Search engine optimization is dependent on two major sets of factors: Off Page SEO factors and On Page SEO factors. On Page SEO, also referred to as website optimization or on-site optimization, can account for about 20% of the overall SEO process and includes the elements within a website that can be more easily influenced, changed and improved upon to get higher rankings in the search engines.

Some major On Page factors include: domain age, Meta tags, heading tags, webpage content, image ALT tags, internal linking structure, keyword density, informational architecture, social signals and more. It’s important to dedicate time and effort to properly optimizing your website because it will make all Off Page work more effective and reinforce your entire SEO strategy. We’ll touch briefly on some of these factors below.

Website Domain Age

The age of a domain can have a significant effect on how well it performs in the search engines. The longer a website domain has been registered, the more credible it may appear to search engines. If you consider how many spammy websites are popping up every day, Google and the search engines are looking for websites that have been in place for some time and have established some sort of reputation. Business owners looking to start a new website shouldn’t waste any time and register their domain(s) as quickly as possible to start building trust!

Meta Tags

Just as news headlines are traditionally used to lure readers, they should also be used to lure search engines and searchers. Each webpage contains Meta tags, which are the Title, Description and Keywords.

Title Tag: The Title tag is one of the most important tags to use because it tells both search engines and searchers what each webpage is about. We know that search engines place a lot of emphasis on the Title tag when it comes to ranking you for specific keywords – so don’t ignore these! The Title tag should be keyword-rich to satisfy the search engines, but should also be concise and engaging for the user since it is what they see in their browser bar and in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Meta Description: The Meta Description is a snippet of text used to describe each webpage. Keyword-rich Meta Descriptions are great, but it is more important to write each description to engage the user rather than merely satisfy keyword density. This text is also visible to searchers in the SERPs so a well-written description can mean the difference between your website getting clicked or not.

Meta Keywords: The Meta Keywords are simply a list of keywords used to describe each webpage. However, these can only be seen by search engines and not searchers without looking at the webpage’s source code. Meta Keywords used to have value but when spammers began taking advantage of them by stuffing unrelated keywords, the search engines have strayed away from including them in their ranking algorithms. However, it’s still good SEO practice to include Meta Keywords, particularly because some online directories will use them to classify and organize your website.

Website Content

As an Orange County marketing firm, we’ve preached and have been preached to that “content is king”. This mantra has always been a big factor in SEO, particularly for websites that have yet to build a multi-billion dollar brand name (ie. Coca-Cola) that has already gained credibility in the search engines.

Website content that is both compelling and keyword-rich is important because it gives your website context and builds relevancy for the keywords you want to be found for. Search engines rely heavily on content to decipher websites and determine what their purpose is. Websites with a sufficient amount of quality content containing proper keyword density will generally perform better for those keywords than other websites.

Determining keyword density in content depends on various factors; including how competitive the keywords are that you’re trying to target and how much effort you’re putting into other On Page SEO factors. There’s no magic number for how many keywords to use within a given piece of text. Some SEO experts claim keyword density must be 1-5% of the webpages total content, whereas others may say that only 1-2% is sufficient. Though we might agree with the latter, it’s always best to write website content for the reader so as to not overstuff the content with keywords and make it unreadable.

Heading Tags

Within your body content, HTML heading tags (ie. H1, H2, H3, H4, H5) are often used to bold headlines or titles for readers, and used to emphasize important information for search engines. An example of this is the “Headings” title above which has been set as an H3 heading tag. The most important top-level information should use H1 and H2 tags, while subheadings should use H3 to H5 tags. It’s always best SEO practice to use keywords within heading tags.

Image ALT Text
The ALT attribute, also called alternative text, applies text to images in case they cannot be displayed by a browser. Adding relevant keywords to an image’s ALT text can add value to your content and can help search engine ranking in both the regular and image search arenas.

Website Structure and Accessibility

A website’s information architecture and structure can have a significant effect on how search engines and visitors interact with your website. A website with a difficult, non-intuitive site structure can cause users to be frustrated and present obstacles to search engine spiders trying to crawl and index your website.

