Category Archives: Denver SEO

You’re optimizing the wrong page on your Google +

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You’re optimizing the wrong page on your Google +

I had a discussion with Stephan Hovnanian ( https://plus.google.com/105076725141939280120/about , who is someone you might want to follow by the way on Google Plus) about optimizing your Google plus profile. Here’s the deal in my opinion. People are always talking about “optimizing” your profile, when that’s a long term losing game.

Your profile page is like a scrolling screen. Google probably see’s every post you make as a new page, and every time you make another post about cute cats, or your amazing insight into… whatever… every post you made previously gets pushed down the page (or buried under more stuff). That causes your links in those posts to gradually diminish in value, both from a readership standpoint (come on, when was the last time you read more than 3 or 4 of the most current posts on a profile page) but also from a SEO value.

Your “About Page” on G+

You could be optimizing your “About ” page, and getting far more SEO value. The About page doesn’t scroll, and is attached to your profile page. Every time you get a mention of your about page or add it as a link on an decent authority site, you are getting far more value when it comes to SEO.  Not that you want to ignore all the very cool and important ways to utilize your profile and posts.  That IS important. But a complete focus on your profile is a short term strategy.  If you build the value of your about page…. it will naturally build the visibility of your profile, and… you don’t have to constantly update, plus, mention, post, engage…

Places to add your About Page URL

Here are places you should mention and add your About page:

  • Your Facebook page

  • Your Linkedin Profile

  • Your Web site  (the Google badge goes to your profile, why not add an additional mention  and link to your About page)

  • Any other social directories you participate in.

  • Twitter

  • Any forums you participate in

  • Blog comments you make from time to time

  • On your blog

  • Add to your email signature

I bet you  can think of many more. So what happens if I do all this you ask?  Well, all the things you hope will happen as far as your sites, blogs and authority will get better.

Needless to say, if you are going to start paying more attention to your About page, please read up on all of the good info out there on how to build a good one.  And trust me, it can be a very powerful page for your internet visibility, and therefore every page you have a link to on that page..

So, if someone were to ask me, would you rather have a link to your site in a post on a profile which slowly just loses it’s value as it sinks deeper and deeper into the G+ (or Facebook, or whatever) catalog of millions of posts that are made every day, or on an About page, which never moves down into that cavernous digital vault of old posts.  Which makes more sense?

By Mike Bayes. My About Page on Google Plus


 

Top Five Local SEO Ranking Killers

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Top Five Local SEO Ranking Killers. Sometimes it’s more important to know what will kill your rankings than what will help your local rankings.

1.)    Inconsistent Name , Address or Phone, on different web sites.

Architecture of a Web crawler.

Architecture of a Web crawler. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Clean up old listings that have the old address by searching that address in Google, and then contacting each site and up dating it to the new address.

Same thing for a changed phone number.  Google the number to see what sites have it listed and get it changed or deleted, and if for some odd reason (and we have seen this several times) you have a different URL, with a different phone number, please remove the site!

As a side note make sure your business listings are consistent in every directory. Same exact name, same exact phone number and same exact address. 

A confused robot is not your friend!  ( Robots are what Search engines use to look at your site) 

2.)    No Address on the Site

English: White hat seo symbolizes good ethic t...

I don’t know why I see so many local web sites with no address listed. I assume it’s because they are home based. In most cases, you should either list your home address, or get an office. You can hide your home address on Google Places  (as a matter of fact its part of their terms of service that if you are home based, to click do not show my address). Any way, if its really important that you don’t want your prospects to know you are working in your pajama’s, as if they won’t figure it out anyway, your not going to have good rankings. And if you had good rankings you could probably afford the little office up the street. LIST YOUR ADDRESS, PHONE and Company name on the home page.

3.)    No local citations

 It takes an hour or two to list your company in the important local directories.  Go to getlisted.org (It’s free and a great resource).  List your business with most of the directories they recommend.

4.)    Using Dex tracking numbers for your PPC

There is some disagreement in the SEO world about how damaging this is. I have had several discussions with some of the countries best Local Maps and Local SEO experts , most notably Mike Blumenthal (see his blog here http://blumenthals.com/blog/  and follow it if you are a serious local SEO student), But they all do agree that after looking at some case studies, a DEX tracking number published on multiple different local directories is not good for your rankings.

I would take it a bit further, IT IS A COMPLETE RANKING KILLER for Google Places.  It’s the same thing as having different phone numbers published on different web sites. It confuses the Robots, and then you are in rankings trouble.

