Archive for the ‘General’ Category

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Personalized Results - Powered by Google

Thursday, August 26th, 2010

Internet users know that Google is a handy and powerful search tool that can help you find just about anything that you’re looking for, anywhere in the world. If you’ve ever wondered, “How does Google always provide personalized results with the most relevant information?” the answer is search engine placement (SEO).

For example, if you are searching for bass equipment in relation to music, Google will review your browsing history and produce results that pertain to the musical instrument rather than links to bass fishing supplies. When you type the word “bass” into the search engine—and receive a series of suggested key phrases–it would appear that Google already knows which type of bass you are referring to. That’s because it does.

How Does It Work?

For years Google has provided personalized search results for account holders by recording the web browser history linked to their Google accounts. The information searched for–while signed in–is accessible to Google until you clear your web history or change your settings to disable it. As long as you store your web history within your Google account, they have access to it and will automatically suggest key search phrases based on your browsing history.

In late 2009 Google extended the service beyond account holders and now provides the same personalized results to anyone who uses the search engine without signing in. The Google servers keep a record of past searches linked to an anonymous browser cookie. The search history is stored for up to 180 days and enables Google to personalize your search accordingly, even to non-registered users.

What Are These Suggested Key Phrases All About?

While Google is keeping track of your browsing history they’re also evaluating what words the general public commonly search the most. The suggested phrases that Google offers are those typically entered worldwide by people conducting the same search, ultimately leading users to the most popular results. This also gives Google a considerable insight into what the best–and most expensive–paid advertisements are suited to frame your search results pages.

The Advantages?

Aside from a faster and more efficient browsing experience for all, the marketing value of personalized search result techniques is astronomical. But it isn’t just Google who is reaping the rewards. The benefits extend to anyone with a website that incorporates SEO techniques and keyword phrases into web content, blogs or article marketing campaigns making the Internet—once just an information source—and advertising and marketing wonderland.

Knowing what the public wants enables businesses and corporations of all types and sizes to give it to them. Well implemented SEO techniques are driving websites closer to the front of page of Google, Internet advertising is steadily on the rise, and keyword rich article marketing, blogging and search engine marketing are rapidly becoming the most effective and cost efficient sales, promotion and marketing techniques.

In today’s web-dependent world, search engine placement has become a crucial factor in whether a business or promotion thrives or fails. At the very least, it determines whether little Billy gets an amplifier or a fishing pole for Christmas.

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The Advantages of Search Engine Placement

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

It’s 2010 and the field of Internet marketing is as complex as its ever been. There’s pay per click marketing, social media marketing, search engine placement, banner ads, affiliate marketing, and the list goes on and on.  Internet marketing even takes shape in more conventional methods such as billboards, television commercials, newspapers, magazines, and movies.  With all of these choices, how do you decide what’s best for your company? The easy answer would be all of them but not everyone can afford a million dollar marketing budget. 

The most practical, useful, and budget friendly way of marketing is still search engine placement.  The best way for people to find and trust your site is through the search engines.  Ever heard of the expression “Google it”? Search engines have become an everyday facet of modern life. People who are looking for a veterinarian for their sick dog do a Google search for a veterinarian.  People tend to trust the results the search engines bring them. 

So simply put, search engine optimization still reigns supreme for the most cost effective form of Internet marketing. If you’re interested in pursuing seo give us a call at 1-888-275-5301 and we’ll give you a free analysis of your site and let you know where you stand with the competition.

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Search Engine Placement Tips

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

Here’s a few tips that will help you with your search engine placement (seo) that most websites tend to overlook:

    1. Google Adwords Keyword Tool: Google’s keyword tool is an essential part to any website’s internet marketing toolbox. This tool is the industry standard to finding out how many searches your main keywords get. This is an integral part to shaping your site’s keyword structure.

    2. XML Sitemap Generator: This is probably the most skipped part of search engine optimization. Google, Bing, & Yahoo love to see a xml sitemap for your site. You don’t have to link to it on your site, but it does have to be in your ftp. Luckily, there is a site that does it for free.

