Tag Archives: google

How To Rank Higher In Google’s New Search Engines

BWMagic’s Internet Marketing News

How To Rank Higher In Google’s New Search Engines




Google Spot!








A little while back I wrote an article entitled “The Five Pillars of Google Search”
and had I known how important those pillars would become, I would have paid more
attention to them. What I didn’t factor into the equation was Google’s whole
re-structuring of its SERPs interface or landing page. It really is a whole new
Google with not just one search engine but a combination of 6 or 7 search engines
all competing for your attention.

The new left side column with its new functions and displays, opens up new
opportunities for webmasters to get their listings within Google on that all
important first page. There are also many new ways to view the results such as
view everything or you can view with more or less shopping links. Plus you can
also view Google results for books, maps, blogs, updates and discussions – all
new ways to get your site or links into Google. Throw in the Wonder Wheel and
things are indeed looking very different within the new Google SERPs.

As a full-time online search engine marketer, I should have expected something
like this but the recent changes within Google has been totally unprecedented.
We have seen major updates before, some of them very disruptive like the Florida
Update, but with Google Caffeine, the new layout and the recent shakeup of its
Algorithm, Google has fundamentally changed its organic search as we once knew it.

Before I start sounding too cryptic, these recent changes seem to be a “coming together”
of all the different types of searches in Google which have been around for some time.
Now it seems with the new interface architecture… each type of search is given more
importance or rather more of an equal billing or footing within Google. There are now
multiple ways to get your links viewed and hopefully clicked.

First, I always try to start any piece on Google or the search engines with a disclaimer.
Mainly, in the course of running 9 or 10 websites, I keep a daily monitoring of the
keywords which produce revenue, some of these keyword phrases have been monitored by me
for 6 or 7 years, but they are only a small sampling of keywords and sometimes drawing
or making conclusions with such a small sample can be misleading or downright wrong.
So take any of the following information on Google with this point in mind, just one
webmaster observing what’s happening with Google and putting in his two cents worth.

Now, the reason I say “Google’s New Search Engines” is the feeling which has gradually
crept into my daily marketing – it feels like you’re no longer dealing with one organic
search engine but 6 or 7 different search engines. Let me explain, for years Google has
been presenting results for not just static webpages but also for images, videos, news,
blogs and shopping/products – but recent changes have shaken up things significantly.

With the recent changes, Google seems to be placing more importance on these new ways
to search. Videos have taken a big step forward and can now pop up on the first page
and stay there. Producing a video is now one of the fastest ways to get on the first
page of Google, even for very competitive keywords. While many online marketers are
taking advantage of this fact, it is relatively new and you can have a much better
chance of ranking for a video instead of an ordinary web page in Google. It can happen
almost instantly.

Personally, I like using the YouTube platform because it is also owned by Google and
they no doubt can easily tap into all the background stats on a video such as comments,
viewer ratings… and so on. In other words, Google has always favored ways to make
their SERPs more democratic and user-generated/rated videos are the perfect fit.

So too are blog posts and entries, these can be easily monitored and (comment spam aside)
are more democratic since it’s harder to fake Diggs or Re-tweets. All of these social
bookmarking systems and sites provide the search engines, especially Google, with some
very helpful user-generated rankings and ratings. Blogs now also have two subcategories
– Twitter Updates and Forum Discussions, which are now being displayed separately.

Google seems to be placing more importance on popular Posts, Diggs, Tweets… in their
SERPs. Again, I find using a simple Google-owned program like Blogger to be an effective
way of ranking high in Google. For example, my posts in Blogger are indexed in Google
within minutes, this recently seems to have been speeded up and we are moving more
towards instant search results.

Another instant way to get your content onto the first page of Google is to use a
News Release. Google has always listed News Items on the first page but this now seems
to play a more important role, especially when you consider all the new features in the
left side column. Surfers will probably stay on that first page longer and you have a
better chance of getting your news item read.

Within the last couple of years, I have started doing Press Releases, mainly through
PRweb but there are lots of free programs you can use. I also like posting my articles
to American Chronicle since Google News picks up and displays a lot of these items.
Again, like videos, getting your News item listed is almost instant and within seconds
you can have traffic flowing to your site.

