The buzz on the street these days is buying organic and why not right? The health and environmental benefits of organic foods are too many to mention.  While these attributes work well for your daily produce picks, they often get neglected when it comes to business.  Now, you may be wondering, how can I possibly incorporate organic into my business and the answer lies in your marketing and more specifically in your internet marketing.

The great thing about buying an organic apple is that it has been certified organic by the USDA.  This means there is a certification process in place that is largely based on the production process for the food or materials.  Unfortunately for internet marketing, when it comes to getting organic search engine results, there isn’t a governing body monitoring your efforts or the final product; unless of course you consider Google a governing body?  So, how can you be sure that your SEO company is delivering real organic search results or if your results are artificially organic?

Organic search engine marketing goes back to the age old terms of white hat SEO and black hat SEO.  As a business operator looking to market online in a campaign of the highest quality, you want to avoid black hat SEO.  It is the black hat practices that deliver the artificial organic search results.  These are indeed fly by night results that yes, you are at the top for a few days after your SEO company has worked their black magic, but the results weren’t the real deal and not only do you quickly fall off the top search result positions, but you are likely to get Google-slapped and sent to the back of the line as well. 

To stay true to being organic in your search engine marketing you need to remember that all things organic take extra time and extra work, but the results have better longevity and stronger presence.  Although every online marketing company may know the words ‘Content is King’, only truly good, quality content reigns for the long term.  That quality content then attracts natural links, avoiding the whole unnatural link farming approach to getting search results.  Organic search results are about creating a valuable resource on the web.  This resource is your website and it grows, adapts and changes to continually be a better source of information for visitors. 

Rafferty Pendery

In a world where the internet is rapidly becoming the largest mass-media advertising platform, you need to consider the participation of your company. The question is, where to start.

The two main forms of advertising online are, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and PPC (Pay Per Click). Below are their respective definitions.

“Search Engine Optimization” is defined as:
The process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a website from a search engine via ‘natural’ or un-paid (‘organic’ or ‘algorithmic’) search results as opposed to search engine marketing which deals with paid inclusion.”
www.wikipedia.com

And “Pay Per Click” is defined as:
An internet marketing model used on websites, in which advertisers pay their host only when their ad is clicked. With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market.
www.wikipedia.com

PPC is good for your company if you want to start selling fast online. You can have an ad online and running within 15 minutes. The problem is that when you stop paying for this ad or your credit card gets declined, your ad instantly stops, which means your sales stop. Everything you invest in PPC stops the second the campaign stops.

SEO on the other hand takes a bit longer to set up and can be more costly at first, but all of the actions you do to get on top of the search engines will drive customers to your site, afterwords – i.e. article distribution, niche directory submission etc. And your ranking is not attached to a credit card – it will stay there until Google decides otherwise.

One great strategy to determine which are the best keywords for you to use is to first test them out in PPC. By using PPC to try out keywords you can rapidly discover the most effective ones that are converting your customers. After that you gear your SEO campaign to target them.

To end things off, the question is “which is better?”  I believe this is a subjective question.  In my opinion SEO is better in the long-run, but if you want to get rolling right away, go ahead and dive-in with PPC.  Or even better use the two to support each-other.

Jack Napier
Account Rep

Ah, those were the days. Being in business used to be so easy. Promoting my business used to be easy too.  I was a painting contractor in Los Angeles in the 80’s. The competition was fierce but I knew what to do. To get my business going in a certain area I would drive around, find a good area and start door knocking. Personal contact was my forte. I never went more than an hour before I had a job. Another thing I did was to have my local flyer distribution service pass out a couple of thousand flyers and voila – WORK! It was that easy and that predictable.

But times have changed. If you don’t have a presence on the internet you’re nothing – second rate, behind the times. So you make the investment in setting up a web site. It feels good – hey, look at me I’ve now exposed myself to millions of potential customers. This is going to be easy, I thought. Welcome to the new world of the Internet. After the initial excitement of having my beautiful web site floating somewhere in cyberspace, I wondered why I wasn’t getting any calls. After all, I just spent $4,000 for this beautiful web site; the jobs are just going to start pouring in. Right? WRONG! It just doesn’t work that way, as I came to find out. Because of the staggering number of people searching the web, it has tremendous potential BUT you’re just a drop of water in a huge pond.

