Top Five Tips for Organic SEO in 2012

Posted by seo_writer_kvn as Organic SEO Marketing

Did you know that Google publishes many of their algorithmic search changes to help small businesses attain better page ranks? Far too many folks have been viewing the search giant as akin to the “Evil Empire” depicted in science fiction movies when their sole purpose in recent years has been to improve user experiences on the web. Changes in page rank calculations are designed to give the searcher the most accurate results possible. Legitimate organic SEO firms make it a point to understand and work with these changes, not attempt to circumvent them.

Last week, in a blog post by Google’s Matt Cutts titled “Ten Recent Algorithm Changes”, we gained some insight into what to expect in 2012. Google makes over five hundred of these changes every year, so we look for common themes and then base our SEO decisions on the tendencies they are showing us. It’s not too difficult to see what direction search is going in. Quality content, as always, is valued above all else. Next on the list would be your website SEO, and then a stronger emphasis on images and video. Here’s our Top Five for Organic SEO in 2012:

1. Post regular content on your blog
2. Make sure summary and title tags are more descriptive
3. Don’t be afraid to add video
4. Freshen up or delete old or stale content
5. Eliminate redirects, squeeze pages, and pop-ups

We’ve been talking about the value of content for years, so there’s nothing new there. On the tags, there has been a rumor going around that they’re no longer relevant. Don’t believe it. Website SEO is an important part of the process. Not having title and description tags counts against you, as does simply spamming keywords as Meta descriptions. With video and static images, HTML5 and other tools have made these elements visible to search spiders now, so pay more attention when creating them.

Items 4 and 5 are new on our list this year. The trends we see from Cutts’ latest post tell us that stale content will be shelved and fresh content gets the higher page rank. Consistently posting to your blog will help you with this, but freshen up or delete older, stale content and you’ll see an even bigger boost. While you’re at it, get rid of the redirects, squeeze pages, and pop-ups that hold visitors hostage. If you want your customers to come to your site and stay a while, give them something valuable to stay for. You’ll find if you do that they’ll actually come back again.

An Overlooked Resource: The Power of Press Releases

Posted by seo_writer_joe as Organic SEO Marketing

Big and small businesses have used press release services for many years to send a basic release to get attention from traditional media for their products and services. In the digital age, however, a press release can do much more. It can be picked up by major search engines news crawlers, deliver new web visitors to your site, and build up valuable back links that can help enhance your Google PageRank for years to come.

Rather than just relying on traditional media, press release services now use dedicated sites. One example is PRWeb.com. When you post your press release to PRWeb, almost immediately a network of additional sites that tap into the PRWeb RSS feed will re-publish your release.

PR Web is a paid service. There are hundreds of others for you to use. At first, limit your activity using sites that:

• Allow on-page optimization- use press release sites that allow anchor text links, header tags and other on-page optimization techniques. Not all sites allow this. Check their FAQ or Terms of Use about SEO. Without these features, it will be harder for the search engines to find you information.
• Have strong Google PageRank- stick with well-established sites that have a PageRank of 4 or more. This eliminates many smaller sites that will not help your cause.
• Eliminate NoFollow tags- a NoFollow tag is placed the code of a hyperlink that prevents search engines from following the link. You want people viewing the press release to be able to click through to your site.

Many firms will save time and money by hiring press release services to do all the work. For small firms on a tight budget, there are free sites available like PR.com and PRLog.com. However, many free sites do not allow live hyperlinks unless you pay additional fees. Paid sites charge a few hundred dollars for a basic release.

Many entrepreneurs and corporations underestimate the power of press release services in our Internet-based world. Try some of these tactics and you’ll see more web traffic, better back links, and a higher profile in your industry.

Search Engine Rankings cannot be achieved and maintained without constant SEO Efforts

Posted by seo_writer_kvn as Organic SEO Marketing

Search engines can seem maddeningly mysterious. Your website is well done; your keywords are in place; your product is legitimate and of good quality. So why are you still on page fifteen, and why aren’t you getting the attention you really deserve? These answers can be found through Local Internet Marketing and a quality, Affordable SEO company. Raising and maintaining your rankings is a full-time job in and of itself: but there are people out there who know how to help.