It’s important to make sure website navigation makes sense and information is presented on the appropriate pages in a top-down hierarchy. You should also create and upload the following basic files to the website:

1. Robots.txt – This text file is uploaded to the website (invisible to visitors). It gives instructions and access to search engine spiders for crawling the website.
2. Sitemap.xml – This XML file is uploaded to the website (invisible to visitors). It gives a “map” of all web pages so that search engine spiders can more easily crawl the website.
3. Urllist.txt – This text file is uploaded to the website (invisible to visitors). Similar to the sitemap but written in a format that is specific to Yahoo spiders.

Internal Linking

An On Page SEO factor that will also help search engines and users navigate through your website is to include sufficient inter linking between inner pages on the website. Most modern websites today maintain the minimum amount of interlinking by ensuring that the main top navigation bar is accessible from every webpage. There may also be a footer with footer links to some of the same pages listed in the top navigation. However, there websites can benefit even more by linking to relevant internal pages from within the body content as well.

Effective internal linking offers more pathways for search engines to crawl and find all your pages. Links also transfer SEO “link juice”, also called “link equity”, from one page to another because it’s a way of telling search engines, “Hey Google, this page is relevant too!” Links that use keywords as their anchor text are also more effective than links that are general. For example, if the text that is linked is “internet marketing” rather than “click here”, then we place more importance on the keyword “internet marketing”.

Social Signals

Social signals overlap into both On Page and Off Page factors. Search engines are now looking to social networks to get a sense of what brands, companies and websites people are actually talking about, both negatively and positively. Google, Yahoo and Bing want to present the best and most relevant websites to users so they’re analyzing different social signals, such as Facebook “Likes”, Twitter “Followers”, and reviews on Yelp and other directories to see what people are saying.

What does this mean for you? Social media marketing and search engine marketing can no longer be independent of each other. You will have to make your presence known in the online social sphere if you want to take full advantage of higher search engine rankings. This could be as simple as making your website more ‘social’ by adding social network icons that link to your networks and allowing visitors to share content on your website.

Read more in our SEO 101 blog series.

In our previous SEO 101 blog post, we discussed what SEO keywords are, why they’re important, different types of keywords and how to build an effective keyword strategy. In this post, we will continue our keyword discussion by going over the general structure of a keyword, online keyword research tools and a basic checklist to help you assess your organizational goals to develop your initial list of keywords.

Keyword Structure

Assuming you have limited resources, let’s focus our energy on the more popular short tail and middle tail keywords. As we’ve seen, keywords can come in all kinds of forms, but they can generally be broken up by their Root and the Modifier.

• Keyword Roots: This is the main part of the keyword or keyword phrase that is the base or primary purpose of the search query. Roots by themselves fall within the more general, more competitive short tail of search.

Example: “Internet Marketing”, “Search Engine Optimization”, “Chinese Restaurant” …

• Keyword Modifiers: Modifiers are the added words to a keyword root that make it more specific and niche. Modifiers generally make keywords less competitive because they’re more specific and they fall within the middle tail and long tail of search. Below are a few types of modifiers:
• Sample Quality/Price Modifiers
• Best
• Top
• Professional
• Leading
• Cheap
• Affordable
• Sample Geographic Modifiers
• City
• County
• State
• Other Popular Modifiers Include:
• Industry-specific
• Time/Date-specific
• And just about anything else to specify your search!

Example of Roots and Modified Roots:

• ROOT – “internet marketing” = short tail keyword
• MODIFIED ROOT – ”internet marketing in Orange County” = middle tail keyword
• FURTHER MODIFIED ROOT – “best internet marketing company in orange county” = long tail keyword

The most successful keyword strategies contain a healthy mix of competitive short tail, less competitive medium tail and very low competition long tail keywords.

Checklist for Developing an Effective Keyword List

Now that you understand a keyword’s structure and how it fits into the short to long tail search graph, you can begin performing your research. Whether you’re performing SEO keyword research for your own organization or you’re an SEO expert in Orange County, , there is no better way to develop a strong keyword strategy than by first taking a step back and understanding what your organizational objectives, industry, competition and goals are. Below is a basic checklist of things to consider when building your keyword ideas.