Images and image search has always been an important feature of Google Search. One that
online marketers and webmasters have taken advantage of by creating images to match the
main products or keywords of their sites. Now image search itself is much more varied
and has many more options to re-defined your image search, for example, you could target
a certain color or line drawings. Regardless, images can be an easy way to get traffic
from Google.

Within the shopping results is the place to be featured if you have a product to sell.
This is the old product listing (Froogle) which Google has updated or renamed to shopping.
For those into online marketing, this is probably the most important listing as you’re
sure to attract specific buyers who are in the right mind-set to purchase.

While all these search options can be somewhat confusing to grasp even for the online
marketer, all these options do present different ways to get on that first page in Google
search. And while the number one spot in organic search will always be your main goal,
ranking for the top spot in the shopping results, video results, news results, blog results,
update results, discussion results and image results are all worth aiming for in your SEO efforts.
Some of these are temporary or fast-moving, but there are certain tactics you can use which
will increase your presence in the most important search engine on the planet.

Make sure you take a holistic approach to both your content and SEO. Create videos and
images geared towards your site’s topic and keywords. Make sure you have a blog and a
forum on your site to take advantage of these types of listings. Likewise, fully integrate
your site with all the social bookmarking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter… and become
an active part of those sites. Make sure you’re creating news related items for your site
or keywords, to keep your site in the whole mix of things on the web. Make sure you have
a steady flow of fresh content being added to your site regularly and link this content
to the “Q&A” types of sites; there is a growing emphasis being placed on these help-based
sites by the search engines.

Lastly, I am a firm believer in having all your content/sites/programs interconnected
with one another. Something as simple as using a Google Profile to list ALL your online
programs and sites is one way of making them ALL reachable by your visitors and Google.
But go for the overkill, do the same thing for your Facebook page, your MySpace page,
your Linkedin page… and also interconnect all your different content by referencing
your videos in your News Releases, your Twitter profile in your articles, your Facebook
page in your posts… well, you get the picture.

Just make sure the search engines, and especially Google, has no trouble finding you or
your content. Make sure this content is varied and displayed in different mediums such
as videos, images, news, tweets, blog posts and shopping links. Reaching that first page
in Google has become a lot more challenging in many ways, but it also has become a lot
more easier to do. Just go for it.




Helping You Succeed Online Since 2002!

Kind Regards,
Titus

Twitter account for bizwaremagic.

Did you find the above information helpful? If so, why not
help spread the word – recommend this content by using
the social bookmark sites below. The SEO Gods will Thank You!

What To Do When Google Messes Up The Title Of Your Site

BWMagic’s Internet Marketing News


What To Do When Google Messes Up The Title Of Your Site

In the past, I have always found it helpful to read about
other people’s problems with Google and how they solved them.
Maybe this won’t happen to you but in case it does, reading
about my experiences and mistakes might help you avoid them.

Yesterday morning, while nervously waiting for Google Caffeine
to drip into place, I got a rude awakening of just how abrupt some
of Google’s constant changes can bring to an online marketer.

Imagine this scenario: You have a site in Google’s index for over
four years which is ranked on the first page for some very competitive
keywords. Suddenly, one morning you check your rankings and they
have gone up a few notches but…


Google has changed the “Title” of your site in their index.


Google is no longer pulling the title from your “Title Tag” – the
name and words you want in the title and which has been in the Google
index for over 4 years. Instead Google has spidered your site’s main
page and pulled a generic title from your content.

Ouch!

Why does this matter? What’s the big deal you’re asking?

It’s a big deal mainly because I start my marketing funnel right
in the Google Serps, this is my first contact with potential
clients. You must pull in the right visitors to your site, visitors
who are of the right mind-set to buy a product or service.

Over the years, I have learned getting top rankings in Google for
lucrative keywords are only the first step in your marketing process.
Next, you have to have the right title and description in Google in
order to bring or attract the right visitors to your site.


I will explain further…


The site in question is a comparison shopping type site, where for
years the title said something like: Comparison of Product A Features/Prices

Then Google changes the Title to: What is Product A?