    3. Meta Keywords: In September 2009 Google announced that it no longer reads your meta keywords tag. If you only have a few keywords in there don’t worry about it, but if you have obvious over-stuffing you might want to fix that.

Believe it or not 90% of websites ignore these three basic seo practices. If you implement these steps you’ll have an immediate advantage over most of your competitors. But if you’re really serious about getting top rankings for your keywords, call Search Placement (1-888-275-5301) and we’ll give you a free analysis of your site and tell you where you stand with the competition.

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South Florida SEO & Local Businesses

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

Search engine optimization is a growing concern for most web-based and local businesses around South Florida. About a decade ago, the Internet seemed to only be a place for people to shop for refurbished items on eBay. Now the majority of people go online to search for just about anything, many of which include services in their local community. Which means, instead of flipping through the yellow pages when they need a dog walker, roofer, coffee shop, or other local service provider, people are surfing the Internet. This means that it is critical for local businesses to have a strong online presence, especially in the search engines.

What search engine optimization does is utilize all aspects of ranking factors to get your business in the top rankings in Google, Yahoo, & Bing. As I’m sure most people who’ve put up websites before, this is easier said then done. Luckily, after years of optimizing businesses and thousands of dollars spent on different software, Search-Placement has the tools and experience to get you ranked!

SEO Optimization | Search Placement

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Improving Search Engine Rankings: Data and Decisionmaking (part 2)

Saturday, October 10th, 2009

Another vital set of information we collect and analyze to help determine our search engine optimization strategies for our clients are our keyword ranking reports. These reports are generated on a weekly basis automatically and give us information about the relative keyword performance of those terms that we’re tracking. On the most basic of levels, getting an idea of movement from month to month allows us to track the effects of the work we’ve done on where the webpages of our clients appear in user’s browsers when they search on Google, Yahoo! and MSN/Bing. The report is simply superficially informative: that is, it tells the reader where their site is from the top down, and its ranking movement over a period of time specified in the settings. It does not give information such as relative competitiveness of the keyword term, nor does it detail how many searches are executed for those keywords in a given period of time (we have other nifty tools for that data!).

However, what this report does inform us about is the potential to act upon heretofore untouched or underloved opportunities. If a particular permutation of an important keyword is ranked #13 (meaning top-middle of the second set of results on a normal 10-result search results page) in a specific cycle, and we have been concentrating efforts on the seed keyword it contains (ie, ‘information technology’ and ‘information technology management’ or ‘information technology consulting’), we can see where we need to focus our efforts to bolster those associated terms that very well may be more in tune with what the searching user/potential customer has in mind– and this translates into targeted traffic that has necessarily carries with it specific interest in what they’ve searched. That kind of targeted result to a targeted search is the best kind of breeding ground for sales and increased conversion rates.

We send these reports to those we work with on a cyclical basis to enable them to gauge the results that our efforts have yielded for themselves in terms of the search engine optimization services we provide and the economy and their sector of industry as a whole. We always are interested in addressing any and all concerns of our clients in terms of branding, marketing strategies (especially those that coincide with traditional print/airwave advertising as well), and their upcoming and underpromoted products and services among many other considerations. We also review the data collected by our reporting tools on a weekly (sometimes daily!) basis to further inform our decisionmaking processes as we move through each cycle.

As Search Placement’s Web Analyst, I find that working with and gaining understanding from the data we collect and utilize for our work is incredibly rewarding as a growing and educational experience– I look forward to meeting new clients and tackling new projects in new niches.

Posted in General, Google, Keyword Research, SEO Tools, Web 2.0 | No Comments »

Improving Search Engine Rankings: Data and Decisionmaking

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

There are a tremendous number of factors at play in determining the success and health of a website, particularly if that website is the web presence of a retailer or organization with something to sell. As entrepreneurs, we want our businesses to perform the best that they can, and we are generally willing to do what it takes to improve in any areas we find in need of bolstering. An incredibly important aspect of being able to make a determination as to what areas in your search engine optimization campaign could benefit the most from is harnessing and understanding data collected from various sources that relates to your website: traffic flow, back link status, and keyword ranking status being three primary cyclical reporting methods that can be analyzed and put to good use to boost organic search engine rankings. This post will be primarily concerned with traffic flow (as it relates to organic search engine placement), with subsequent posts to follow detailing the other major reporting types and how they benefit the clients we’re associated with.