Obviously, you need people who understand how search engines “think.” That is, how your website is prioritized in relation to others that fit the search, and how to keep your website relevant over time. Custom blog content, video, and a specially branded social media presence will all help you get attention from customers, and help keep you up in the ratings. Those things take time, though—a lot of it—and having someone whose sole purpose is to maintain your online presence isn’t just a good idea, it’s becoming absolutely necessary. Consistently providing unique, quality content that will help your website gain traffic is a full-time job, believe it or not.

The ways to get noticed are countless. Blog posting, Targeted email marketing, Forum Posting, and social media will all substantially contribute to how much attention you receive. It’s not just time consuming because it’s tedious, either; yes, updating a Facebook, a Twitter, an email list, and a blog is nitpicky, but are your posts engaging? Do they draw in an audience? Or are you just stringing keywords together and hoping that will work?

The “wired” age has made it much easier for businesses to connect with customers, whether they’re down the street or across the country; people have come to expect a substantial internet presence from the businesses they patronize, whether it’s being able to “like” them on Facebook, or keeping up with their blog. Done right, branded social media and search engine optimization can open up a whole new world for your business. A professional who understands Organic SEO can help you get the attention you deserve—without a daily panic over whether your “tweets” are frequent enough.

Organic Rankings on Google account for the Majority of your Sites Visitors

Posted by seo_writer_kvn as Organic SEO Marketing

Google, while not without competition from sites like Bing, is the king of the search engines. From “cat food” to “charisma tips,” Google has become our go-to for all the minutiae of life: and making sure your business can be found through those searches is the key to success. Buying “sponsored” results might seem like the easy route—after all, it makes sure your website is the absolute first on the page, in a little box and everything. Presto! First Page Placement, and you only needed a checkbook. Sadly, it’s not that simple.

So why won’t “sponsored” links work—and why do you have to go through the time and effort of ensuring your rise through organic rankings? Well, first and foremost, Internet consumers have learned to be wary of all things “sponsored.” As a member of the generation that grew up with computers, Internet safety 101 was to not click on links that didn’t “seem” legitimate; as such, the sponsored results smack of a scam, even if they really are a genuine business.

Rising through the ranks to “First Page” status isn’t easy, but it’s worth it, to be sure. Thankfully, there are people who can help you make sure that traffic finds your site. Partnering with a quality SEO company can make sure that your website is found through Organic SEO, and while it might take some time, they’ll be sure to do it right. Believe it or not, convincing Internet customers that you’re the real deal is more important than ever, and this kind of small Business SEO goes a long way to assuring potential traffic that your website is legitimate.

Making your way up the rankings is hard, but it’s worth it: even if you haven’t achieved first link or first page results yet, your web traffic will come to you through organic rankings, not through sponsored results. Finding a company that knows what they’re doing, and letting them help you climb up the ranks—however arduous it might be—is more than worth it in the long run.

Why Los Angeles SEO is More Advanced than Most

Posted by seo_writer_kvn as Organic SEO Marketing

There really is no place on earth that is more technologically savvy than the City of Angels. Here in LA, we know all about search engine optimization, internet marketing, and targeted email marketing. We’re well-versed in tech speak, Google-ese, and blog-orating. It’s not something we have to delve in depth to; we have the knowledge as a result of living in a city where everyone is an expert on the subject. Los Angeles SEO companies employ the most advanced search marketing strategies in the world. Would you want to compete in an environment like that? We do, and we do it well.

In the city where everyone knows a lot about one specific subject you need to do a lot of work to be number one. Here at Webwise media we’ve been in business for over a decade and we’ve watched the search engines grow up. By employing purely white hat methods we have developed a good reputation and our clients have never lost any ground in the search rankings due to changes made in the Google algorithm. Just this past February, as major companies were toppling from the top of search engine page ones everywhere due to Google Panda, our clients were climbing.

Webwise Media has taken small business SEO and made it affordable for all. In the past, you needed to spend thousands of dollars a month to be at the top of search results. We can offer that to you now for a fraction of that cost. By utilized more advanced technology and refining our own internal systems and processes, we have made it possible for any business, even the smallest, to be on Page One for their industry keywords. We have the results and testimonials from our clients to prove it.

How do we do it? Webwise Media uses a combination of tools and techniques that have worked for years. We focus on quality content development and website SEO. We promote your business using press releases, blog posts, PPC, and First Page Placement. We do careful link building, not with auto submission services, but manually, the way it’s supposed to be done. From the moment you start doing business with us you’ll start getting a surge in traffic to your website. Stay with us a while and that surge will become a steady flow, leading to more sales and sign-ups. That’s what you want, right?

