How Google can Hurt Your SEO Efforts

Posted on May 19, 2011 by Gervais Group

The Google algorithm is always changing with tweaks so subtle that they’re usually noticed only by the small slice of site owners that they affect. By comparison, the recent algorithm changes, dubbed Panda/Farmer, was as subtle as a neutron bomb dropped on a major city. While Google stated that the new revision would eliminate what they consider low quality sites, specifically those that copy content from other sites, also caught in the crosshairs were some of biggest assemblers of content on the web including content stalwarts such as EzineArticles, HubPages, and Mahalo.

Google’s description of low quality sites they were targeting stated, “sites that contain content copied from other sites” which is pretty much the backbone of all of these sites. Adding to the pain is that these sites are used by thousands of individuals, SEO companies and agencies as an outlet for website related content.

The immediate effect of the revision was that EzineArticles and other major article directories dropped significantly in Google’s rankings; in addition to Squidoo and Hubpages, sites like eHow.com and About.com also saw material changes in their rankings and traffic numbers. Fitting the description of content farms, the sites were hammered hard by Google’s penalties.

Does this mean that article marketing on these sites is no longer a viable strategy? If you’ve been putting out marginally spammy and minimalist content the changes are going to make it much tougher for it to rank at the search engines. With directories scrambling to abide by Google’s new set of rules, they will be scrubbing lower quality and spammy articles. Where the algorithm presents an opportunity is for quality content that exists on blogs and websites. These pages now have a much better chance of ranking higher because Google will give more credence to original site and blog content than that on the directory sites. This is actually a complete reversal of Google’s methodology prior to Panda/Farmer.

It remains to be seen how the directories will fare in the long run but it appears that Google is ready to reward original content that adds value for searchers. The key now is to play aggressively while staying within the new rules. For more information, visit Internet Marketing News or call (866) 530 7703.

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Google Throws its Weight Around

Posted on May 11, 2011 by Gervais Group

Google recently made what many estimate is the biggest change ever to the algorithm it uses to rank search results. Google’s algorithm changes are usually subtle or are targeted at a narrow slice of search engine results but this change reverberated across the web. The change was felt immediately in the SEO world as the page rankings of web properties rose or dropped depending on whether they were in the crosshairs of the change or not.

Google has come under growing criticism for producing results that were either low in quality or missed the mark completely. “Our goal is simple: to give users the most relevant answers to their queries as quickly as possible,” said Gabriel Stricker, Google spokesman. “This requires constant tuning of our algorithms, as new content — both good and bad — comes online all the time. Recently we’ve heard from our users that they want to see fewer low quality sites in our results.”

Changes in traffic and search engine results indicate that Google’s algorithm changes are directed at “content farms”, which provide content based on trending topics. Websites such as Demand Media, AOL, Mahalo and the Huffington Post have been criticized for gaming Google’s algorithm using manipulative SEO tactics for high search engine rankings. Mahalo has already laid off 10% of its work force due to a steep drop in traffic at the site.

Studies have repeatedly shown how important a first page presence is on Google’s search results but the rankings on that page matter as well. Just dropping from the first spot on a search page to second place can reduce traffic by up to two-thirds. A fall from the top spot to one below the fold can result in a traffic drop of over 90%. According to the Online Publishers Association, these algorithm–related ranking changes could affect $1 billion in annual revenues.

Navigating Google’s ranking algorithm has always been a bit of a guessing game but the recent changes have starkly demonstrated the price of being unprepared. To see how your SEO efforts stack up in this brave new world, visit Gervais Group at: SEO Marketing Company or call (866) 530 7703.

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Google Slaps EzineArticles – SEO and Internet Marketing News

Posted on May 2, 2011 by Gervais Group

Google’s recent algorithm change, which targeted “content farms” like EzineArticles.com and Mahalo, has drastically reduced the traffic to these sites causing a scramble to recover lost rankings. EzineArticles CEO Chris Knight posted a blog on the site about how the Google algorithm change had affected traffic as well as what actions Ezine was going to take to get back in the good graces of Google.

“While we adamantly disagree with anyone who places the ‘Content Farm’ label on EzineArticles.com, we were not immune to this algorithm change,” said Knight. “Traffic was down 11.5% on Thursday and over 35% on Friday. In our life-to-date, this is the single most significant reduction in market trust we’ve experienced from Google.”

“Google has a lot of smart PhD types working on this problem that I believe is not over by a long-shot. Reason: If you do a query for popular terms that we formerly ranked very high with, instead of an EzineArticles result, you may find low-quality sites that deliver even lower value to the user than our own members’ content! This is frustrating for sure,” he added.

