International Search Engine Marketing Blog

A common question when a company is selecting a list of keyword phrases for an SEO campaign is whether or not it is required to add both the singular and plural variations of the words . I recently took a look at a Fidelity newsletter by Donald Dion that showed up number one in Google for the plural version of the underlined phrase, but number two for  the singular version of the same phrase. The takeaway is that even the slightest variations of words can make a difference on where a website appears in the local and international search engines.

Using the site http://www.fidelityadviser.com/ as an example, searchers can see in the image below that it currently appears number two for the phrase “fidelity newsletter”. However, when conducting a search for the plural version the sites appears #1 in Google.

Now there are many reasons why this can occur, but lets take a look at the two most basic aspects that determine a website’s rankings in the search engines results pages: 1.) The on-page content and 2.) References that point to the website. Generally, the keyword density of a page is a vastly overused term that has little meaning. However, in this particular case the Fidelity Independent Adviser uses the singular phrase, Fidelity newsletter, only one time. When attempting to reach the top of the search results for a particular phrase it is generally advisable to include that phrase at least once within the text of the page. The other and much more meaningful component is the number of references pointing to the site that use Fidelity newsletter. The top listing has multiple outside sources and other websites that utilize this phrase, whereas Don Dion’s newsletter has a relatively smaller number. Essentially, the more references a website has from trusted resources with the targeted phrase than the more likely it will appear for that phrase. Thus this case study in and of itself might alter the site’s positioning in the SERPS.

To learn more about how keyword variations can impact your website and the tactics that professionals employ, please continue browsing our Blog or share this post with a friend. There is a wealth of information available on the internet and if you still have questions then please feel free to give us a call at 1-877-SEO-1169.

I know that many people are currently wondering as to why a website suddenly shifts in the Google search results; especially as of late. This is true whether an individual manages their own SEM efforts or hires an outside company. There are many reasons why this can occur, but for the purposes of this post, we will assume that it is not the result of a webmaster employing practices that violate Google’s TOS.

Constant Flux

There Google SERPS are changing constantly. However, at certain points in time they change more dramatically than others for all websites or a particular website. The reasons can vary dramatically, but typically there are a few common rules that cause any particularly site to fluctuate in the search engine rankings, while other websites appear untouched.

The Website is Newer

Oftentimes a website will change position more frequently during its first two years of existing on the internet. This is not the same as the Google Sandbox, but it is fairly typical to see. The primary reason driving this is that newer websites tend to undergo a larger percentage of changes than existing website. Links originally purchased to help a website might loose some of their value. Since a newer website often has fewer links than a long standing one these changes tend to have a larger impact.

Many Recent Changes

Multiple changes to a website either on the page itself or recent addition of links can cause a change in the search engine rankings. Again this tends to be more prominent with newer sites for the reasons listed earlier, but still impacts even older sites if enough changes are made. Sometimes this is simply unavoidable. However, the best method to minimize such impacts is to rollout changes in phases.

Unexplained Jumps or Declines in the SERPS

Google and the other major search engines are not perfect. When investing time and money in an SEO campaign it is important to realize this. Temporary abnormalities will occur regardless of anything done. The best and hardest thing to do in this situation is just sit tight and keep on the same path as before. Wait a couple weeks; I realize this can result in lost sales now, but dramatically changing a strategy will generally result in a larger number of lost sales in the long run.

Increased SEO Competition

No matter how much work is done on your own site. A company cannot control what other business owners decide to do with theirs. If a topic becomes more popular and profitable then one should expect more players to enter the market and an overall increase in the competitiveness of obtaining and maintaining top search engines rankings. There is nothing you can do to prevent this, but you can take steps to ensure more resources are allocated as needed.

It Will All Work Out

The best single piece of advice I can give anyone is that it will all work out positively if your company follows Google’s TOS. Treat these terms as the bible and do not anger the Google gods. If a website’s SEM efforts follow the guidelines listed under best practices then over the long haul your company will reap the rewards. This is true whether focusing on a regional, national, or international audience.

