The First Search Engine Ranking Report I Actually Agree With

Okay, I'm the first to admit that there's a lot of junk out here on the Internet. I can't tell you how much information I see daily that either is just plain garbage or has no factual basis upon which conclusions are drawn.

This is especially true with it comes to Internet marketing. Late last week, I saw the first article (SEOmoz) that had a thread of truth and aligns with everything I know to be true about improving search engine rankings for promotional pages, web sites, and blogs.

For those of you who are new to The Marketing Blog you probably don't know that even though this blog covers all aspects of marketing (from Advertising to Trade Shows), I have a particular infatuation with Internet marketing and making money online. As a result, I'm always looking to share with all my blog readers information that has personally helped me to succeed online with any one of more than a dozen web sites or blogs I own.

In this brief article I talk about the most important factors for improving web site rankings and guess what, the image above sums it up nicely. You can read on for a full explanation of these factors or simply print the image/post and pin it on your corkboard - be sure to Retweet it too!

The top ranking factors as reported by SEOmoz include: Anchor text from external links, keyword use in title tag, link popularity, diversity of linking domains, and keyword use in root domain. What does it all mean? Here's my take...

Top 5 Search Engine Ranking Factors

The first ranking factor refers to the anchor text of all inbound links to your website. What this means is that Google in particular but all search engines, use the anchor text from other sites linking to yours to determine what you site is about and what it should rank well for. So if you have sites that are linking to you using your URL (ex: http://www.yoursite.com), email them and ask them to update how the link appears to include your keywords.

The second ranking factor is keyword use in title tag. Believe it or not, this refers to both your site and the sites that are linking to your particular web site or web page. It's called "link juice" baby and the more quality links you have that have your keyword in their page title, keywords, or description, the better off you'll be. At the very least, make sure the page you're optimizing include your most important keywords in the title tag. If possible, only include your keyword phrase. This gives it more weight and greater importance.

The third ranking factor is link popularity. This phrase has been tossed around in SEO circles for a while but in essence it's referred to as Page Rank which measures a number of factors - the largest of which is how many other sites have links pointing to a given website. The more popularity or value of each link,the better a web site's link popularity and page rank. Bottom line: Build links from sites that have a good Google PR.

The fourth ranking factor is diversity of linking domains. It's all about links. Diversity of linking domains means that if you have 1,000 links from a single domain/URL versus another site ranking for a similar keyword that has one link from 1,000 independent, unrelated sites, they're going to rank better than you.

The final ranking factor is keyword use in root domain. Although it's possible to use subdomains or dedicated pages to get your keywords in a URL, nothing beats having them in your root domain. Example: www.rootdomain.com. I've seen sites, like The Marketing Blog, outrank sites that have the keyword in the root domain, but it takes a good deal of SEO experience, know how, and persistence. There are plenty of SEO training programs that can show you how to have this type of impact on organic listings, but know that having a domain with your keyword definitely helps.


What Are The Top 5 Negative Ranking Factors

Just as there are factors that improve your web site's rankings, there are also factors that can have a negative impact on organic results. These five factors should be avoided at all costs. Here they are:

The first negative ranking factor is cloaking with malicious intent. The good news here is that if you site is guilty of such a thing, Google will actually blog you and basically shut you down. They can do this? You bet they can - it's great to be the king! If your site was hijacked in some way and you are unable to access, you should restore using a backup and submit a request to have the site reviewed via Google webmaster tools. Cloaking or hijacking of this type is usually done via iframe redirects and other technical stuff!

The second negative ranking factor is link acquisition from link brokers. I used to generate a lot of money every month from text-link-ads dot com and other sites but have seen a significant drop in the number of customers using these services. Why? Because Google is on to them, that's why. Paying for links is like paying for good grades. Sooner or later it's a failing proposition.

The third negative ranking factor is cloaking by a User Agent. This is a bit technical, but User Agent Cloaking is similar to IP cloaking in the sense that the cloaking script compares the User Agent text string which is sent when a page is requested with its list of search engine User Agent names and then serves the appropriate page.