5.)    No Meta Titles or descriptions or poorly written ones.

So your nephew did your web site when he was studying web design… nice! The most important part of your web site for SEO, is your meta title.  If you don’t know what that is (and you can not see it BTW on your site) call a web design firm or SEO and ask them to check.  If its your company name, your hurting your rankings, unless you want to rank for people who all ready know who you are).  Have a pro take a look at your meta tags, and your on site SEO in general while they are there. This one may cost you a few hundred dollars on up to fix (including the on Site SEO changes), and yes 90% of the web design firms you speak with with tell you to build a new site (and maybe you should), but, just get the tags right to start!

These are the top 5 ranking killers for Local sites that we have seen. And any one of them can keep your site from being well ranked. It’s worth the time to have a company ( like us) fix this issues if Search Engine traffic is important.

 Our site

 

 

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13 Good Luck Tactics For Your SEO Programs

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13 Good Luck Tactics for your SEO program.

We all know SEO is hard work, and lot’s of research, but as in anything, some good luck is always welcome. Here are the top 13 tatctics to attract good luck for your SEO.

1.) Type in your search term every hour, click on your listing, stay on home page AT LEAST 45 seconds. Click onto another page. Stay there as you hold your breath to the count of 10.

2.) Do this again from another IP address, but stick your tongue out as you hold your breath.

3.) Go to any of the Google blogs, and make HIGHLY positive comments about them. But be sincere, like you can tell them how great their Google Places service team is. http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/

 

Image representing Google as depicted in Crunc...

Image via CrunchBase

 

4.) Go to Rand Fishkin’s wife’s blog and make a comment about how smart her husband is. http://www.everywhereist.com/  . Buy the way, it’s a great blog!

5.) Never, ever mention SEO in any article or published piece that in any way can be associated with you or a client.

6.) State on your site you do not list clients because you don’t want Google to know who they are.

7.) Each week mention how sexy your wife or girlfriend thinks Matt Cutts is. Post a picture of her on your blog. If need be, post a picture of a model and say its your girlfriend or wife. You can extra points if you mention it here. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/

8.) Always use broad match in your Adwords… and spend too much.

9.) Do a blog weekly on how great Google Plus is. Extra credit if you bash facebook or microsoft. (I find that pretty easy to do).

10.) Just tell people they can find your site by Googling you or your company name, because, yes, you are that good. ( You might remind them to add the city after the name just in case)

11.) Carry a lucky mouse foot around in your pocket with your keyword and site written on it.

 

 

Computer mouse

Computer mouse (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

12.)  Brag about your new Chromebook on your Facebook page and refer them to the post you made about it on your Google + page.

13.) Hire someone from fiverr to search on google just like this:
Your Company name | Popular in your keyword   100 times a day.

Using all of these on a consistent basis will do wonders for your rankings. Do you have any you can add?

These are just some that work for us..  What good luck tactics have you found work?


 

Mike Bayes

 

 

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Twitter and Local SEO

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A fellow SEO just noticed some major keywords are showing up on the first page of Google.  I wonder if you use a hashtags on your tweets for your company or a local brand (company name) of it would do the same thing?

Here are two quick examples of Twitter Hashtags showing up from searches in Denver:  Searched : Earthquake

twitter forst page earth QScreenshot_1

Here is a search for Denver

twitter on First page ColoradoScreenshot_1

I think I will start Tweeting with the Company as a hashtag and see what happens. I will use #Myonecall.

Any one else want to help just to see if it shows up?

 

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2013 Local SEO Predictions. Content Marketing Is Phooey

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2013 Local SEO Predictions. Content Marketing is Phooey.

I am going against the general concord in SEO circles this year (what a shock right?) on what will work for SEO firms in 2013, and make a big statement.  Links matter more than ever, and are in fact (after your on site work) the absolute most important aspect to any successful SEO program.

Image representing Google as depicted in Crunc...

There is a ton of content marketing, and social signal pundits in SEO since Panda and Penguin marched into town burning and destroying all search rankings developed with sophomoric and thoughtless tactics, that will tell you the only path to high Internet traffic is through a massive content marketing strategy.  The mass hysteria that  followed has been epic.

I have read a great volume of blogs’ and posts on “how to “implement SEO now that every thing has changed. The truth is, very few “things” have changed, and authors are simple feeding a hungry and worried Internet Marketeering community.