1. Understand your business.
• In order of priority, what are the core services or objectives to the success of the organization?
• What are the most relevant and obvious keywords to the organization?
• What geographic market(s) does the organization currently target and what would it like to venture into? Side Note: It’s important to determine whether organizational success will rely on local, regional, national or international searchers.
• What is the organization best known for and what does the organization want to be best known for? Side Note: These two do not always correlate. An organization’s current business strategies should always be aligned with their mission, purpose and objectives. It is important to make sure keywords follow the same concept.
• Obtain a firm understanding of current marketing strategies, if any. Side Note: An SEO strategy should not conflict with the organization’s current marketing strategies. Effective keywords will be those that define the business for what it wants to be and promotes overall branding.
2. Understand the industry and competitive landscape.
• Conduct an analysis of the organization’s internet profile and outline the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) to compare to the competition.
• Research the degree of optimization for competitor websites and determine what keywords they are targeting. Market research can provide valuable insight on the effectiveness, difficulty, and demand for keyword phrases.
3. Understand what the desired goals are with the SEO strategy.
• What does the organization ultimately wants to accomplish with SEO?
• Does the organization simply want to rank higher in search engines to increase the number of unique visitors? Example: A non-profit group such as a religious body may just want to spread a message.
• Is the campaign only successful if the increase in traffic also converts? Example: E-commerce websites rely on sales and service-based websites rely on lead generation.

Keyword Research Tools and Analytics

There are powerful subscription-based tools available for further developing your keyword ideas and list. These tools can provide you with statistics, detailed traffic and competitive reports to find which keywords are going to be most beneficial to you. However, there are several free tools that can still be very beneficial without having to pay for services. Below are a few free tools offered by Google.

Google AdWords Keyword Tool

The Google AdWords Keyword Tool is a valuable tool that allows you to generate large lists of keyword variations and ideas. Along with keyword suggestions, it presents the average monthly searches performed for each keyword and displays the competition level based on pay-per-click demand. Users have the option to view this data based on the 3 types of keyword matching options:

1. [Exact Match] Keywords– The exact match of a keyword is the keyword written exactly as it appears. Example: Exact match of “internet marketing” is “internet marketing” only.
   
2. Broad Match Keywords – The broad match of a keyword includes relevant variations or similar phrases to the exact match. Example: Broad match of “internet marketing” includes “internet”, “marketing”, “marketing on internet”.
   
3. “Phrase Match” Keywords – The phrase match of a keyword includes any keywords with the exact match keyword in it. Example: Phrase match of “internet marketing” includes “what is internet marketing”, “internet marketing companies”, “internet marketing for dummies”.

This tool is incredibly helpful to show you how many people are searching for a specific keyword (exact match) and your potential reach (broad match and phrase match). The AdWords Keyword Tool will help get you started on developing your keyword ideas tio target the in the short tail, middle tail and even long tail of search.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is absolutely necessary on every website you work with. It provides valuable insight on website traffic by source and by keyword usage. This can offer you the initial list of keywords that users may already be finding the website with. Of course, if you have no visibility in the search engines then you won’t have any keyword data. Either way, it is absolutely necessary to install Google Analytics on the website.

Google Insights for Search

Google Insights for Search offers in depth search data trends on broad match keywords and is especially great for organizations operating on an international level. The tool displays the search volume of specific keywords across various world regions, cities and languages. It also offers the top and rising searches related to a user’s search filters and A/B comparisons between keywords.

Don’t Forget the Long Tail Keywords!

Although we may be jumping ahead here, it’s important not to forget about the long tail keywords. Sure, with any SEO strategy, we would suggest focusing your efforts on a short, primary list of the most popular (probably more competitive) keywords as these are the ones that are likely to contribute the most benefit to you business. See long tail illustration.

However, it is very important not to completely dismiss the long list of long tail keywords. The long tail represents the 80% of ‘unpopular’ keywords that 20% of potential leads are searching for in a given month. Individually, these keywords may not produce much traffic since they may only be searched for once in a year, but as a whole they can translate into significantly more traffic than even the most popular keywords in the short and middle tails combined!

One of the most effective methods for capturing long tail searchers is incorporating a blog on your website. Active blogs can be extremely effective because they add indexable content (content that can be indexed by the search engines) based around your industry to the website. Therefore, the chances increase of a long tail searcher reaching your website through your blog! We will discuss the use of blogs in a later post in our SEO 101 blog series.

Read more in our SEO 101 blog series.

One of the most important components of search engine optimization (SEO) is developing an effective set of keywords through proper keyword research and analysis. It sets the foundation for the entire SEO process, including all website optimization and off site optimization efforts, such as link building. In order to properly do your own SEO keyword research, it’s important that we start from the beginning and dissect what a keyword is and how it connects us in the online world of search.