Submit Regularly to your Press Release Service for Best SEO Results

Posted by seo_writer_kvn as Organic SEO Marketing, Social Websites Marketing

Is your company newsworthy? Many business owners and marketers feel that a press release service would not be beneficial to them because they don’t have any newsworthy stories to publish with them. This is a mistake. All companies have something they can put in a press release, and submitting press releases regularly to a good press release service is one of the best things you can do for organic SEO. We here at Webwise Media use this strategy regularly to boost both our own and our clients’ respective search engine page ranks and positions.

Press releases are a great source for links. If you have a link or two in the body of a press release, with the volume of traffic that most of these services get, you’ll end up seeing dozens, maybe hundreds of visitors when you publish just a single press release. Do that regularly every week and you’ll start to see the backlinks pile up. Every time someone views your press release, you have a shot at getting a new customer. Even if they don’t buy that day, their interest and the time they spend browsing your site after they click that link count towards page rank calculations.

Time on site and traffic aren’t the only algorithmic variables you can count on when you publish press releases. Say something interesting enough to be shared and you could be looking at backlinks from social bookmarking and social media websites. All a user has to do is click their de.li.cious, StumbleUpon, or Google bookmark icon on the toolbar and you will gain a backlink. Put out enough press releases and those backlinks will really start to pile up over time. You’ll soon be getting traffic from direct sources and organic ones that you had no idea existed. It’s all part of a good organic SEO strategy.

What is the ultimate goal of any legitimate internet marketing firm? You want your client to get regular, sustained traffic that will generate a steady income all the time. When that happens, the client will be happy with their marketer and want to retain their services for a longer period of time. Here at Webwise Media, we service clients that have been with us over ten years. Our press release strategy is part of the reason why we have that kind of customer retention rate.

Forum Posting is a Key Ingredient of Organic SEO

Posted by seo_writer_kvn as Blogs, Organic SEO Marketing

If you’re a business involved with online content and blog posting, your efforts revolve around one thing: being found. All of your creative efforts are instantly discounted by the masses if they can’t be accessed online via a search engine. While many businesses would pour effort into constantly generating new content for search engines to feed off of; there is an alternative to this traditional style of SEO. One of the best ways of generating SEO quality material is to allow users to contribute to your already existing content via a forum. Hosting a forum is both a simple and effective solution for growing your SEO organically. Why does this work?

Forums are a place where knowledge and opinions are shared. If your business offers a product or service that gets people talking, a forum is the perfect place for users of your product to contribute their thoughts and ideas. Think of this as the ultimate way of getting users to supply the type of material that search engines can index. The more content you have the more information a search engine has to appraise your site. Ultimately this can result in more traffic for your online business. If you have the opportunity to indirectly defer some of the content production load to your existing clients, it will not only save you time and energy, but it will also mean a significant return on investment.

The Internet is a much more dynamic setting for customers to interact in. While they may not be frank about their opinions in person, they may be apt to express their true feelings via forum posting. From a customer relations perspective a forum will help you gain insight into your customers’ true satisfaction with your product or service. Using a forum as a user-contributed customer service resource is an excellent way to build a community around your brand. With multiple users contributing content about your product and their experiences with it search engines will be sure to notice and index your available content.

This type of organically grown SEO is invaluable to your online business. It is the perfect way to generate buzz about your business, meet the needs of your clients, and provide a way for customers to reach out to one another, without breaking the bank. The classic example of this would be the user directed do-it-yourself style websites. Users constantly reach out to one another for answers to their questions. Creating a forum may just be the best way of getting noticed. Here at Webwise Media, we do forum posting as part of our regular organic SEO strategy. Contact us to learn more.

Do changes in the economy affect organic SEO?

Posted by seo_writer_kvn as Organic SEO Marketing

Okay, we’ll talk about it. The stock market has been performing like a drunken sailor climbing a mountain over the past few months and it doesn’t appear that there is any end in sight. People are bailing out of stock portfolios, mutual funds, IPO’s, and real estate investments. Homeowners are being foreclosed on and the unemployment rate is as high as it was in 2008 when the whole mess first started. Does any of this affect organic SEO? No, it doesn’t hinder our efforts in any way.