The problem with User Agent cloaking is that Agent names can be easily faked. Imagine Google introducing a new anti-spam method to beat cloakers, all they need to do is fake their name and pretend they're a normal person using Internet explorer or Netscape, the cloaking software will take Googles bot to the non optimized page and hence your search engine rankings will suffer. User Agent cloaking is much more riskier than IP based cloaking and it's not recommended.

The fourth negative ranking factor is frequent service downtime. If you site is rarely accessible, or down for extended period of times, it fall out of good graces with search engines. How valuable would Google or Yahoo be if every time you clicked on a link to visit a site it couldn't be accessed. Make sure you site is up and running 99.8% of the time.

The fifth and final negative ranking factor is linking out to SPAM. It's all about the company you keep. If you make reference to shady web sites, it will reflect badly upon you and your web site. Make sure you know who you're linking to before you place a link.

Good information is hard to find these days, that's why I was so excited about this SEO related report on ranking factors. The reason I believe the report is because I've worked with dozens of companies on improving their organic rankings and have taught search engine optimization classes that supported this information with case studies and real life examples. If you want to improve your rankings and avoid getting "Google slapped", then consider these factors.

Google Pay-Per-Click: The Truth Is Revealed

Last night I was wondering about my Google PPC ads and why my buddy was paying less per click than I was. We're marketing in the same niche and I couldn't quite understand the disparity. Then low and behold I get a link from a friend today on "Quality Score" and what determines your click price.

If you're trying to make sense of PPC and how it works, listen to this brief video from Google Chief Economist, Hal Varian, who explains the AdWords Ad Auction and how your max CPC bid and quality score determine how much you pay for a click on Google.com. More importantly, Hal specifically mentions which factors determine your quality score - definitely worth the next 9 minutes. Be sure to retweet and share with your marketing buddies...

All the best,

Michael

A Simple Formula For Effective Marketing

Ever since the first merchant promoted his product to make a meaningful trade, marketing has been an essential part of any sales or promotional formula. Today, the formula seems complex, but it doesn't have to be. At the core of any effective marketing strategy is value.

So how can you create value for your customers? Begin with a firm understanding of your market. Who are your best customers? Who has a need that you can meet with your products and services? Delivering value becomes easy once you understand what you customers need and you find a way to deliver it at a fair price.

If you're struggling to create real value for your customers, learn from the following example which is very easy to duplicate and delivers value for all involved. This company - we'll call them Services Unlimited (they asked me to keep their name confidential), has been delivering web design services for nearly a decade. They understand their customers and are always trying to deliver top notch service. However, business has been slow and they are looking to improve their marketing effectiveness.

One of the designers, who's established some great relationships with customers, suggests that the company share the materials he shares with his customers online. The material he's referring to is a guide on how to choose the right service provider. The agency likes the idea and repackages the guide as, "10 Things You Must Know Before Choosing An Agency!" before publishing it to the web. This is information that is valuable to their prospective customers and improves the agency's success.

The company promotes the online resource (pdf) via their web site, to customers, prospects, and through pay-per-click campaigns. Before being able to download the guide, entering a first name and email are required. Once the email address is confirmed through a verification email, users are given access to the downloadable PDF. This has been set up as part of an auto-responder, dripping messages on prospects at different intervals.

The purpose of the auto responder is to provide additional value, build a relationship/affinity for the agency and essentially move them through the decision making process. Now you might be wondering how successful a short list of do's and dont's may be, but done correctly, each touch provides value.

So How Did This Campaign Perform?
Okay, you are probably wondering what a free download and a bunch of emails could possibly do for a slowing business.. everything. The effectiveness of this campaign was better than any other direct marketing they had done in quite some time. The conversion rate of 5% was more than double what they were receiving on other campaigns. Additionally, many of the relationships they established were long-term and helped to shape much of the work they do today.

This company learning from their promotional efforts focused on value and now offer other promotions such as a 'web page makeover', 'free evaluation', etc. When you focus on delivering value, the business will come. Said another way, know what your audience wants and give them a taste - prove value before you ask them to take a chance!