What are Keywords?

What are keywords you ask? Well my young Padawan, keywords, which are also known as keyphrases or keyterms, are the search terms people are typing into Google, Yahoo or Bing to find the information, products or services they need.

Why are Keywords Important?

Keywords play a vital role in bridging the virtual online gap between web searchers and websites. On the business side of things, they have the power to define an organization’s core business, purpose, goals and customers. So when it comes down to it, it is all about building your relevancy for whatever keywords you want people to find you for. A successful SEO campaign will use an effective set of keywords that have been selected through diligent research and proven to be the most beneficial to the organization.

Types of Keywords

Keywords can come in the form of a single word or be as long as a six word phrase or more. Studies show that keyword searches for 2 – 4 word phrases have the highest average conversion rate (ie. users ended up purchasing an item, filled out a form or contacted the company). The reason being longer phrases are more specific and focused so the searcher generally knows what they want. However, phrases even longer than four words can still have a lot of value.

With that being said, keywords can be categorized into 3 main types of keyword searches:

1. Short Tail Keywords
2. Middle Tail Keywords
3. Long Tail Keywords

Short Tail Keywords

The most popular types of search terms fall into the “short tail” or the front of the search distribution graph shown above. This area consists of a small number of high-frequency, or highly searched, keywords that are more general in context. These more popular keywords are typically more competitive to rank for because they are usually also the more obvious search terms. Short tail keywords are considered the “root” or base to more specific keyword searches.

Below are a few examples of keyword searches that might fall within the short tail:

• Cell phone
• Laundromat
• Italian food
• Science books

Middle Tail Keywords

The middle tail portion of the keyword distribution graph accounts for keywords that are slightly more specific than the far more general or obvious short tail keywords. These middle tail keyword phrases consist of the “root” and the “modifier”. Keyword modifiers are what focus the general short tail keyword into a more specific middle tail and long tail keyword phrase.

Below are a few examples of the short tail keywords converted into more specific middle tail keywords:

• Best cell phone manufacturer
• Cheap laundromat in Orange County
• Giovanni’s Italian restaurant
• High school Science books

Long Tail Keywords

The long tail consists of a significantly larger number of low-frequency keywords that are less popular but also less competitive to rank for. These outliers usually have many modifiers to make them even longer and more specific phrases than those in the short and middle tails. They get their name because they create the illusion of the tail in the search distribution graph shown above.

Below are a few examples of the middle tail keywords converted into even more specific long tail keywords:

• Where can I find a used Apple iPhone 4s smartphone?
• Cheap laundromats in Orange County with free parking and nearby liquor store
• Lasagna at Giovanni’s Italian restaurant gave me a stomachache
• What is the top rated biology book for my child’s science class?

Building an Effective Keyword Strategy

As you can see, there can potentially be thousands of keyword phrases that would be suitable to your business. However, unless you have an army of resources, it is important to focus your SEO marketing efforts on the most effective keywords to your business.

So, how would we define an “effective” keyword? For one, an effective keyword is one that connects searchers with the most relevant results. On the business side, effective keywords are the ones that drive the most qualified traffic, or potential customers, to your website.

Building an effective keyword strategy means allocating your time and effort to the keywords that mean the most to your business. Short tail keyword roots will probably have much higher search volume but be significantly more competitive, which makes attaining higher rankings much more difficult. Middle and long tail keyword phrases may not individually have as much search volume but because they account for such a large portion of all search you can attract more overall traffic than in the short tail.

In our experience, we have been able to focus on the less competitive middle and long tail keywords while still increasing our rankings for the highly competitive short tail keywords over time.

For example, SEO efforts focused on “internet marketing in Orange County” can reinforce our base for a much more competitive keyword like “internet marketing”.

This strategy allows us to actively go after the low hanging fruit (short-term goal) but still build our brand and relevance for the higher hanging fruit (long-term goal).

Every industry is different but we are pretty confident that this sort of approach just about applies to any website. It’s easy to get lost in focusing solely on the overly competitive keywords that fall within the upper echelon of the short tail search. Diversify your efforts and focus on building your keyword foundation first and you’ll have a better chance at attaining those high search volume keywords.