I recently received a question from a business colleague and thought many other companies or individuals may wonder exactly how the different search engines value different types of links. This came after he read an article titled “SEO for WordPress”, part of which stated that Google does not provide as much consideration to sitewide links or links that are outside the main content area of the page. He went on to ask that, “I have also seen similar things before where people advise to keep the links only on the main page. As someone involved in the SEO field I wanted to ask the following: Do you think the above information is true? Or what is your opinion?”

As with much of the information regarding SEO and the value of links from other pages there is conflicting information throughout the internet. Sorting the fact from the fiction can be a difficult process. While this is posed to me as a short question there is an extremely complex and ever changing answer. 

The bottom line is that with all search engines and the manner in which links are valued is largely determined by the perceived quality of the link. It is certainly true that Google values sitewide links differently than links placed only in one location on the page. A common misconception is that sitewide links can hurt a website. The reality is simply that sitewide links do not help a website. Typically, credit or link juice is received for the first link on the site, but the remainders of the links are generally ignored by Google. This is especially true when the links all have identical anchor texts and surrounding content. Yahoo and MSN value sitewide links differently. As of now, a sitewide link can be an extremely valuable asset and can increase a website’s position in the search engine results pages. However, it would come as no surprise if this changed in the future and the other engines adopted a strategy similar to Google with regards to link valuation.

As for the question on whether links within the content are more valuable than those outside the main body of the text, the answer is resounding yes. Links contained within relevant body text typically carry a much heavier weighting than those that are located within the footer navigations or the sidebars of the page. The rationale behind this is quite simple. If the webmaster finds the resource (website) valuable enough than the link will likely be posted in the primary content area rather than along the footer or another place where visitors are less likely to actually visit the site. 

Of course besides this, there are many other factors that influence the value and importance of certain links more than others. A well formulated SEO campaign ensures that there is a wide selection of all different types of links and looks at many other considerations such as the authority of the site that the link comes from.

I wanted to thank my colleague who originally posed the question. Hopefully I answered it to your. satisfaction. With any “luck” others will be able to find this post and also gain a better understanding of the value of links in a SEM or SEO campaign.

Lately, the hotel industry is starting to focus heavily on the search results displayed in Google and the other major engines. Top rankings for a highly trafficked phrase can result in a tremendous boon to business’ bottom line. Lately, even some of the larger players seem to be realizing this and are employing the services of search engine marketing companies.

As a case study let’s take a look at the largest vacation destination in the world, Orlando and a company that caters to its visitors. It might surprise a few people to hear that this Florida spot is the number one travel destination in the Globe, but it is true. Throughout the year, people from all across the Globe stay in Orlando hotels to visit Walt Disney World and the other major theme parks. The climate is ideal most of the season and the city is also a major convention area.

Previously the top search results were dominated by booking engines that search a wide array of properties. Only a few days ago www.orlandovacationhotels.com ranked near the top of the search results for the highly competitive and coveted phrase “Orlando Hotels”. As of this morning, the site is now located at the bottom of Page 1 in Google. Instead there are multiple other sites owned by the Wyndham and the Marriot that are appearing above this company’s site. While these results are likely nothing more than a temporary fluke, during the time Google is making internal changes to the way it displays search results, it is still a temporary disservice to searchers who rely on Google for results and guidance.

Usually, people searching for a general phrase, such as Orlando hotels, are looking for a plethora of options rather than viewing a specific hotel’s website. Users are looking for choices and suggestions not specific properties. I am certain Google realizes this and in a short time everything will return to “normal”, but it does not take away the fact the users are deprived of finding vacation booking engines such as the Orlando Hotels site mentioned earlier.

Putting aside my views of injustice for a moment, the bottom line is that Google wants to help its users and soon enough www.orlandovacationhotels.com will return back to the top of the search results for one its key phrases. Search engine marketing is tough, no doubt about that. That is why most companies in competitive industries hire professional SEO companies. I suspect you will see an ever growing number of marketing firms popping up wanting to help both booking engines and the larger hotel chains appear at the top of the rankings.