My site goes from being a comparison shopping site to an educational
site in the minds of those reading Google Serps. Bad news… very
bad news.

With this new title, my site is not only attracting the wrong kind of
visitor, but it goes from competing with small like-minded comparison sites
to competing with big sites like Wikipedia.

That’s probably a bit of an exaggeration but not really. It totally
messes up my marketing funnels for that site. Actually it cuts the
marketing down to just about nil since your conversion rates will
go down if you’re not attracting buyers.

Now, while it is very easy to blame Google for this change, I have
long learned – 9 times out of 10 – it is probably the webmaster or
marketer’s own doings which has caused the problem.

I have also learned when anything goes wrong, you have to first do,
a very detailed analysis of any changes you have made to any of your pages.
And I did make some changes to my index page for this site in question…

I added a link to an education site which is probably a big no-no in
Google’s mind. If you have a shopping comparison site… you should
not be pointing to a .edu site. This probably confused the robot in
some matter or triggered the nature of my site in the eyes of Google.

While checking this matter out further, I discovered that Google doesn’t have
to use your “Title Tag” at all. It can list your site anyway it sees
fit. Or rather it doesn’t have to accept your title if it believes
the page doesn’t relate to your title. It can comb the page and
decide a new Title for it… usually words appearing somewhere on
your page. Big Brother knows best and you have to play by his rules.

Here’s an interesting page from Google on this:


Google on Titles

I knew from the beginning that my title for that page was over the 65-70
characters allowed in Google, but Google would always list it and put
in the “…” at the end. Yahoo allows up to 120 characters and
that’s the reason I had the longer title in the first place.

Now, in the past with other web sites, changing the title of your
page in Google’s Index is no big deal. Usually after a few days, once
Google has spidered your page again, the new title appears in that
all-important index. I am chalking up the lost sales as a bad
mistake on my part.

I have made changes to the site in question and I wait anxiously
for Google to change the title back to the comparison shopping
angle which is truly what this site is all about. It does have
an educational element to it but that’s because I want any customers
to be fully informed about the products in question.

For me as an online marketer that first impression in Google’s Index
is crucial to my whole marketing process. And if you’re into selling
anything online or if you just want to attract the right targeted
visitors to your site – having the proper title and description are
essential to the success of your site.

You MUST give a lot of time and consideration to your title tag
and description. It is extremely important for attracting the right
type of visitor to your site. Get this wrong and even a #1 spot
in Google can be useless!

Here’s a handy little tool and site which will help you create your
titles and descriptions for search engines, mainly Google.


www.seomofo.com/snippet-optimizer.html



Use this tool to create your titles…

Then learn from my mistake and make sure your content and links
on your page is truly relevant to your title. Repeat your title
on the page in the “H1” headline is a good starting point, just keep
all content on topic so that Google’s robots and Algorithm doesn’t get
confused and mislabel your site.


Helping You Succeed Online Since 2002!

Kind Regards,
Titus

https://www.bizwaremagic.com

Did you find the above information helpful? If so, why not
help spread the word – recommend this content by using
the social bookmark sites below. The SEO Gods will Thank You!

How Well Do You Know Your OWN Site?

BWMagic’s Internet Marketing News



How Well Do You Know Your OWN Site? Your Competitor’s?
These Handy SEO Tools Will Reveal All!

Needless to say, if you have a website, you will already know
it is becoming very competitive on the web. If you’re in a
lucrative niche market you will have probably already felt this
competition, not only from webmasters like yourself, but also
from major multi-billion dollar companies who have wised up
and SEOed up to take advantage of all this free organic traffic
coming from the search engines.

The competition is getting brutal.

For example, in some of my niche markets, I am competing to
get on the first page in Google for keywords that have over
220,000,000 competing pages. Hitting those first 10 spots is
where the money is located. You have to get onto that first
page in order to see your best results. And it is becoming
harder and harder to stay in those top 10 spots.

Of course, one marketing tactic is to simply NOT compete at
all, and go for the “long-tail keyword phrases” which have
less traffic but also less competition so you can get on the
first page of Google within a few days. This route will save
you a lot of frustration and sleepless nights.