In Part 2 of this chapter, we will provide some keyword tips, checklists and tools to use to help you develop your keyword list.

How crucial is SEO to your SEM? Where do you rank in the SERPs? Did we lose you already? You’ve probably heard a lot of buzz about the necessity of SEO and how it relates to the success of your business on the web. But what is ‘it’ exactly? If you don’t manage your own internet marketing, or if you’re new to it, you’re probably awash in the sea of endless internet marketing acronyms. To understand how to achieve SEO, you’ve got to get back to search engine basics, and to the root of search engine processes.

What is SEO?

First off, SEO is the abbreviation for search engine optimization, or your site’s ability to be found by web searchers in the search engines’ organic / natural / unpaid results. If you’re over the age of 8, you’re probably familiar with Google, Yahoo and Bing. All of whose jobs are to present web searchers with the most relevant information that best matches their keyword search.

As we mentioned in our last blog, “The Mission of Search Engines”, the process that takes mere seconds in users’ eyes is actually an extensive four step phase comprised of crawling, indexing, ranking and serving results. This means Google crawls the web for relative information, indexes the information into its own databases, pulls the information upon request, and using a complicated algorithm, ranks the results for users in order of importance and relevance.

Why is SEO Important?

SEO is a vital component to any company’s internet marketing strategy. Today, most companies have a website, but what good is a website if customers can’t even find it?

Search engines are like the new Yellow Pages. People turn to the web to begin their purchasing experience by conducting online research, comparing prices and reading reviews. According to a (now dated) comScore¹ report in 2010, over 88,000,000,000 (88 billion) worldwide searches are performed every month on Google alone! That’s breaks down to about:

• 3,000,000,000 searches per day
• 121,000,000 searches per hour
• 2,000,000 searches per minute
• 34,000 per searches second!

By the time you’ve finished reading this sentence there will have been 170,000 searches performed on Google! SEO helps websites increase their visibility and exposure to this enormous market.

How to do SEO

In a nutshell, to be search engine optimized, your website must not only be ‘crawlable’ by search engine spiders but must also be deemed relevant in relation to the queried keywords and keyphrases that searchers are using.

Achieving high organic search engine ranking for any keywords depends on two main sets of factors:

• On Page Factors – Things we can generally influence, modify or add to the website. Also known as On Site Optimization.
• Off Page Factors – External ranking factors, such as inbound links from other websites gained from link building efforts.

Although inbound links aren’t the only off page factor, they are certainly very important. This is because the web is really one giant popularity contest where inbound links are like ‘votes’. The more ‘votes’ or inbound links a website has pointing to it, the more popular it appears to be in the eyes of the search engines.

Even if your business is a leader in the industry, if Google or other search engines have a hard time finding the association, your website’s importance can easily be missed. Taking the time to ensure your website is SEO-rich in content and getting others to link to and talk about your website (i.e. social media, blogs, digital press coverage) will help increase your chances of ranking higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

SEO is best understood when you break down the acronym, processes and meaning to your business. With the help of an SEO expert or a few simple search queries on your own, the search engine basics can easily become a routine addition to your current marketing efforts, and mean a significant boost in ranking and traffic.

In the next chapter of our SEO 101 blog series, we will explore the purpose of keywords and how to perform effective keyword research to reach your target audiences.

Read more from our SEO 101 blog series.

Sources:

1. comScore Reports Global Search Market Growth of 46 Percent in 2009. comScore. January 22, 2010
   <http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2010/1/Global_Search_Market_Grows_46_Percent_in_2009>

Let’s face it, search engines are some of the hardest working sites on the web! We depend on them for the answers to digital and real world roadblocks, and have grown to expect their accuracy for nearly instantaneous results. They’re set as our homepages, built into our browser toolbars and bookmarked in our mobile devices. Whether you’re an SEO expert, a business with internet marketing needs or a consumer, without even realizing our demands, search engines have become a part of our everyday lives. In fact, every 60 seconds Google alone serves nearly 700,000 search queries. Factor in other top search engines, including Bing and Yahoo, and the web has some major thinking going on!

Organic Results

More than just fulfilling simple queries, search engines are filtering through billions of pages to provide the most accurate and relevant organic search results. Just as websites are trying to stand out against competitors, so too, are search engines, fighting to provide the highest value to users through a balance of relevant and fast results.