Here is his short list of planned actions at EzineArticles:

* Cutting back on the acceptance of article submissions by over 10%

* The site will not accept article submissions done through a WordPress Plugin. This is intended to eliminate duplication of content between blogs on WordPress and articles at Ezines

* Cutting back on the number of advertisements per page.

* Increasing the minimum article word count from 250 to 400.

* EzineArticles promised to removing articles considered “thin and spammy”. By implication, this is an admission that they were approving “thin and spammy” articles so maybe a change was due here.

What remains to be seen is whether EzineArticles will be changing their policy on NoFollow and DoFollow links. The site currently allows for DoFollow links and indicated that it might change to NoFollow but it appears that any change in that area will come at a later date, if at all. A large population of writers at EzineArticles posts there because of its DoFollow links, so a change there could push some of their best writers to other sites.

Gervais Group LLC – SEO and Internet Marketing News by Gervais Group (Atlanta Premier SEO Company)

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Flash, SEO and Your Website

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Gervais Group

Flash is, well, flashy and can do some really cool things while making a site look great. Bouncing balls, puzzles, golf etc. can be fun to goof off with when surfing around the web. A lot of CEO’s who see these tricky sites think that that their site, which doesn’t offer some entertainment, is kind of missing the boat. “Maybe our site should be flashy like theirs” goes the thought process.

Here’s why saying no to that temptation still makes sense:

* People aren’t coming to your business site to be entertained. People who spend money on the web are looking for information, pricing, research, etc. on solutions of some sort. During this quest, they’re usually not in a game playing or watching animation mode.

*  Flash can be more of a distraction than anything else. If you’ve only got a couple of seconds to capture a visitor who is seeking information on a product or service do you think that a game or a pretty film clip is going keep them around?

* If you’re going to try to capture visitors with these methods ask yourself this, “What happens if they return?” Will you need to have a new thing going on when they come back? Chances are your visitors aren’t going to be interested the first time around let alone the second time. You’re actually kind of in no man’s land here as your limited flash offering can’t compete against the game and entertainment oriented sites while alienating the visitors who arrive in a strictly business mindset.

* Not all browsers are flash enabled. If you’ve seen the little boxes where a picture or something else would logically be, you know how bad that looks.

* Many flash-based sites use only one URL for the entire site. In addition to the SEO problems that causes, it inhibits bookmarking and neutralizes most web analytics programs.

* Lastly, flash is still invisible to most search engines so it’s not going to SEO well.

Flash offers an option which is basically a question of form over function. It may look great but it’s not going to work very well. For more information on building websites that achieve their objectives, visit Gervais Group online or call (866) 530 7703.

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Evolving SEO in 2011 – Gervais Group LLC

Posted on April 22, 2011 by Gervais Group

Search engine optimization evolves both gradually and suddenly as witnessed by Google’s recent Panda/Farmer update. Expect the following changes to continue into the rest of 2011 and beyond.

* Pay per Click (PPC) will get more expensive – Competition in the bidding process for PPC placement is rising as more businesses shift away from traditional advertising methods to online efforts. Combined with the well established trend showing that searchers click on and give more credence to organic search results, it may be time to re-evaluate the return on investment for any existing PPC campaigns.

* Search engines are transferring their love from content farms to social media – While they probably resent the content farm title, EzineArticles, Hubspot, and the like were the primary target of Google’s Panda/Farmer update and saw traffic drop off a cliff. Meanwhile, the major search engines are doing everything they can to show results that originate from social media sites. Even if you don’t plan to fully engage on these sites, you should have a monitoring system in place to see what is being said about topics relating to your business.

* Local search via smart phones will accelerate – If you’re not optimizing for local search, start now. The trend is entrenched in traditional search and is expected to ramp up faster as smart phones expand their slice of the mobile phone pie chart.
Consider these trends as you move forward with your SEO efforts. As always, vary your marketing strategy between multiple fronts because you never know where the next algorithm changes are going to be targeted.

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Doing the Groundwork Prior to Starting Your SEO Campaign – SE Marketing Advice

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Gervais Group

Having a website without doing the lead groundwork on how to best utilize it will almost always fail to earn a business any attention, build its brand, or add to the bottom line. If search engine optimization efforts are going to be executed to their fullest potential companies must first tackle several issues. Here are the primary issues which should be included in the groundwork to be done prior to launching your SEO campaign:

* Define your audience – Knowing who you are marketing to will determine basically how you do business online. Much of this work may have already been done in terms of market size, etc. but knowing how your target audience is most likely to interact with your business online can determine how you market to them and get them to take action.