There is an enormous difference between improving a SEO campaign for a company that opened its online doors in the 1990’s than one that only recently decided to start an online business. The majority of the time an established company can achieve top search engine results in a relatively short period of time; whereas a brand new one might have to wait many months before their site will even appear in the search engines.

While there are many reasons why this is the case, I wanted to provide a little insight into a few factors a smart SEO company will look at before doing business with an established organization. The Google Sandbox, the number and type of inbound links, and the size of the website are a few of the considerations to factor.

Luckily, few established companies have much to worry about when it comes to the Google Sandbox. This term is used to describe a penalty placed on a brand new website that prevents it from appearing in the search results until at least a few months after a link first points to the domain. The rationale is that there are thousands of domains that are purchased each year and only a fraction of them are still around the following one. Therefore until a site can establish that it is a meaningful resource, which is also likely to stay around in the future, Google, Yahoo, and a few of the other major search engines will not even list it in their search results. The reason is quite simple. Why list information from a site that is not yet established when similar information from a business that has already existed is readily available?

Inbound links from external sites pointing to a domain is another factor in an SEM campaign. Google uses links as a form of voting and typically the larger number of relevant links a website has pointing to it then the higher it will appear in the search results. An established company tends to have a larger quantity of inbound links simply because the business started awhile ago. However, oftentimes the links are not ones that are going to help the website appear at the top of the search results. For instance, a link that contains only a company’s name is unlikely to help it appear at the top of the search results for a keyword phrase that relates to the products or services it sells. When starting a search engine optimization campaign with an established business a key component is acquiring relevant links that point to a company’s website.

The size of a website is also a key consideration. Picture a website as a large building. If it has an excellent foundation then it will typically stand for many years to come. Unfortunately, websites built a decade ago, usually have an outdated foundation than those built yesterday and this is one area that puts an established business at a disadvantage to a brand new website. It is much easier to build a foundation from scratch than to rebuild one after there are thousands of web pages built on a site from that uses technology from a decade ago. Therefore one of the most time consuming and difficult components with an existing website is rebuilding a foundation that takes into account the changes in the search landscape that took place over the past decade. This is especially true of websites that have thousands of products or pages.

SEO or SEM is never an easy process and there are different issues to address with each website. One such issue is the length of time the company first went online. Depending upon the website, this can make starting or properly continuing an internet marketing effort much easier or exponentially more difficult.

Will a website have a top 10 search rankings next week? While there is always a degree of educating guessing involved in the answer to this question, Google has a simple search query that can provide insight into this simple yet involved questions.

Rather than typing in a search string such as, Baja real estate, adding “allinanchor: [keyword phrases]” before the search string will provide a glimpse into the future search results for a particular keyword phrase. For example the search query allinanchor: Baja real estate will show the search results in order of webpages that Google considers to have the most valuable links pointing to it. But why does this predict the future?

Typically, this is an indicator of future results since Google places a large emphasis on the quality of links pointing to a webpage and there can be a time delay before the value of newly acquired links are recognized in the SERP’s (search engine results pages). Using the same example a regular search for Baja real estate will show the webpage http://www.bajaonlinerealty.com in the 45^th position. However, the search allinanchor: Baja real estate will show the site appears in the 36^th position. Often it is only a matter of time before the regular search results show a larger similarity to that of the allinanchor search listings. 

This query makes it possible to predict which pages will start to move up and appear in the top 10 search engine rankings. By the time many people read this, the aforementioned website may already appear in position 36 on Google or even higher up in the search results. In fact this article will helps the website achieve a top 10 ranking for the phrase “Baja Real Estate” since there is a link pointing to the site. Since this site has served as an example, I will further help its quest for top rankings.