As a consumer, you likely have a preferred search engine that you return to because it provides you with the results you’re looking for. Users want a search engine that weeds out irrelevant and spammy results, and presents you with quality websites that best match the search query. Search engines achieve this success through four major functions: crawling, building and indexing, calculating relevancy, and ranking/serving results. Search engines crawl websites, pages and documents, store information in massive databases, and quickly access the databases upon query request. Each search engine uses complicated algorithms to determine relevance and ranking factors like website popularity, external and internal links and much more.

Paid / Sponsored Listings

Search engines can also display paid or sponsored listings, which can typically be found above, below and to the right of the organic results. While organic results are considered the “natural” listings, sponsored listings are ads that are displayed based on a system of bidding where an advertiser can choose how much they are willing to pay for ad position. Search engines also use different algorithms to rate the quality and relevance of ads to determine how and when to display them.

Advertisers are generally charged every time their ad is clicked through a search marketing pricing structure called Pay-Per-Click (PPC). As users click through these sponsored listings, the search engines make revenue off click.

At the end of the day, the mission of search engines is to quickly and efficiently provide you, the user, with relevant, spam-free results through the organic and sponsored listings. A search engine meets human goals when it can provide enough information in a SERP to get users to click through and find what they intended within a matter of seconds.

Read more from our SEO 101 blog series.

What is Google Panda 3.3

The Google Panda 3.3 update is the latest change to its algorithm in an effort to provide better and higher quality results to web searchers. The biggest change from Panda 3.3 is that Google is now essentially dumping some link evaluation signals that it has used for years, specifically stated the following:

“We often use characteristics of links to help us figure out the topic of a linked page. We have changed the way in which we evaluate links; in particular, we are turning off a method of link analysis that we used for several years. We often rearchitect or turn off parts of our scoring in order to keep our system maintainable, clean and understandable.”

Local Search Results

While Google has removed one link evaluation signal, it has also launched another so far deemed “Venice”, which affects local search results. Google stated the following:

“[Google’s Venice] improves the triggering of Local Universal results by relying more on the ranking of our main search results as a signal.”

We’ve already seen Google integrate local results into the organic results, but it appears as though local results will now rely even more heavily on the more traditional organic ranking factors.

Other Google Panda 3.3 Effects

• More emphasis on social media links, including Google+, Facebook, Twitter and Yelp.
• More emphasis on the quality and relevance of content on a webpage and how it matches up with the content on the webpage that’s linking to it.
• More emphasis on the quality and relevance of content of the webpage that is linking out.

What does Google Panda 3.3 all mean?

The update isn’t intended to target specific websites. Instead, Google is systematically identifying patterns that may be more consistent with less quality/relevant websites. Unfortunately, your website may have just fallen into these patterns.

For one, Google seems to be looking for websites with over-SEO’d backlinks. For example, a website with too many inbound links using exact-match keywords in the anchor text looks unnatural. Websites with a high “followed” to “unfollowed” link ratio can also look unnatural.

Also, your website might have inbound links from websites that may not be related to the page they’re linking to. You might be hit if there is no correlation between the inbound link source, inbound link anchor text and webpage you’re getting the link from.

Lastly, websites that aren’t being talked about within online social circles (ie. Facebook, Twitter) may be getting overlooked to find those that are. It figures that if people are willing to “Like”, “Follow”, “Tweet” or mention something about a company through these social networks that it must be more popular and credible.

How to Recover Rankings from Google Panda 3.3

Here are 3 major things you can do:

1. Develop a more natural link-building strategy that is not so much focused on a select few primary SEO keywords. Instead, broaden your link building efforts so that the anchor text also includes variations / long-tail keywords. You should even use your company name as the anchor text since another website might realistically link to you this way. The end goal is to make it appear as though you’re not controlling the links but rather people are willfully linking to you how they want.
2. Make sure you’re pointing inbound links to the proper pages. If you’re getting an influx of keywords with an exact-match anchor text, then direct those links to a webpage on your website with content specifically related to that anchor text.
3. Get active in the social networks that Google uses for ranking signals. These would include Facebook, Twitter and even local directories like Insider Pages, Yelp and Urbanspoon. Also, get involved in the ones your best customers actually reside in.

Will you ever recover your rankings?

