Poor Content Means Low Ranking

The latest move against spam and poor content has meant that many pages on the Internet which were performing well are now complete non achievers in the SERPS. As a result of web content being deemed as poor quality by the latest algorithms, a website will fall out of the number one slot, and it is even possible to practically fall out of search altogether. This can be very problematic to businesses, so to avoid being lost in the millions of other poor quality website it is time to take action.

Evaluate your Website and bring it Up to Date

The best place to start is by carrying out a full evaluation of your site as it is currently. Using analytical tools it is possible to check to see the keywords used by the browsers who stumble across your site, compare the amount of traffic against sales achieved over the Internet and now you can even check the speed of all your pages.

Also to note is Google’s ‘Panda’ algorithm update which was rolled out in April 2011, introduced to help good websites be found and poor websites to be pushed down in the rankings. If you haven’t worked on optimising your web content towards the users then Google will effectively punish you for it.

Boost your SEO

After evaluating how your site is performing you then need to look at all of the content on your site. This includes your static pages as well as your blogs and articles which you publish. You have to check that all the content is original, if it isn’t you will need to rewrite it all, or hire someone to do it for you, as soon as possible. Carry out a keyword evaluation as these are still important to your site, just be sure not to spam the words, and deliver information regarding the keywords, and not just use them to attract visitors.

Create a Blog using Original Content

A blog is a good way of using your target keywords and delivering information so ensure that you include one on your website as part of your SEO strategy. Again it is paramount that you please Google and Bing by delivering original work, that is fresh rather than simply reusing old content found elsewhere on the web.

It is possible to create multiple organic backlinks by adding the URL onto your social network sites. Tweeting and Facebook likes are both beneficial when it comes to satisfying the algorithms and therefore it is highly recommended to spend the time working on your social media platforms and socialising your brand.

The main thing to remember is your site must be targeting your customer and not the algorithms. The content needs to have a purpose, and the purpose is to give the users information. By doing so your site will be considered as being good quality and you should see some positive movement in the search engine results pages.

In order to create an excellent marketing campaign it is a good idea to use traditional advertising along with SEO techniques. That way you have a solid presence in all areas and your initial marketing boost can be sustained thanks to your organic SEO strategies after the initial buzz dies down. The only real point to remember is that SEO is a long process, so to maximise the potential you will have to get started with your SEO strategies very early on in your campaign.

What Can SEO do for you?

SEO, when used correctly, can help your website achieve high rankings in the search engine results pages. The number one slot is highly sought after as this is the position which achieves the highest amount of traffic and therefore the highest conversion possibilities. The problem with this is that optimisation takes a lot of time and dedication and it is something that cannot be hurried.

You won’t see immediate results such as with your advertisements on television and the radio. These are designed to give instant sales boosts, but they can be short lived. SEO is there to back up your paid advertising by making sure that you will still be present long after your PPC, advertisements and printed materials die out.

You can use your in-house marketing team providing they have up-to-date training with the latest techniques which will need to be implemented. Alternatively, and more commonly, it is possible to outsource your SEO to a company that is able to provide those services for you.

Make sure the Search Engines are the First to Know

There are many different methods which the SEO experts can use to begin optimising your brand or business even in the very early days. This involves getting Google to recognise your pages before anyone has even heard of you. PPC campaigns help to get the ball rolling and organic SEO can help to keep you in the SERPs once your site has become more established.

Some of the strategies which are applied in the early stages include:

• Working on local SEO – Adding your company to directories such as Google Places. It can take between six to eight weeks for your Google Places listing to appear so this needs to be done very early on in your marketing campaign.
• Building your brand socially – Create profiles on all the major social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Do not limit yourself to these two, use all of the platforms. They will all help to increase the number of backlinks to your website and help you to reach your target audiences.
• Create original content – Modern SEO requires your website to be moulded around the idea that it is a high quality site. You have to be sure that you tailor your content to satisfying your users not just the algorithms of the search engines.
• Keyword Research – Discover the terms that your target audience will be using to search for services or products like yours on the search engines.

By implementing SEO early on in your marketing you can increase the likelihood that once you open your doors for business, your targeted users will be able to find you on the basis of their search terms. Make sure that you start working on your SEO as soon as you begin working on your website, printed materials, traditional media advertising and PPC campaigns to give you a head start in building up your brand naturally on the Internet.

What is The Vision?

Google have made it their aim to help the Internet speed up, and they are doing this in several ways. Larry Page the co-founder of Google stated that he wished that the Internet was able to be as fast as it takes a reader to turn the pages of a magazine. This vision would mean no load up waiting times, instant streaming videos and a more functional Internet for everyone.

The search engine giant is trying to help by giving assistance to software developers to help them write scripts which will work faster, by helping ISP get to grips with the issues which are putting limitations on their network and by improving Google Analytics.

Use Google Analytics to check if Your Site is Up to Speed

It’s all very well talking about the speeds, but not very useful unless they help to provide a way in which you can easily assess how fast your website and individual web pages load. This is the reason why Google Analytics have introduced the Site Speed Report which is part of the new Google Analytics platform.

In order to make use of this function you will need to enable the function which is turned off by default. Once you have enabled it you will have to insert a new Analytics tracking code onto your site so that the feature will work. Then you will be able to view the speeds that your pages load, counting from the moment the user clicks onto your site and the time it takes for the entire page to load fully.