However, if you’re like me and have held some lucrative keywords
on the first page of Google for over 4 or 5 years… seeing other
webmasters and especially big corporations come in and bump your
listing off the first page – totally ticks me off!

As the competition gets harder, you have to get smarter. Especially
if you have a small site with limited resources to spend on building
links and creating unique content. So you have to try and outwit your
competition.

Now if you know me, I am always pushing the “knowledge” button.
The more you know about your competition, the more able you are
to compete with them. And to a certain extent, the more you know
the more able you are to even beat your competition.

Over the years, I have used countless tools and software programs
to really get to know my competition. Thankfully, there are many
free programs you can use to discover most of what you should know
about your competition.

First, simply using the Google search engine will tell you who is
listed on the first page for your chosen keyword or keywords.
It will also tell you how many pages you’re competing against.
Now if you have a multi-worded phrase put quotation marks around
the “keyword phrase” and do an exact search in Google, which will
tell you the number of webpages which has this exact phrase
on them. This is probably your true competition.

Then you have to take a close look at your competition. Here is
one free tool that has been around since 2005 and you don’t even
have to sign-up to use it.


www.reactionengine.com

Just type in your site’s URL + a keyword and this tool will analyze
the SEO factors for you. They will even give you a “grade” for your
page!

But most importantly, they will give you some very valuable
information about your own site or your competitor’s site. You
can use this information to better design your site to hit all
the proper SEO signals which the search engines use to rank your
site.

In a recent WebProNews video interview, Matt Cutts said Google
has over 200 signals which it uses to rank pages. Now these
are the ranking factors that Google uses to rank your pages.

But really they are signals… give off the wrong signals and your
page will go down in the rankings. You really want all your
on-page SEO signals to be done right – simply because this is something
you have total control over.

For example, if you use the link above, it will tell you how
well you’re using your site against a certain keyword:


– is your main keyword in the title?

– is it in the meta tags?

– is it in the heading?

– is it in the body?

All these things do affect how well your site ranks in the
search engines. So it might be beneficial to take a look at
your site and see how will it does. And make any appropriate
changes.

Once you have taken a really close look at your site or page,
then you have to examine your main competition. Take a look at
how their site performs for your chosen keyword. What are
they doing differently from you? How are their pages optimized
for the search engines? See how they are ranked?

Now, look at how you can improve your site to better compete
with your competition. By first getting all your on-page SEO
factors/signals better optimized will help you compete better
with your competition.

Of course, there are many different sites like the one above
which you can use to find out more information about your
competition. I also like using:

www.compete.com
www.seotoolbook.com
www.iwebtool.com

Plus, as you probably know, I am a long-time user of the
Firefox Toolbar Add-on from

SEO Quake


This handy SEO toolbar gives me all the important SEO pointers
about a site while I am surfing. It does slow down your browser
a bit, but the information you get is as they say: priceless.

When I am checking out a site – either my competitor or when I
am looking for search partners, one thing I always check out on
this toolbar is the “SEMRush SE Traffic Price” this tells me the
worth of the search engine traffic this site is receiving each month.
If they had to pay for this traffic – that’s how much it would cost
them. Someone with $500,000 worth of traffic coming in each month,
probably knows what they’re doing when it comes to keyword positioning.

And another one is Alexa.com which I like to use to see the
traffic numbers, but also to check some of the links my competing
sites have. One marketing tactic, go out and try to get the same links
as your competition. If you want to truly compete with your competition
and beat them, you have to “out-link” them.

You also have to take a really close look at their whole site and
how it is constructed. What social network/bookmark sites are they
using? Are they using Twitter? Are they using Facebook? Are they
using Adsense? How many pages do they have indexed in the search
engines?

All of these things will add to your “knowledge” about your
competition. The more knowledge you have, the better you will
be able to compete…

Anyway, this is just some of the things you can do to check out
how well your site is optimized for SEO and also some ways
you can check out your competition. Go get ’em!


Helping You Succeed Online Since 2002!

Kind Regards,
Titus

https://www.bizwaremagic.com

Did you find the above information helpful? If so, why not
help spread the word – recommend this content by using
the social bookmark sites below. The SEO Gods will Thank You!