It’s unfortunate that you’ve lost rankings, but don’t worry they’ll come back. It will depend on the depth of your website, backlinks structure and industry. If done right, you can probably expect to start seeing things bounce back within 30-60 days. However, a complete recuperation of rankings may take as much as 3-4 months for some websites.

Google Panda Update Calendar

Here is a quick look at the Panda schedule so far:

• Panda Update 1.0: February 24, 2011
• Panda Update 2.0: April 11, 2011
• Panda Update 2.1: May 10, 2011
• Panda Update 2.2: June 16, 2011
• Panda Update 2.3: July 23, 2011
• Panda Update 2.4: August 12, 2011
• Panda Update 2.5: September 28, 2011
• Panda Update 3.0: October 19, 2011
• Panda Update 3.1: November 18, 2011
• Panda Update 3.2: January 18, 2012
• Panda Update 3.3: February 27, 2012
• Panda Update 3.4: TBD

One of the biggest mistakes you could make is to ignore any negative social mentions / reviews / comments against your company. Ignoring them is like letting a rambunctious child run blindfolded through a fine China store. It’ll leave a path of destruction unless you interject!

Why You Should Address Negative Reviews

1. Protect Your Image – Social media is deeply integrated into our everyday lives and can heavily influence people’s opinions and views of a company or product. Therefore, simply ignoring negative mentions on public websites (ex. Yelp, Facebook, Twitter) can be devastating to your company image.
2. Protect Your Brand – The web is like a wide open book where the pages are nearly indestructible and everything is written in permanent marker. Anything anyone says about your company, negative or positive, is pretty much on the web forever!
3. Represent Yourself – Embrace the opportunity to publicly address the individual’s negative remark(s) against your company and try to resolve the problem. Doing so in the same public space that the remark was made in will ensure that anyone seeing the negative comment is also seeing your calm and professional rebuttal.

How to Address the Negative Reviews

Own the negative social review or mention! Every situation is different but it’s typically very difficult, if even possible, to get negative mentions removed from certain websites. Whether it’s a valid accusation or a false statement, address the issue in a positive and professional manner to resolve it. If it can’t be resolved in the same public space, try to resolve it in private over the phone/email/in-person.

It’s important to show to the public that you’ve at least made an attempt at resolving the issue, which shows that you’re not just another corporate company run by robots but rather by real people. You’ve taken the time to listen, understand and rectify any issues your clients may have.

The truth is we can’t all make everyone happy, so negative social mentions are bound to happen at some point. If you’re to take one thing away from this blog, take this: Whether negative or positive, be thankful that someone’s talking about you! It offers you the perfect opportunity to react and show everyone that you’re listening and willing to make things right!

PROS

• SEO is time consuming and labor intensive. For example, it can take several weeks to months alone to track and develop enough data to fully comprehend your target market’s online behavior. A professional SEO can be much more efficient and allow you to focus on running your business.
• An SEO professional can provide a better interpretation data. An internet marketing professional specifically studies the patterns, tendencies and relationships between search engines and online users. It takes a specific kind of science and art to be able to pinpoint which keywords will be most effective when trying to reach specific consumers.
• SEO is more than just driving traffic to your website. An SEO expert can also help you improve the layout of your website to be more conducive for conversions and place the content of your website in places where search engines are more apt to find it. For example, good SEO practice on a website blog is not to list the complete blog posts on a single page but rather list only the blog titles and a short summary of each post. Clicking on each post would open the blog post in its entirety in a new page.
• Hiring an SEO company can be less expensive than hiring a new employee. Although pricing differs from company to company, you can typically get significantly more value and expertise when hiring an SEO team as opposed to hiring just a single employee.

CONS

• Some SEO experts can be very expensive. As mentioned above, SEO services can vary widely in price depending on your industry, competition, goals and needs.  Other factors can also affect the price such as if the SEO company is too small, too large or inexperienced. In either case, it’s important to realize that SEO is an investment and is no longer optional in today’s tech-age – it’s vital!
• There aren’t any guarantees with SEO. Most SEO professional are experts in their field and in tune to the latest industry strategies. However, your website rankings are ultimately decided by Google and the other search engines. No SEO on earth has the power or influence to supersede Google. With that said, it’s very important to be cautious when dealing with a company that can make any guarantees when it comes to your rankings

If you have the time to invest into becoming an SEO expert yourself then you should. However, when it comes down to it, if you want to get the best possible SEO results, then our best recommendation is to hire an SEO expert. Assuming you do your due diligence, they have the experience, qualifications and insight on getting you better results quicker while you can focus on running your business.