Top Five Tips For Generating 1000's of Inbound Links

Okay, so you're already sold on the concept of link building. That's good... everyone knows how valuable inbound links are to your marketing pages and web sites. I know you've heard it countless times but are you implementing an inbound link plan each and every day?

I'm here to say that the majority (9 out of 10) clients I work with are not implementing a cohesive inbound link strategy on a daily basis. The good news is that about 80% understand the importance of inbound links and about 30% actually have plans for generating them, but a mere 10% are actually doing something about it.

Why Inbound Links Are Important
If you want to reach the top of major search engines, then you're going to have to tell the search engines why they should rank you. Do you have unique content? Are you a credible website? Can you provide a good user experience? These are all important questions you should be asking yourself as you consider developing an inbound linking strategy.

Tip #1: Here and Now
Start with an idea of where you are. Regardless of what type of tool you use (free or paid) to evaluate your current SEO status: rankings, keywords, sites linking in, etc., make sure you have a good idea of where you're starting from - and ultimately where you ant to get to. Additionally, plan to check your progress at least once a week. You want to see if your inbound links are helping you success on search.

Tip #2: Begin With Your Competitors
One of my favorite link building strategies is to start with your competitors. Who's linking to them? Are the links from high Google PR sites? What else can you learn about your competitors linking strategies? Start with your competitors or who is already ranked in the number one position for the keyword term or phrase you're optimizing for.

Tip #3: Focus on Anchor Text
Another great SEO tip for inbound linking is to evaluate all of the existing inbound links to your website. Whether you use the simple "link:" code via the Google search box, Alexa, or some other tool, create a list of sites linking in and work with them to apply the proper anchor text to the link associated with your keyword. For example, contacting a site and asking them to update your URL (ex: http://www.yoursite.com) with anchor text (ex: Improve search rankings) can make all the difference.

Tip #4: Quality Content and Social Media
If you provide quality content on your site or simply cover something that would be of interest to your target market, allow others to comment, bookmark and share. Quality content is what search engines like and so will your readers. Develop quality content and encourage others to share it. This creates quality backlinks to your website.

Tip #5: Three Way Linking
Okay, "reciprocal linking is dead". Yeah, I get it.. don't necessarily agree but we wont debate that here. The good news is that we don't have to talk about it since the best linking option is one-way linking. This can be achieved through a 3 way link. Trying to make a difficult to explain concept relatively simple, exchange links with another website but do it using a 3rd site, not your own. This allows one-way links in either direction.

These tips cover a great deal and have worked for me when it comes to helping my websites and blogs, as well as others, build a significant number of inbound links to their website steadily over time.

WARNING: You may be the anxious type, looking to build hundreds or even thousands of inbound links to your website(s) in the next 48 hours - DON'T DO IT! Although I successfully did this in the past, Google is penalizing sites who are too fast out of the gate when it comes to link building. You should look to ad 3 - 5 quality links to your site on a weekly basis. Slow and steady wins the race.

Find more link building tips and strategies in, "SEO Made Simple: Strategies for Dominating the World's Largest Search Engine" available at Amazon.com.

Bing This! What the New Search Engine Means To YOU!

Okay, so by now you've heard all the "news" about Bing being the next big thing. I've read about a dozen articles and even the Bing Guide For Webmaster's and I'm ready to give you my two cents.

First off, if you haven't visited Bing yet, give it a try. It will better help you to understand my pros and cons and also give you a sense of the user experience. I actually used it a couple of times after hearing of the big release without fully appreciating all of it's functionality.

Before I give you my quick overview, let me say that the only reason I'm even remotely interested in Bing is because Microsoft (who obviously owns the Bing search engine) has announced they are buying Yahoo! Just like any big organization it's only a matter of time until they support a single search algorithm and considering the millions they dumped into Bing - and considering how screwed up Yahoo! is internally (sorry Yahoo's), it's my opinion that Bing will prevail.