* After defining your audience, determine the purpose of your site – How your audience is going to interact with you will determine what you offer them on your site. Do you need a shopping cart for conversions online or is your audience more likely to buy from you at a physical location? Will a blog be beneficial to your audience or will they be more interested in your promotions and sales? What do you want your visitors to do when they’re on your site? All these questions need to be answered in order to maximize the results of your SEO efforts.

* Figure out where your toughest competition is coming from – If you’re operating small boutique you don’t want to go to head with Macy’s. By taking geographic and other factors into  account, you can better define where you should direct your SEO efforts so that you’re not butting heads with a company that has an advertising budget that is infinitely bigger than yours. For a retailer, going around a big competitor might entail focusing on local search or on popular products that the big retailer doesn’t carry.

While starting business can be exciting and have you itching to get started, do the groundwork first. Only after these determinations have been made can an effective SEO campaign be put into action. For more on building an SEO campaign that reaches your objectives, visit Gervais Group at: SEO Company or call (866) 530 7703.

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The On Site Optimization Checklist

Posted on June 20, 2010 by Gervais Group

As search engines increasingly focus on user experience and their ability to deliver exactly what people are looking for, searchers have become quicker to react when they don’t see immediate relevance for their search terms. This reaction quickness now means that each landing page must clearly and immediately present itself as being relevant and valuable to visitors to keep them on that page and then entice them further into the site. The resulting fact is that well written content that compels visitors toward conversion has never been more important to the success of a site. Follow this check list to ensure that you are delivering what your visitors are looking for:
* Provide consistently fresh content – New content which conveys relevant information to visitors will differentiate your site from your competitors and keep visitors returning to keep abreast of what you’re presenting. Away from the site, fresh content can be instrumental in improving page rankings at the search engines.
* Placing relevant content where it needs to be – Content on the various landing pages of the site must be clearly related to the search terms that brought the visitor there in the first place. Be sure the page content is relevant to what your visitors are searching for or the “back” button will be clicked post haste.
* Time Sensitive Content – Time sensitive content verifies its freshness while providing the opportunity to tie current events to your products and services. This can enhance both credibility and relevance of your site, its products, and its services.
* Laser Targeted Content – Creating content directed only at your target market may seem narrow but the targeted visitors that arrive will find your content to be way more valuable than watered down, generic fluff. Don’t hesitate to offer highly specific and/or technical content as follow-on information after visitors hit the landing page. Conveying expertise in niche areas requires thorough knowledge which will build both credibility and trust. These, in turn, lead to conversions.
* Directional content – On top of everything else, content should guide visitors through the conversion process in as simple a manner as possible. Having calls to action and clearly defined navigation are both mandatory in order to move visitors toward and through the conversion process.
The importance of written content on your site has never been higher and can be the sole difference between a website’s success and failure. Provide quality content and you’ll have enthusiastic new and return visitors that convert at higher than normal ratios. Ignore it, and the time and money spent driving visitors to your site will be wasted. The Gervais Group specializes in providing relevant and targeted content for websites that generates consistently optimal results. For more information, visit www.GervaisGroupLLC.com or call (770) 529 2262.

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Five Huge Website Mistakes

Posted on June 10, 2010 by Gervais Group

It doesn’t matter what kind of whiz-bang special effects you have on your site if traffic isn’t arriving or, if it is, they’re not staying around long enough to convert. There is an infinite amount of ways for websites to either underperform or simply do nothing but avoiding these five mistakes can go a long way toward pushing your website higher in search engine rankings and converting the traffic that arrives from them.
* A “build it and they will come” mentality – Having a great, functional site is only half battle in terms of maximizing its performance. The site needs to be search engine marketed as well. Starting with keyword research to determine the most cost effective keywords and phrases to focus on, developing a search engine marketing strategy is absolutely mandatory in order to get this targeted traffic.
* Landing pages that aren’t relevant to the keywords which drive traffic – First time visitors typically take between three and seven seconds to decide whether to stay on the a site or leave because they haven’t found what they’re looking for. Putting relevant content on a the landing page so that it’s the first thing a visitor sees greatly increases the chances that the visitor will stay because the site is going to provide information that he or she is trying to find.
* Ecommerce sites that have an unclear path to conversion – Potential consumers can get scared off a purchase if the process is too confusing. The highest conversion ratios are found on sites with a clear call to action and a process of making a purchase which is clear and easy to follow.
* Using keywords and keyphrases that are too broad – High traffic numbers which are bouncing off of the site quickly can be an indication that a search engine marketing campaign needs to be re-focused to narrower and perhaps longer keyphrases to deliver specifically targeted traffic. This issue can usually be resolved during the keyword research phase.
* Building a site that doesn’t build trust – A high bounce rate out of a site’s shopping cart can indicate that purchasers are changing their minds due to the perceived danger of providing their financial information in order to make a purchase. Consider adding a secure socket layer (SSL) which encrypts the consumer’s information.
The Gervais Group builds and markets websites that get visitors and converts them. For more information, visit www.GervaisGroupLLC.com or call (770) 529 2262.

