes more quality links to move the PR needle. Who knows for sure but from preliminary data the PR drop for most sites has not changed SERPs or traffic levels. Of course, SEO’s are now talking about the PR update leaving the less informed webmasters and the general public even more confused and clinging to the belief that TBPR is a useful metric. And the cycle continues. We will talk about it for a while and forget about it while telling everyone TBPR is not important…until it is time for the next update when we begin to speculate when the update will be and finally discuss the update ad nauseum.

I would be happy if Google actually got rid of the TBPR altogether but I don’t see that happening any time soon. People like it and as the latest blow up shows they are able to use it to get a message out to the search community without actually making an official statement. As long as they provide the tool we SEO’s should simply ignore it (not just say we ignore it) but actually ignore it and not talk about it. If someone asks about it we should explain why it is not important and move the discussion to aspects of SEO that are actually important. If we stop putting out conflicting information and stop talking about it the information will filter down to those who are not industry insiders and TBPR will be viewed as it should be. A neat little toy that provides information that really is not that reliable. Until that happens we will see this issue surface every few months before we go back to our normally scheduled business.

Popularity: 8% [?]

While more and more business are beginning to realize how important it is to have an presence on the Internet and investing in SEM and SEO services. The fact is there are still many businesses out there that are still holding the false belief that an Internet presence is not important to their business model. In reality ALL businesses can benefit from SEO and as a result being findable when potential customers are looking for them or the products and services they offer.

While most national and international businesses understand the need to perform well in search engines, many smaller local businesses believe they can get by without an Internet presence. But recent trends show that more and more people are using search engines to find local businesses instead of local phone books. Chris Silver Smith at Search Engine Land wrote an interesting article that shows the use of Google to find locally based businesses going up while the use of different Yellow Pages publications dropping off. As more and more people take to the Internet this trend will increase. Couple that with the rise of mobile web platforms that allow users to easily find a business online and make a call to it with one push of a button and it seems that the old Yellow Pages are going the way of the dodo.

This means that all businesses need to expend some money and/or effort into an SEO and Local Search strategy to capture the attention of all potential customers. Even if you don’t have a website you can take advantage of services like Google Maps, Yahoo Local, and MSN Local (uses a third party vendor) as well as a number of local directories. These services allow businesses to craft their message and add a number of different ways to contact including website address, emails, phone numbers, and in the case of the local and map engines you will be able to provide customers with a map and the ability to get door to door directions. Local search is a great (and free) way to attract more customers.

Outside of the map and local engines many businesses will want to enhance their presence with SEO. Quality SEO will increase a businesses presence in the organic listings of every search engine. For a more detailed explanation of organic listings and the layout of search engine results pages visit this SEOmoz Tutorial. This requires significant knowledge and most businesses will probably need to hire an SEO professional. It is important to show up in the organic results because while the local and map functions in the search engines provide decent exposure they require specific triggers to display results. Quality SEO will help your site rank when your targeted keywords are typed into the search engine no matter if the local triggers are not met.

If you have a local business and feel like you are missing out on a lot of business it might be time to look into SEO and Local Search optimization. Many people still use the Yellow Pages but more and more are eschewing the publications and going straight to the Internet. Don’t miss out on these customers.

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Welcome to piloSEO. I am in the process of building the site but in the future I will be providing news, commentary, and discussions from the SEO world. I will also have more information about piloSEO SEO and SEM services. Check back soon to see the latest updates and news.

Popularity: 15% [?]