Most advertising and marketing is impacted by difficult economic times. Newspaper sales go down. Advertising budgets shrink. Subsidies from local, state, and federal governments disappear. All of these impede the efforts of a traditional marketing team. Those who do business on the internet, particularly SEO companies, aren’t subject to the same restrictions or have to deal with those obstacles. Our efforts remain constant and so do the results they bring. Since it often takes months to achieve high page rank, when the rest of the world goes into recession our clients are doing fine.

To make it even easier to be successful on the web, we have created affordable SEO packages for small businesses. In the days of yesteryear when the internet was a playground for the wealthy and excessive, search engine optimization cost thousands of dollars per month. It was also shrouded in mystery, so no one really knew what they were going to get. That made it easier for black hat SEO firms to charge high prices, justifying it with the old “Only we know how to do this” sales pitch.

Our team of website SEO professionals at Webwise Media does know a thing or two about SEO that others might not know. We have been in business for over a decade. Despite that, we’re not going to charge more or attempt to sell you services you don’t need. If you don’t understand something, ask. Our experts will be happy to explain what we are doing and why. It’s your company. You have a right to know where your money is going – especially in this economy.

Affordable SEO is Helping Small Businesses Succeed in the US

Posted by seo_writer_kvn as Organic SEO Marketing

Most of the negative financial news you’re reading or watching on TV relates to big business, those companies with futures that are determined by investors and stock holders trading on Wall Street. These companies are worth millions, sometimes billions of dollars, so increases and losses tend to be newsworthy topics. Small business rarely gets an honorable mention, never mind a headline. If they did, the title tag would no doubt read “Affordable SEO is helping small business succeed in the US”.

Was that a positive statement about the economy? Yes it was. As big business flounders in a sea of new regulation and loan defaults, small business has been using the internet to slowly move forward out of the most recent recession. In many ways, the collapse of big retail has made this possible. Keywords once locked up by corporate giants spending millions to target them are now open and available. Google Panda also helped back in February, leveling the playing field and making it impossible to buy your way to the top.

Attaining a high page rank now can be done only one way – through meticulous and intelligent link building and quality content development. Tag your pages up with prosy meta descriptions if you like, but if the pages they’re describing don’t have relative content on them your site won’t go anywhere but down the page rank ladder. Just ask all those link farms and the companies attached to them that fell into internet obscurity this year. None of them were organic SEO clients of Webwise Media, but many of them were some pretty big names in the retail industry.

Small business is thriving right now, at least that sector of it that pays attention to their national and local internet marketing. That IPO you bought into might be causing you to have some sleepless nights, but if your business is operating on a cash basis and building its web presence you are going to be okay. We’re not finance experts, but we can tell you what works in SEO. Come on over and talk to us about it. Let the rest of the world worry about interest rates and industrial averages. We’ll make your small business successful so you don’t have to.

Top Five Tips for Effective Targeted Email Marketing

Posted by seo_writer_kvn as Email Marketing, Organic SEO Marketing

It’s all about the list. That’s the number one piece of useful information we can give you when it comes to targeted email marketing. Your return and conversion rates are determined by the quality of the contacts you have on your email list. Did you buy them from a marketing company or were they generated through your own efforts? Are they opt-in, double opt-in, or one of those “related site referral” lists that will get you tagged as a spammer more often than not? There are ways to prevent that from happening. Here are our top five tips for effective targeted email marketing:

1) Generate your own list. Don’t buy it from someone else. This is easy enough to do. Have our website design team install an email capture box on your website and we’ll start driving traffic at it. The more traffic, the more contacts will be on your list.

2) Go with opt-in or double opt-in whenever possible. Most services that help you build email lists, like aWeber for instance, have options for opt-in or double opt-in. The more you have the person signing up go through to complete the process, the more likely it is that they are legitimately interested.

3) Don’t use your email list too frequently. You want to make sure they remember who you are and what you are offering, but you don’t want recipients to feel like they’re being hounded. Find a balance.

4) Mix in a few giveaways with your sales presentations. Add some value to you emails that your client and customer base will appreciate. It’s okay to give something away now and then to generate paid business later on.

5) Removes names when requested. Not doing so will get you banned from email services and possibly get your email address shut down. This is not good if you already have a large contact file attached to it.

Webwise Media has a number of options for creating a targeted email marketing campaign. They are available as stand-alone services or as part of any organic SEO package. We recommend setting up an email capture feature at the very beginning of any marketing campaign. Not only will it be a useful tool in the future, but it will give you an opportunity to gauge the success of the marketing by the amount of sign-ups you get. Contact our office today to learn more.