I recently posted on a very popular blog (about local SEO issues) that the loss of keyword information from Google was not a really big deal for local services. I mean, if you need a keyword tool to tell you how people find a local Plumber, you may want to get another gig. SEO is not for you in 2013. Most will use the word Plumber. Maybe add service, company, a city, I mean there just are not all that many combo’s to figure out. In my experience, what is important in local internet visibility is not the combination of keywords a prospect uses, but how they use those combinations in search. Most SEO firms won’t even report (because there is no automated tool to do so) how a site ranks in important local zip codes with no local intent term used. And this is becoming the MAJOR search type for local services.

 

English: White hat seo symbolizes good ethic t...

This race to content now being promoted as the SEO tactic de jour may be exactly what we think it is when it comes to non local sites.  For local sites, and local SEO, which is where the vast majority of us plow the ground, it is in many cases complete phooey. Not that great content is phooey, just that this obsession with great content as the number one all in one SEO device is phooey. Google wants a site to communicate the information a person goes to that site for (I am guessing). A local plumber doesn’t need to be the Robert Frost of the copper pipe crowd, to rank well.  They just need to have a well designed 4 or 5 page site, giving people what they want to read and see when they get there.

Example: In the last 4 months we have ranked a site with one page of actually content (two pages total) for a local intent keyword, by adding a few local back links, using an emd, and ummm that was it. Does it have much competition?  Yes, some.  Would it ever have a chance of ranking on a national search? No. And that’s the point; Local SEO is to National SEO what Physics is to the M theory.  They both deal with universe in completely different ways.

So for Local SEO in 2013:

  • Backlinks to your site will continue to be the number one (off site) ranking factor.
  • On Site SEO will continue to be important.

That’s it.

PS  A backlink doesn’t mean a listing on a horrible directory that no one ever visits. It means a mention of your site on a site that real people who might be interested in your service visit, and may actually click through to your site based on that visit. It may also mean an advertisement on a highly promoted site, or a mention on a popular face book or linked in page.   This hasn’t change in the last 2 years. Spammy directories and link wheels where never good for SEO. If you were using those and keyword stuffing and all of that, then I will agree with you, your SEO has changed a lot.

 

By Mike Bayes


 

 

 

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How A Blog Can Help Your Google Rankings, Or Not

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How A Blog Can Help Your Google Rankings  (again, and again):

Blogging is a buzz word in the small and medium business community. Almost every client we talk with (or potential client) wants to know how to do a blog because they have “heard” it will help their search engine rankings. This falls into the tradition of small business owners being about 8 years behind on new marketing tactics. That’s not a criticism, it’s a reality. Most small business owners don’t have the hours in a day needed to stay on top of anything besides what they do.

Image representing Google as depicted in Crunc...

The Bad News.  Although there is clearly some truth left in that assumption that a blog will help your sites rankings, but, and it’s a big but, if  you are to see an increase in your sites popularity based on a blog, it must have valuable content that other sites and social media will pick up on and mention.  If your blog is just another 700 + words of regurgitated news, facts, rumors, or opinion  already published or blogged about on the Internet by 100 or 1000 other sites your chances of a web master or influential social media picking up on the blog are very low.  And if your Blog isn’t mentioned on other web sites, it gets no help in rankings.

Additional Value of a Blog bedside’s Rankings. Now, if your blog gives your prospective clients or current customers some unique insight into your business or industry, even if they are not going to mention it or link to it, it’s still of value, just not for your search engine visibility. It will help you become more of a trusted source for whatever it is you do.

Blog Machine

Blog Machine (Photo credit: digitalrob70)

Internet Marketers Are Blog Obsessed. That’s a problem, because many (and I mean many) Internet Marketers have had some success with getting their blog or content mentioned and linked to, (and all that SEO stuff), by writing a blog,. They write blogs about blogs that are based on another blog in the hopes that someone they don’t know, and who is trying to get followers on twitter will retweet their content to an audience that has little or no interest in what they are saying, and have already seen the information 5 times in other higher authority blogs or sites.

The reason they have any success is it’s far more likely to get Internet Marketing content linked or mentioned on the INTERNET because Internet Marketers spend half their life reading this stuff.  If you are a Plumber, or a Dentist, the likelihood of having your content picked up is very small. Plumbers and Dentists, and normal people don’t spend their life on-line reading every blog written, even when its content is the same as the last 5 they read.

It’s important for an Internet Marketer to be up to date on all the new stuff on the Interweb, if for no other reason, so they can sound really knowledgeable and use uncommon words when they speak to Plumbers and Dentists. I call it selling through a vernacular fear factor. More on that some other time.