Our experience working with web analytics and diagnosis tools such as Google Analytics and Google Webmasters allows us to make informed decisions regarding the choice of resource allocation in a given cycle that yield the best possible results for the keywords we are focusing on together. These reporting tools allow us to see data such as where the flow of traffic is coming from; organic search engines, pay-per-click advertising, direct traffic, referrals, and so forth. In addition, one of the features of this report allows us to see which keywords have been driving that traffic to the website in question and we can then bolster efforts thereon– or spot a ripe opportunity to pick! The reports generated by these tools also allow us to gauge the results our efforts have borne during that cycle and the one(s) preceding it (although it should be noted that some of the effects of our organic search engine optimization methods are exhibited not only in the short, but also medium and long-term) relative to traffic flow overall.

We use another set of analytical tools to help intially determine what will best improve search engine rankings when we get started with new clients, but for month to month focii and performance tracking web analytics tools are where it’s at. Thankfully both the web and these tools have become robust enough in recent years to glean accurate impressions from relatively complete data sets (for example, compare Google Analytics/Omniture/WebTrends web data to a Nielsen TV survey in terms of accurately capturing the whole) that allow us to gain actionable insights that ultimately strengthen our clients’ projects.

The caveat, of course, is that truly informed decisions cannot be based on one set of data alone. In the near future, I’ll write about some of the other tools we use to track results over time and enhance search engine ranking performance for those we work with– check back soon!

Posted in General, Google, Keyword Research, SEO Tools, Web 2.0 | No Comments »

Asheville Beer City

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

Between March 18 and May 7 over 16,000 people from 46 countries took a moment to vote for their favorite beer city in the USA.  When the dust settled only two cities were left standing, although maybe a little bit wobbly.  The poll which was conducted by beer guru Charlie Papazian ended up calling the contest a tie on May 8 awarding the happy title to one east coast city, Asheville, NC and one west coast city Portland, OR.

As a resident of Asheville I am so happy to see our city get this acknowledgement.  I can remember an interview I once did with the owners of Pisgah Brewing Company, when I asked the question, “why Asheville?” I was told “because Asheville is the most beer drinkingest city in the country.”  It says quite a bit that Asheville was held up with a city eight times its size.  As I write this Buncombe County, where Asheville is situated, is home to 7 breweries and we have 2 more currently in the works.  That gives us more breweries per capita than even Portland, OR.

I myself am a great lover of our local beer scene.  Heading over to Pisgah Brewing Co. on a Thursday for a Pisgah Pale Ale is one of my favorite times during the week, going to chill out after work at the Asheville Pizza and Brewing Co. with a Shiva IPA and the great regular crowd is hard to beat, and my fiance Kati, who isn’t really a big beer drinker, could never turn down a Gaelic Ale from Highlands Brewing Co.  Our local beer and breweries are just a fundamental part of the Asheville culture, it is one of those things that makes Asheville Asheville.  Not to long ago an NPR journalist named Asheville the “happiest city in the nation”  and now we have “beer city”, I am willing to bet there is some sort of connection there. Asheville SEO

Tags: asheville, asheville beer city
Posted in Asheville SEO, General | No Comments »

The first step in Social Media for a Small Business

Monday, June 22nd, 2009

Something that any small business with ears to hear is bombarded with these days is that you must take part in social media.  Over and over again these words are sounded, leading many business owners to start exploring sites like Twitter and Facebook, of course once they have set up their profiles and found all of their ex-girlfriends from high-school they usually start to stagnate, not really knowing what to do or where to go from there.  And although there is gigantic value to really working tools like Twitter and Facebook many business owners overlook what should be your first step in leveraging social media which is creating a company blog.