How do you stand out? How do you get them to come to your site over all of the others vying for their business? It takes a strategy to create links that point back to your site from hundreds of other sites related to your product. And you have to keep it up. One of the main ways of creating traffic to your site is through the use of article submission. For example, you write a short article about how to handle peeling paint. You then submit it to an article directory so others can find out how to handle peeling paint. They see your site listed on the article so they come to view your site as being an expert on what to do about peeling paint. And so it goes.

But don’t expect people to come flocking to your site immediately. You have to be committed and to stay the course. After all, you are competing with thousands, if not millions, of other people in your line of work and they all want to be in the number one spot when someone searches for a painter, florist, etc. in their area. If you can persist in writing and submitting articles that are relevant to your field, you will see your name moving up in the search engines. It’s wonderful to see your website show up on the first page of a search – and how profitable. The fact is that after the first page of a search most prospective buyers have found what they were looking for and the number of buyers who search the 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th pages drops off dramatically. So what do you need to do? It’s obvious; get your site on the first page. If there was a magical way of doing this everyone would be doing it no matter the cost because the return is big! How big? As big as the web itself.

 If you have not yet researched out article submission as one way of gaining exposure for your product on the web then you should consider it in your marketing budget. It’s a long range strategy that has proven to work time and again. If you can talk about your business for just a couple of minutes, then you can write that same thing down as an article and have an article submission service submit it so it gets out to hundreds of sties that all point back to you as the source. People like to know about things that concern them. If the paint kept peeling on my house, I’d like to know why and the fix for it. So your hard won knowledge earned over the years is important to people. Let customers know you’re the expert and you’re the guy to call to get the job done. It’s not enough anymore to put a sign on your truck and drive around. To be credible, you have to have a web presence.

For me, I rather liked walking up to someone in the neighborhood, introducing myself, handing them my business card asking if they would like to get an estimate on getting some painting done on their house. It seemed much more personable and a much easier sell. But that was then, things change and you have to know how to play the new game without dropping out things that already work.

You can bet that your competitors know how important a high ranking website is to a prosperous future. From my perspective, marketing today is not as simple as it once was. There’s a new game in town and its here to stay. Part of your marketing budget has to embrace this new media. Its’ potential is immense! It would be difficult to over state it. It used to be so easy. But, why not, I like challenging new adventures in my life even if I have to change some old ways of doing things.

Did you know that Wikipedia is the second most visited site from Google Searches? Add to this knowledge that more searches are conducted on Google than on any other search engine and you soon realize that there is some serious traffic moving through Wikipedia and for good reason. Consumers turn to Wikipedia as a reliable source of information and more often than not, the online encyclopedia has got the information searchers are looking for.

Now, have you ever noticed that Wikipedia often appears in the top search results from Google for keywords related to your business? If so, I am sure you have wondered how to get that search result action for your business by utilizing Wikipedia. It is possible, but in order to be part of the vast information of Wikipedia, you must first respect the knowledge they share and fully understand the benefits of getting a listing with them. Then be prepared to monitor your listing as you do all portions of your online reputation.

There are multiple benefits to becoming part of the enormous human edited online encyclopedia. Having a listing with Wikipedia adds value to your business reputation and a transparency that can actually be a little scary for some companies. Having a listing can also provide added exposure for your business, as access to Wikipedia is not limited to PC and laptop users. Wikipedia is available on many mobile devices as a source for endless information for masses on the go. Then of course, because Wikipedia is a website with an outstanding page rank, a listing with the encyclopedia giant can add tremendous value to your search engine marketing campaign. Wikipedia should not however be considered part of a link building strategy. In an attempt to thwart the masses of spam and poor quality entries being made to their site, Wikipedia placed a ‘nofollow’ tag on all external links.

If you are interested in promoting your business with Wikipedia, you need to go into the project with the goal of adding value to the information source, not just using the website for gaining links and generating traffic to your website. You can’t or shall I say, you shouldn’t write your own Wikipedia listing and for good reason, there should be nothing self-serving and nothing self-promotional in your article. The best approach to getting a lasting listing with Wikipedia is to request a third party to write an informative biography, so to speak, of your company. To fully ensure your work doesn’t get the boot from the experienced volunteer Wikipedia community, make sure your content is full of quality sources and utilizes great references from credible media sources.