Defining Objectives and Goals

The first and most important step in the SEO process is to define expectations and outline goals. Typically, an Orange County SEO expert will help you achieve top rankings to increase organic website traffic. However, with reverse SEO, also called reputation management, the goal is the exact opposite, which is to reduce a website’s exposure in the search engine results (SERPS). In this case, the website may contain false information that is damaging to your company or name.

Competitive Analysis and Keyword Research

Once the Orange County SEO company understands your goals, it can then start to perform extensive keyword research to develop lists of primary and secondary search terms that are relevant to your business. Analyzing your competitors and the market you are trying to reach is vital for compiling a complete keyword list, which may reach into the thousands depending on the industry. The goal of the SEO expert is to prune this keyword tree to find the best keywords that will help your website to show up at the top of pertinent search engine results and drive the most qualified traffic.

Website Analysis

After selecting the best keywords, the Orange County SEO company will perform an onsite audit of your website. This will include reviewing the site structure, content, Meta information, navigational elements, images and much more to identify areas of improvement and any major structural obstacles that may prevent proper search engine spidering.

Onsite Optimization

The Orange County SEO expert will develop a set of onsite optimization recommendations based on the onsite audit. Typically, this may include adding sufficient keyword-rich text, modifying Meta information and creating search engine friendly (SEF) URLs. It isn’t to say that these are the only factors. In fact, search engines will recognize when content is simply stuffed with keywords. They will also ignore content that does not offer value to users such as duplicate or non-unique text.

Off-Site Promotion and Link Building

After extensive research, developing keyword lists and optimizing the website, you should have a strong SEO foundation. Next are the off-site activities to promote your website and increase relevance for the keywords you want to be known for. This is done through link building, which is the process of getting other websites to link to yours.

Generally speaking, a link can be considered a ‘vote’, so the more ‘votes’ you receive the more credible you might appear to the search engines. Of course, there are dozens of other factors, such as the quality, the location, the anchor text, source of the link and more. Links are very important but in no way are they the ultimate determining factor in SEO.

Conclusion

SEO can look like magic to some, but it is really just a well-designed online marketing plan that strategically promotes you for what you want to be known for! The real “magic” in SEO marketing is trying to understand how the search engines interpret your website and any links, news or buzz about your organization. The search engines use complicated mathematical algorithms to distinguish between quality/relevant websites and the rest. As these algorithms get more sophisticated, so must Orange County SEO experts like ourselves. Fully understanding the process will allow you to take a more active role in monitoring the progress of your SEO plan.

One of the first places you should look for a good SEO in Orange County is Google! What better indicator of an SEO company’s ability to get you results than to see what they’ve done for themselves? Let’s face it, there are only 10 spots available on the first page of Google for any particular term. In an industry as competitive as ours, those that can make the top 10, 3 and 1^st position should be applauded.

Aside from using the search engines, the Internet offers additional resources for finding qualified SEO Orange County companies. You can use business guides, online forums and business communities where internet marketing professionals are active. Online message boards, such as Focus.com, and blogs are great places to see these SEO experts give advice.

Get referred! Access your network of business professionals to see if they’ve used an SEO company in Orange County. Nothing speaks louder than a referral from a trusted business associate.

Social networking sites are also great places to find an Orange County SEO. For example, a social network like Facebook can give you insight on a company’s personality, social engagement, current projects and much more.

Another way that you might be able to qualify an SEO company in Orange County is to see if the company places their link in the bottom of their client’s websites. In some cases, SEO firms will place a small link to their website on their clients’ websites to gain external links and increase their position in the search engines. Although the concept makes sense, some might argue that an SEO company forcing their link onto a client’s website may be a less than optimal way of getting ahead in the search engines.

There are numerous factors to take into account in choosing an Orange County SEO company. After you have done your due dillegence, contact your top choices and determine which consulting agency can best meet your needs, dedicate enough resources to you and help you achieve your objectives.

In the end, the best SEO company really is the one that best understands your goals and can put an effective plan in place to help you get there.