A blog for your business can serve you well in many ways, not least of which is that you and your employees will be able to easily add new content, thus updating your website often.  And because your blog is focused on your services it will be easy to generate content that organically targets your desired keywords and phrases.  Search engines love fresh content, especially content that is pertinent to the subject of your site.  My favorite analogy is that search engines are the bees of the Internet and your blog is a sweet sweet flower, the more you add content to your blog the more those bees will return and naturally the more they will spread your marketing seed all across the web.  There is nothing to loose by taking advantage of this enourmasely powerful marketing tool.

Tags: Blogging, seo, social marketing, social media, Social Networking
Posted in Asheville SEO, Blogging, General, SEO Tools, Social Networking | No Comments »

Google Wave: Making A Splash in the World of Communication

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

Google has recently shown off an amazing new product out of it’s labs: Google Wave. The hour-plus long demo is actually captivating the whole time through, in part because of the exciting new methods of streamlining and optimizing of so many communications protocols and technologies. It may be a long watch, but I heartily recommend the viewing for anyone that is interested in where the web is going relative to where it has come from in terms of mass user adopted messaging and communications standards of today and the recent past.

Waves can serve to replace traditional emails in that they allow users participating in the Wave to reply to the message sent by a familiar thread-like response system. Waves can also replace instant messaging chat dialogs in that responses and changes made to the wave can be seen in real time. Waves support embedded video, images, widgets, and more– they can be collaboratively edited like documents and by proxy can be easily adapted for wiki-like use as well as blogging and live blogging. In the demo, users subscribed to the blog on which the Wave was published could respond as the blogger was blogging! This obviously holds great potential value for business efficiency not only in meetings and the dissemination of information across an organizational body, but also in planning, coordination, and implementation of data driven perogatives– especially once the spreadsheet collaboration capabilities go live shortly after public release.

Another fascinating aspect of Google Wave that particularly relates to Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing Services is that it can be used interactively and extensibly with existing social networking technologies, such as Twitter. A Wave and a Tweet can work synchronously in a manner that produces a ‘Twave’, a thread-like conversation comprised of both contributions to the Wave, the Twitter page of the participants, and any and all Twitter clients involved.

What will be interesting to see is exactly to what degree users embrace this new avenue for communication and collaboration. From what can be seen in the demo even the fledgling iterations showcased seem to make exciting use of the strengths inherent to Google Wave, and given that the code is open-sourced, we’ll be getting our hands on even more implementations of the exciting new Wave technology. Will end users abandon their comfortable emailing/messaging/blogging/Twittering clients in light of the unified and concentrated communicative capabilities of a more robust and established Google Wave? Time will tell…

Posted in Blogging, General, Google, SEO Tools, Web 2.0 | No Comments »

Bing, Microsoft’s New Search Engine

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

Every now and then something comes along to shake up the world of search and search marketing. Microsoft has just launched a new service that they hope will be one of those big things to shake up searching, and they call it Bing.

Bing is not a normal search engine– instead, it bills itself as a ‘decision engine’. What this means is that instead of searching for a general keyword or key phrase and getting info from any number of angles as they might relate to that keyword or phrase, a user might type in a keyword that they have a query about in order to find out the answer (not just general information surrounding the term). This means everything from ‘Fitness’ returning results for calorie calculations and workout routines because it intuits the user wants fitness advice to ‘LAX to LaGuardia’ returning online booking options and itineraries for flights from LA to NYC.

How exactly SEO and Organic Search Placement factor into the results presented by this new ‘decision engine’ will be fascinating to develop understanding with, and it can be assured that the search community at large (not just us here at Search Placement!) will be diligently reverse-engineering the results of thousands of searches to gain such familiarity– and how it can be put to use for our clients.

What will also be interesting to observe will be the marketshare Bing stakes out for itself as a niche ‘decision engine’ in the world of Google’s hegemony and the type of searching users have gotten used to. As it stands, Bing is outpacing Yahoo! in terms of search volume; however, some of that flow can be attributed to the ‘new and shiny’ effect that loses its lustre in relatively short order. Will Bing hang on in the #2 spot? Microsoft surely hopes so, and we’ll see for ourselves over the next few months.

Posted in E-Commerce, General, MSN | No Comments »

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