Latte_Blog

Latte_Blog (Photo credit: digitalrob70)

Blogging For Visibility.  So how does a small business utilize a blog for better Internet visibility? It’s all about the subject and content.

 

  • Blog about a question a customer asked you.
  • Blog about a unique problem you solved.
  • Blog about how a person can prepare for your service.
  • Blog about your kids.
  • Blog about your employees.
  • Blog about your favorite customers

All of the above will at a minimum be unique, and unique is the first principle of good content.  Any content you write and publish should have these attributes.

  • Unique
  • Interesting for your prospects
  • And if you can make it about the internet you’re really doing well.


 

By Mike Bayes, My One Call LLC, www.salesjumpstart.net

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The New SEO Citations

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The New Citations for SEO.  Or how SEO is changing

We think the new rankings algorithm is based on Supervised Learning and raw statistical analysis that Google uses. The change is probably simple, and frankly very logical.  I have two blogs listed at the end of this article you can read for more and better detailed information.

Google Chrome

Google Chrome (Photo credit: thms.nl)

Before the panda and penguin updates at Google It was too easy to use on site tactics ( Keywords and H1 Tags and meta titles) to influence rankings.

Google is now moving too, and undoubtedly is using more off site context, and content to determine what your site should rank for.  To do that they probably  look at all the “citations” (mentions) for your site, in what ever format they appear, and have a raw statistical analysis of the relevancy, and then the context.

The results would be very much in line with what we have seen with the Panda and Penguin updates and algorithm changes.  If your site
has been listed in a bunch of directories that have SEO or Rankings in the titles then Google starts with this:

You say your site is about Insurance.

Sites about or related to Insurance that you are listed on or mentioned:  3
Sites not about Insurance or related topics you are listed on:  200

You get credit for the three, and how much credit would depend on the Authority of the page and site you are listed on.

One of the interesting consequences of all this is the no follow or follow link value disappears.  As many “citations” may not have a link to your site.

Statistical analysis of the COM:QIC archives
So, in summary:

  • A Citation or link is only going to help you if it comes from a site or page that Google see’s as relevant to your site.That’s one reason your rankings dropped off the face of the earth if you where primarily using non relevant sites.

Words matter. Google probably (using raw statistical analysis) looks at what a relevant page citation says about your site, or the content about your site on that page.  ( Co-citation’s and such)

  • Follow or not, a high authority site citation with a link or without is still good for your sites Authority, and ranking.

 

  • On site signals continue to be important, but they only point  Google in a direction to determine your sites Authority theywon’t help your ranking on their own.

Interesting example.

We recently built a 2 page site about a specific remodeling type project. We wanted to test the exact match domain changes. The site
url is (Project Type) in (City).
We added it to 4 or 5 sites that were related directly to Remodeling.  We may have tweeted it, and added it to a facebook comment.

Two months later it was ranked number 1 for that very specific keyword, and on the first page for that keyword phrase in different form. It was (and is) ranking higher than several sites that have been around for a long time and had SEO companies working on for years (at least to an extent).

We originally thought the the exact match domain for local sites was still a very important ranking factor and it was that simple. Now, I think  if we had back linked the same 2 page site to 4 or 5 unrelated directories… or sites, that it would have never been ranked. Well, only one way to find out. Check back in a few months. We will give you an up date.

All of this is admittedly a very simplistic view of the new Google ranking changes. There are many other important factors. Our point is to communicate that many of the old SEO tactics don’t work any more, and why. For us, it’s all good news, as we have followed the
“act as if Google doesn’t exist” principle in SEO for years (to the extent any Internet marketing company like My One Call LLC can).
Our clients didn’t see any rankings drop over the last 6 months based on these new changes.

For far more detail read Joshua Giardino’s excellent blog here :http://blog.iacquire.com/2012/11/28/its-not-co-citation-but-its-still-awesome/

I also mentioned the SEOmoz blog on Co-citations on an early blog.  http://www.seomoz.org/blog/prediction-anchor-text-is-dying-and-will-be-replaced-by-cocitation-whiteboard-friday .

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By Mike Bayes

Co-Citations. Better than Title Tags

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In the new world of SEO, changes are happening at a break neck speed.

The Citation article, with no citations.