What can you do with the Information?

The Site Speed Report will allow you to see the speed times of your pages and check to see how the speed changes when the users are using different browsers. You will also be able to view the speed times in different geographical regions to see if various regions react slower compared to others.

Once you have all of the data you can then begin to break down your website to see what page are working, and which are not. You will be able to make sure that the landing page is performing well, and if there are problems you will need to try to find solutions by talking to your webmaster about possible solutions. This may well be something as simple as using fewer images or may require some careful scripting to enhance the speed.

With Google Analytics Site Speed Report you will be able to increase your websites conversion rates and deliver a more pleasurable experience for your users which will always be beneficial. And Google are hoping that this will just be the start in helping the Internet as a whole get up to speed.

Meta Description Tag
The description tag has absolutely no effect on your search engine rankings. If you are hoping to rank higher for particular keywords by stuffing them in your description meta tag, then you are likely setting yourself up for disappointment. Although the description tag is not used to determine your search engine ranking, it does still have an extremely important function. Think about the search engine results after you type something into Google: Typically, there is a blue link with the web page’s title, and then there are a couple lines of text. Those two lines of text are typically drawn from the text that you have included in your meta description tag. When the Internet searcher is trying to decide which link to click, he will base his decision based on the text in the blue link and the description underneath it. Therefore, you should craft your description tag with this in mind. You want the text in the description tag to be eye-catching. When your site appears in the search results, it is like a free advertisement for your site, so you should craft it to appear like an attractive ad that people want to click.

Meta Keywords Tag
Just like the description tag, the keywords tag provides absolutely no benefit to your search engine ranking. This was not always the case. Search engines used to rely heavily on the keywords tag to figure out which web pages to display. Of course, website owners abused this tag so much that the search engines had to stop considering it altogether. Today, the use of this tag is completely optional. There may still be some obscure search engines that take it into consideration. For the most part, however, using the meta keywords tag may actually be a net negative for your site. You are essentially telling all of your competitors which keywords you are targeting. If a competitor is targeting many of the same keywords that you are, then your keywords tag may tip him off to some of the low-hanging fruit that he missed.

There is still a lot of misinformation floating around about meta keyword and description tags, so much so that Google produced the following video to help debunk the misconceptions.

Rather than focusing on these tags, make sure that you spend your SEO efforts on the things that actually do matter – like your on-site content and the quality and quantity of backlinks that point to your site with the proper anchor text.

The irony is that this particular blog post was an inspired tactical SEO maneuver and an outrageously obvious piece of link bait.  (And yes, that was correct usage of the word “irony”.)  A storm of responses arose from the indignant and very legitimate SEOs of the likes of Danny Sullivan and Peter da Vanzo, all righteously blasting Powazek and defending what SEOs do and why they do it.  In a very clear and concise manner, I might add, which completely ripped Powazek’s blog post to shreds.  Go team SEO!

Putting Powazek’s pseudo-intellectualism aside, however, the man does make an excellent point.  There are many “SEOs” out there who are…how shall I put this…complete and utter crap.  And spew complete and utter crap in the form of a marketing pitch so that you will buy into their ability to make your site perform and pay off for all of the time and money that you have invested in it.  And of course, them.

On the flip side there are some excellent and very earnest SEOs out there who do their job and do it well.  Who really know their stuff, and who get excited when your site performs because it reflects well on them and their abilities.  The question is, how do you as an uninformed potential consumer tell the difference?

• Transparency
  • Real SEOs aren’t interested in smoke and mirrors.  Fact: you’re paying them for their expertise.  If you could do it, you would.  Anyone CAN learn SEO – the reason that you’re paying someone to do SEO for you is because you’re not interested or because it’s not worth your time.  So a real SEO will have no problem being quite clear about exactly what he or she is doing, and answering all of your questions patiently.  Scammers and spammers, however, will try to dodge questions and use oblique and evasive terminology that will confuse you enough to think that they know what they’re talking about.
• Promises
  • Rule numero uno of SEO: Never.  Promise.  Anything.  Ever.  SEO is evolutionary to the extreme – Google needs to constantly and consistently update its algorithm to keep ahead of spammers so that they are serving relevant and useful results to users.  Therefore, SEO methodologies likewise need to constantly and consistently shift in order to keep up with the Googles.  Which means that a website ranking because it utilizes a specific factor may drop in rankings tomorrow because the importance of that factor has been drastically reduced. Anyone claiming that they can guarantee a number one space for your site for competitive keywords is flat out lying.  An SEO who can provide long-term results will use language such as “should” and “attempt”.  It sounds counter-intuitive to hire someone who is specifically NOT guaranteeing results, but in this particular instance it’s the best way to go.
• References/portfolio
  • This may seem like business 101, but I’m saying it anyway.  To be fair, many times an SEO will need to sign an NDA with his or her clients. That’s fine.  If such is the case, he or she should be able to provide two to three professional references in lieu of a portfolio.

Of course, my ultimate fail-safe recommendation to not get scammed by SEO scammers is to just learn a bit about the industry yourself.  I would recommend Google Webmaster Central and Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide.  Barring that, use the above-mentioned tips, and be skeptical. And never, ever be afraid to ask questions.