I encourage all those looking for Baja real estate to take a look at their homepage before purchasing property. That simple sentence a along with the fact that it includes a links pointing to the sites homepage will further improve the sites allinanchor and regular search rankings. In fact, it would not come as a huge shock if the website already has a top 10 search engine ranking in Google by the time most people read this post. 

Even though the holiday season is starting to wrap up for most online retailers, it is also the same time many companies start looking for an international SEM or SEO company. While this is certainly commendable, many times it is a case of too little, too late if a business is looking to achieve noticeable results in the next couple of weeks. On the other hand, smart online retailers are already planning an internet marketing and SEO strategy for the next high volume sales period.

Luckily, even though this holiday period is nearing its conclusion, there is a never ending stream of holidays and months when retailers can generate markedly higher sales. As smart business owners already know, one key to successfully sell products online is to plan for the busy seasons far in advance of when it occurs. Typically the online retailers that sell the most also prepare the most. While, companies can obtain information on the effectiveness of an SEO campaign faster than most any other marketing mediums, it still takes time to plan and then for an SEO company to perform the work required for an online retailer to obtain top search rankings.

A common problem business owners face is finding the time to plan. As a business owner, I can certainly understand this. Fortunately, as with any new or improved marketing initiatives, it takes effort to set aside time required to determine a proper course of action. While some readers may do a double take and question the usage of the word “fortunately.” Its usage in the above sentence is no mistake. Most presidents and owners do not spend the time needed to effectively initiate and follow through on their internet marketing efforts. Any owner fortunate enough to take the time to fully plan and commence an SEO campaign therefore ends up with an enormous competitive advantage over those who continually wait, ponder, or never start one.

This certainly does not mean that any marketing coordinator of an online retailer should rush out tomorrow and hire an SEO company, but it does mean that the most profitable online retailers likely already followed similar steps some time ago. Any online business looking to join their ranks, should at a minimum, outline a definitive strategy on how to increase their website’s sales. I highly suggest that retailers \set and adhere to a time frame for actually acting upon such an outline. While this holiday season is starting to wrap up, the next one is only starting out. Companies that decisively choose and initiate a plan in advance of the next sales boom are likely the same ones that will experience the largest financial rewards.

Recently, I have noticed an onslaught of SEO companies advertising to help prospects in specific industries such as the chiropractic field, automobile field, and many other trade groups that are looking to increase their marketing efforts using the internet. I applaud any SEO company that truly attempts to assist business owners in these industries. There is a definite need for doctors and automobile owners to have their websites marketed by a professional search engine marketing company.

Unfortunately, far too often I see these niche marketers charging exorbitant prices. I have heard stories of small dental practices shelling out $30,000 plus to have a website built and marketed online. The saddest part of the story is that even after spending all of that money, oftentimes their websites still do not appear anywhere within the top search engine results and little or no return on investment is ever realized.

That same small dental practice or chiropractic office has likely missed out on many new patients that the doctors could of helped. Essentially, the doctors’ offices are losing twice. Their first loss occurs when the office overpays for a web design or SEO service and the second loss realates to the opportunity cost involved with missing out on all the potential new patients that might have located their practice had they hired a different marketing company.

My best advice in this scenario is to start from scratch. Those who have yet to invest in a website should learn from the mistakes of others. When starting a new chiropractic or dental practice, owners should keep these ideas in mind when the inevitable bombarding of sales calls takes place. A marketing company does not have to focus solely on a specific industry in order to provide a better service than one that does. A common misconception is that a company which can list multiple dentists and chiropractors as clients has provided those clients a valuable service.

Many times the owners of a niche businesses, such as an automobile dealership or doctor’s office, are better off talking to a general web design firm or SEO company. Often these types of companies are staffed to handle such projects, can provide a superior level of service and expertise, and can do so for a price much lower than a company that markets solely to doctors or automobile dealers. A company that declares themselves as an expert in an industry is not necessarily one. Business owners in any industry should keep this in mind whether hiring a local web design firm or an international SEO company.