The Citation article, with no citations. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The latest (and most interesting) chatter is about co-citation as a new ranking factor. You can see the whiteboard presentation by Rand Fishkin at http://www.seomoz.org/blog/prediction-anchor-text-is-dying-and-will-be-replaced-by-cocitation-whiteboard-friday

We have noticed a clear change in local rankings (not just Google Places but blended and organic rankings) based on Title Tag usage. Because I am in a hurry (Thanksgiving tomorrow and all) let me just say your title tags may have diminished in value, and in fact may be hurting a sites ranking if they are spammy. They need to be looked at in concert with your URL descriptions and page copy.  To much is to much.  Those with ears will hear.

Now, Rand makes the point that c0-citation is a new and important ranking factor, somewhat like what title tags were.  I agree.  After looking at over 100 high ranking sites and the terms ( which have been bouncing around in the last 30 days a lot) I am convinced that co-citation is part of the now, and future.

Rand Fishkin gets Employee love... Uh.. Kiss?

Rand Fishkin gets Employee love… Uh.. Kiss? (Photo credit: Thos003)

So how can you start implementing co-citation in your web promotion. The good news is its a very natural occurrence. In a simple explanation, a co-citation lists a company’s name, and a service next to it.  So, My One Call LLC is a Denver SEO, written in text on a decent authority web site can become a co citation. No need for a link, or spammy Anchor text. ( You can see my personal feelings about Anchor Text being a silly SEO tactic in other blogs on this site).

So using a co-citation in your bio’s and descriptions on forums, blogs, and high value directories is a much better tactic than using Anchor text.

Feel free to email me if you see these correlations in any of your rankings info@myonecall.com…. and thanks to the SEOmoz group for doing a superior job.

For those of you who don’t know, SEOmoz develops SEO Software, and provides a robust link intelligence API.  I wonder if that is a tri-citation?

 

 

 

 

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Google’s Top Down Search Navigation Is A Big problem

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Google’s Top Down Search Navigation Is A Big problem For Local Businesses. Google, tell me you’re joking!

Most Local SEO’s know the challenges that can come from Google serving up the wrong location results on local searches. In MANY cases Google is showing the searcher results (Maps and other) from towns or cities several cities away from the searchers town. The solution has been for the searcher to find the “location” box and type in their city or zip. In my very informal survey about 35% of the people I asked had no idea how to do this, even before the new Google search options bar changes.

Here is what the new Search Options (on top) bar looks like. Notice any thing missing?  In this case Google Thinks I am in Erie .  Some times Google thinks I am in Thornton CO. and sometimes other suburbs I rarely visit. I am in Lafayette CO.

 

So, where is the location box?  You have to click on the “search tools” Tab to find it.   How many searches will actually find the location tab, I haven’t a clue. I suspect, that if Google doesn’t move the tab to the first line on the main bar were it is visible we will continue to see local results (especially in suburbs) served up incorrectly.  Seems like an easy fix, just have a little statement on top for searches that Google perceives a local intent, saying “We think you are in _____  < location. If not type your zip code here.

Here is what it looks like once you click on Search Tools.

So, what’s the solution if your business or client is in a city that has this issue?  Use organic optimization and visibility programs, and Ad Words.   Yes, I said Ad words. It’s increasingly becoming (for a local company) an important piece of catching all the traffic for your client.

Of the 4 ways a person can make a local search (keyword no local intent, keyword with major city, Keyword with actually city, keyword with zip) The new Google Search Tool Bar has an effect on 50% of those.

Tell us what you see in your area. If your clients or business (and their prospects) are based in a major metropolitan area (example Chicago, or Phoenix) then this isn’t going to be a big deal. If your business needs to be visible to prospects primarily within the city  you serve (example Broomfield CO.)  this is a big deal, and you will need a strategy to work with each of the local search types we defined above.

 

 

 

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Google Places Ranking Changes

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Google Map Ranking Changes October 2012.

We have seen some interesting changes in the Google Maps rankings over the last week. The thing is, we have seen it on sites we track, and know that (in most cases) there haven’t been any new backlinks or any changes to the site itself in a while.  This is wonderful because we know it had little to so with anything the client did, or we did in promoting the site.

I’ll make this short, because if you are reading this you may have seen the same thing, and want to know what is going on!  Well, thanks to a very good Local SEO in CA. that I can not remember the name right now (but will come back and credit when I find it) we started to look at the meta titles on sites that dipped.

Sites that dipped used a location keyword twice in the title.  Several had a location keyword in the domain as well.  Maybe this is part of Google’s exact match domain changes.  And maybe it looks at both the domain and the meta Title.

My bet is, if you have a site that has a location keyword in the Domain, and uses that same location keyword in the meta title, you have seen a drop in Google Maps ranking.

More to follow, and please let me know what you see.

 

 

 

 

 

The great

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