Okay, so what's good about Bing? A couple of things actually. Based on their research which confirmed the famous "F" pattern which describes how users view a web page, they found that the majority of users never go past the first 5 organic listing. This has shaped their content presentation and layout. Additionally, Bing provides access to categories of information, related search queries, and access to expanded information. Essentially they are bringing as much content forward as possible to make your search more efficient.

This functionality is based on research and an every intelligent algorithm that aggregates the search behavior of tens of millions of queries and user behavior. I know it sounds like big brother but it can also help you have a more rewarding search experience where you actually find what you're looking for quickly and easily.

What are the cons? Well, I wouldn't necessarily say that having someone help you make decisions is a con, but it does feel kinda creepy. I also don't believe that there is always a majority. What I mean is that the algorithm itself, but aggregating results across all users, is bound to have some shortcomings.

From a marketing perspective, it also has the possibility of changing the game somewhat. For example, if clicks are what drives top search engine placements, then web site owners are going to have FREE SEX in the title tag of every web page on their server.

I know I'm exaggerating a little bit but anything can happen. From my perspective, I still think SEO best practices are still essential. My advice to you is to make sure every web page you produce has a single theme and unique meta tags, URLs, etc. Bing is trying to categorize content and web pages so make sure you do the thinking for them. That's really the only way to win the artificial intelligence game!

The Marketing Blog Gets A New Look

A couple of weeks ago a loyal Marketing Blog reader said something to the effect of, "..for a Blog ranked #1 on Google 'Marketing Blog', it sure looks Amateurish". As someone who reads EVERY comment on this blog, I had to agree.

Truth be told, when the Marketing Blog launched a little over 3 years ago, I never imagined that it would gain such a huge following from so many smart, dedicated, and interesting people - all with a passion for marketing!

This new look is designed to help you find the information you're looking for even faster and allow all of use to share valuable content via Twitter, Digg, and other social media sites. My hope is that you find tremendous benefit in the marketing related items covered on this blog and participate in the process. Keep sending those comments and sharing your experience.

I'd love your feedback! As Always, let me know what you think about The Marketing Blog but specifically about the new look.

-All the best,
Michael Fleischner

Social Media: A Feeding Frenzy

Man, this is crazy. Everywhere I look, I'm hearing discussions about Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube. These sites have been around for a while but I guess that all of the fanfare is due to critical mass.

Is It Too Late To Jump On Board?

A number of people have asked me about their involvement with social media. They're asking, "Is it too late?" "Should I open and account?" etc. Here's the good news... it's never too late. And in fact, those starting later in the game do have some advantages over those who have been online for a while, it's all a matter of perspective. Here are some tips if you still haven't developed a complete social media strategy.

1. What do you want from social media? Think about what you want social media to do for you. Are you trying to promote your company or product? Do you want to establish yourself as an expert? Focus on the purpose and that can help you successfully implement a comprehensive social media plan.

2. Create a detailed plan. For those of you who read my blog regularly, you know that I'm all about planning - to a degree. Here are some things you should write down: Social Media Sites where you want to be included. What will be your theme? What steps are involved (registering for accounts, placing icons on your web site or blog, including references to profiles in your signature line, etc.)? Who will be managing day-to-day tasks?

3. Assemble a team. Who's going to be executing on your social media strategy daily? If you haven't figured it out already, it's a lot of work. Assemble a team, use automation tools, or hire resources via eLance.com.

4. Establish goals. What are you trying to achieve on each social media platform? How many followers? How many fans? By when? Consider the outcome you're striving for and you can quickly achieve your goals.

5. Be realistic. It takes time to get comfortable with social media and achieve the goals you're striving to hit. Start slow but remain consistent in your efforts to succeed online. The key is to stay with it. Just like the social media sites themselves, it takes time to hit critical mass - but once you do, you're golden.

Now is the time to get involved with social media. From my perspective it's never too late. So don't hesitate to visit Twitter.com and other social media sites today. Set up an account and get started after mapping out your social media plan.