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Social Media Marketing

Posted on June 3, 2010 by Gervais Group

Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are quickly replacing traditional means of communication, including email, as the favored way for people to stay in contact with each other. The sites allow for community building efforts in a multiple of ways but the common theme which runs between them is that of implied trust which encourages sharing of opinions, reviews, commentary and the like. The “word of mouth” aspect of this communication is extremely powerful and can be instrumental for a business in its marketing efforts as long as it’s done in a manner that fits in with the “spirit” of the social media sites.

To be seen as a trusted member of these communities, it is imperative that marketing efforts focus on adding value, over the impulse to sell, sell, sell.  Adding value can be done in numerous ways, including the providing of research, engaging in conversation, and responding to questions or requests for more information. As opposed to the methodologies of traditional marketing/advertising campaigns, blatant and unrelenting selling is seen as a huge annoyance in these communities and is generally considered as pure spam.

Participation in social media also presents the opportunity for brand building, again, in a different manner than typically thought of prior to the emergence of these social communities. The opportunity for direct contact with community members allows for a more intimate interface, and can provide a foundation which fosters trust, credibility, and familiarity with a company and its products, all important aspects of brand building. This direct communication can come in the form of providing content, guiding conversation, and the building or protecting brand perception.

One of the largest benefits of successful participation in these social media circles is that marketing, advertising, and brand building can now be done with great cost effectiveness on relatively large scale. The viral nature of these applications enables word to spread far beyond its initial dissemination at never before seen speed. The issue for companies in this arena is that community interface and all other aspects of participation must be done properly, or that viral benefit can quickly become a large and growing problem. For that reason, it’s extremely important to have an experienced social media marketing company on your side. For a free analysis on where your social media efforts should be focused, call The Gervais Group today at (770) 529 2262.

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Professionals and Amateurs in SEO

Posted on April 5, 2010 by Gervais Group

The field of search engine optimization is can be divided into three categories; the professional SEO companies, the newcomers, and the do it yourselfers. Each of the levels of expertise can be categorized by skill levels, resources, and experience which translate directly into how successful the end result of an SEO effort will be. Unless directed at a completely un-served micro-niche, any SEO effort will require a defined process, resources, and the skill to see it through to a successful finish. Here’s look at the three categories and the likely results from each:

* Do it yourselfers – This category is populated with two types of search engine optimization people; those that are on their own for budgetary reasons and those that assume that SEO can be accomplished using their existing skill set. In many cases, those who are operating with limited budgets get better results than the existing skill set group simply because they need to maximize the results for each dollar spent. This group will often use grass roots campaigns to begin developing revenues and then direct some of that income toward outsourcing the work to an SEO company due to affordability and the time commitment required for SEO campaigns.
* Newcomers – The field of search engine optimization draws new people looking to “put out a shingle” on a daily basis. These newcomers are usually small (1 to three employees) operations with skill sets which can vary widely. There are a handful of potential problems in dealing with a newcomer including the lack of any track record, determining their level of expertise, and their daily work load. Regardless of skill level and track record, if a two man operation starts getting busy, current clients will suffer in terms of level of service and SEO activities due to the fact that the company is now spread thin with limited resources and not enough time in the day to do everything. It’s common in these situations for a newcomer to take on a new, high paying customer who requires putting everything else on the back burner or outsourcing the work of existing clients to an unknown entity.
* Professional SEO companies – Dealing with a reputable SEO company is, by far the best way to ensure a positive outcome for your search engine optimization efforts. These companies always have track records, satisfied clients, and a set protocol for developing SEO strategies, regardless of the type of business. This protocol always starts with keyword research, a step neglected by a high percentage of do it yourselfers and newcomers. The primary goal of the research is to define the keywords which will provide the best return on investment. On and off-site optimization practices are then determined from the results of the initial keyword research and the strategy is put into motion. With keywords in place, the work then revolves around the labor, time, and resource requirements of implementing a successful strategy. A professional SEO company will always be able to describe the process in detail with realistic goals and objectives. Of the three options, working with a reputable SEO company is usually the most expensive choice, but the ultimate outcome in terms of return on investment, targeted traffic, and conversion ratios are typically much higher.

Dealing with a reputable search engine optimization company can literally make the difference between success and failure. SEO companies, like the Gervais Group, which can provide past client successes and present search engine results are much more likely to deliver optimal outcomes than those new to the field. For more information, visit www.gervaisgroupllc.com or call (770) 529 2262.

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