Subsequent edits to your Wikipedia listing need to be unbiased as well. The addition of the WikiScanner has provided the public with the ability to see exactly who is doing the editing, adding a whole new level of transparency that is not entirely loved by all. A great way to ensure a quality Wikipedia listing is to inspire others to add to your listing for you. A great way to do this is with some positive improvements in your company. Whether they are improvements in your products or services or making huge environmental changes to your industry’s operations. Events like these can literally move consumers to go to a Wikipedia listing and add the news in their own words for you. Always bear in mind, anyone has access to seeing who is doing the editing on your Wikipedia listing and if you are constantly “editing” your own page, it will raise suspicions and probably some criticisms.

The consumer trust in Wikipedia as a valuable resource is built largely from the transparency that Wiki encourages. By writing a quality listing about your company that actually adds value to the encyclopedia, you can help strengthen your online reputation, increase your business exposure and reinforce your search engine marketing strategy.

Rafferty Pendery
CEO Studio98

The rumors around the Facebook water cooler were all true and last night the games began as Facebook users could start claiming their very own vanity URLs. Choosing a username was first reserved for businesses and partners of Facebook with more than 1000 fans, but the doors were opened to Joe Public and as of midnight, the regular folks can claim a username that will become the URL for their Facebook profile.

Once again Facebook listened to its users and heard the high demand for the vanity URL request. The introduction of vanity URLs will make connecting on Facebook easier for individuals and businesses. Instead of having to search through hundreds of possible name matches or distribute the current numerical id used by Facebook, you can simply distribute your personal URL for the site. Usernames are being distributed on a first come, first serve basis and must be a minimum of five characters (they may include letters, numbers and periods only-no special characters). If you have the perfect username in mind for your account, you will want to move quickly to claim it.

What do vanity URLs mean for search engine marketing? Traffic via natural search for one thing. As Facebook is one of the largest networks on the web, when you do a name search, you will usually see a Facebook result in the top ten (if anyone by that name is a member of Facebook of course). With the inclusion of vanity URLs, Facebook will likely become one of the top two search results for any person or business. Not to mention the possibility of adding Facebooks high page rank value to your SEO campaign.

There are ground rules in effect. For starters, you should pick your username carefully, because it is for life. If you do change your mind about your username selection, your only option will be to start a new account. Unfortunately, Facebook is not letting new accounts select specific usernames. Or at least for the time being. So individuals should choose carefully and businesses should choose relevancy.

In addition, generic usernames will not be available. Generic usernames would include pizza or cheese as a username. Facebook is encouraging individuals and businesses to select a username that is specific and relevant to their own identity or business. This is the smartest choice for businesses if they want their vanity URL from Facebook to add value to their online marketing campaign. There is a form available to prevent trademark infringement as well.

Usernames are filling up fast and if you want to be part of the Username Land Rush and add even more value to your Facebook Business account. Log on today and claim your name.

The key to website success is getting found by the search engines. So why do so many people risk getting blacklisted by utilizing unethical search engine optimization tactics? Your site definitely can’t get found if Google has booted you from their index. The most surprising tactic that started over 10 years ago and still gets used by Black Hat SEOs today is the use of hidden text on your webpage.

Hidden text is textual content that visitors to your site cannot see, but is readable by the search engines. The idea is to load a page with keywords and phrases that would be unsightly to web users but would improve a page’s ranking in the search results. These keywords and phrases are invisible to searchers because they are usually in very small font and/or made the same color as the pages background or background image. It’s search spam and it’s a terrible optimization tactic that could cost your website ever being found again.

Search engines have been more than vigilant about fighting efforts to manipulate their results. Unethical techniques, like hiding keyword stuffed sentences on your page, may be able to trick the search engines for a brief moment of time, but once found, you run the risk of being permanently banned. If the welfare of the site matters to you at all, then don’t use spam methods at all.

Poor SEO practices can also be damaging to your reputation and brand. Your website, if your Black Hat practices are brought to any one’s attention and especially if you get blacklisted, will be perceived as untrustworthy. You are after all, presenting your site in one format to search engines while showing different information to a searcher. If your reputation or the reputation of your business and brand matters, then stick to ethical optimization results.

So remember, per Google themselves: “If your site is perceived to contain hidden text and links that are deceptive in intent, your site may be removed from the Google index, and will not appear in search results pages.” Make sure you know the team you hire to handle search engine optimization for your site. Don’t waste your time and money on spam tactics. Invest instead on a custom web design that uses ethical search engine optimization tactics like including keyword rich quality content and natural link building campaigns.

Rafferty Pendery
CEO Studio98

Have you ever written a blog post?

Have you ever written an article?

Have you ever written anything on the web?

Has everything you’ve written been indexed and placed by Google in the exact search terms you wanted?

Well if so, then close this window and move on with life. For the 99.99 percent of you out there where this is not the case, read on, because I have some pointers that will help with this.

I was talking with a client last week, he was saying that Google wasn’t indexing the articles he wrote in the search terms he was going for. I asked to see the articles he had written. I read them over and spotted exactly what his problem was…

He was not using the words he wanted his article to show up in, he was using words related to these. I then checked with a few other people that claimed they had the same problem. One-for-one I found the same thing; they thought that Google would index the article for the search terms they wanted because it was RELATED to what they were talking about. Unfortunately, they forgot that, although Google is a very efficient “smart” search engine with millions of dollars in development, it’s not a sentient human.

Let’s take a specific example of using this. The keywords that we are trying to get this article to show up in are Good Green Grass (name of the company) and Lawn Care:

Article Title:

The title is an important place to put keywords. Being the nature of titles, Google will look at this and see what your article is about, given the content in the article matches up it index the article accordingly.

Bad: Green Grass is the best grass

Good: Do it yourself Lawn Care by Good Green Grass

Article Summary:
I recommend that you don’t just take a paragraph or two out of the article and make it the summary. Write a summary, taking advantage of keywords where you can to gain the most exposure for your articles. A lot of the article directories will have listings of articles with the title and summary being shown. What’s written in the summary is one of the factors Google takes into account on where to index you on pages that show listings.

Just as an example, I wouldn’t have a summary like this, “Lawn care by Good Green Grass has Lawn care services so you don’t have by Grass, but Good Green Grass.” As a reader I would think that you are writing for search engines, negating me as a client.

Take advantage of having captured your clients attention this far by saying things like, “Good Green Grass is providing do-it-yourself lawn care tips for those who want to have a beautiful, green lawn, by doing it themselves.” You can see the additional keywords you get by doing this, beautiful, green lawn, etc.

Article Body:
It’s important to use the search term you are trying to get the articles ranked for as keywords in the article itself. You are going to have to use your own judgment on the frequency of your keyword, but a good viewpoint to use is, how many times would you want to see it if you were reading the article as an actual human?

One difference in articles from press releases is that articles need to be informational reports for people to read. They can’t be too self promotional. Take the time to make yourself the authority on your business and having given your customers free information, become their friends. When you become that, you will have more business than you know what to do with.

When writing the body of the article think of different variations of the keywords you are going for. These will help get ranked in related keywords, gaining more exposure.

Resource Box:
Most sites have a resource box a.k.a. an author’s bio. This is the place where you can put your self promotional message. If the site allows links to be placed in the resource box, do it, because then you are gaining inbound links as well as all the other advantages. I will be writing more articles covering the details of how to properly format a resource box and covering each of the different fields you can fill out on an article in more detail.

Keywords:
Put the most important keywords at the beginning of the list. Most sites give you a limit of the number of keywords or number of characters. A lot of the sites that we use limit you to 150 characters in the resource box, this is going to vary from site to site.

Summary:
The main point is to get creative in how to word the search terms you are going for. You need to make it so that it doesn’t seem like you are writing for the search engines, but clients. You must include the keywords though, otherwise your article is less relevant and will not show up to the extent it could. The more you give to other people (not necessarily cash, talking more about information in this case), the more you are going to get back in the end. If you make it a little fun to read while writing, that’s another plus.

Rafferty Pendery
CEO Studio98