On Tuesday, we looked at some of the changes that Google has recently made to its search options, included letting internet users pick from lists of which media they want to see and letting them decide just how far back in time they want to go. The ability to go as far back as one year (and probably further) means that what you do to optimize your web presence today can have an effect on how people perceive your organization in the future. When you build your web presence and work on improving your search engine ranking, you are helping to build an archive of relevant data about your operations and your field.

 
Google users are now also able to change just how they view the information they request in searches. They can choose:

 
Related Searches: This means that a Google user can get a several lists with searches that relate. Some people would tell you that you should just optimize for every possible thing. We would not advocate that approach. You should, however, be certain to optimize for a range of subjects that are truly related to your business. Increase Visibility offers a free website analysis  to see if your website is making the most of the keywords used to find organizations like yours.
Timeline: With this option, a Google user can see search results grouped by dates. For those who are searching for time-specific content, this will make things a lot easier.
Wonder Wheel: If you have read up a little on education, you know that some people are visual learners. For this people, lists don’t quite work. This is where something like the Wonder Wheel comes into play. The main topic is in the center of the wheel and related topics are spun off onto spokes.
Take some time to play with these new search options to get a feel for the many ways in which someone can come across your organization. This will help you to understand more about the importance of organic search placement. You want to be in the places where people who are looking for you will be able to find you, but you don’t want to force it. If you try to stuff your website with what you think are popular keywords just because. Doing that means that people who are not looking for you will get to your site and may not find is useful. In the meantime the people who would benefit from connecting with you, may not get to you.

As we have mentioned before any you are likely all too aware, Google rules the roost when it comes to search engine optimization. Just last week, Google revealed that they were giving users more options to let them further personalize their searches. Some people get thrown for a loop anytime Google mentions the word “change,” but really there is no need to panic.

One of the things that Google has done is to add a “Search Options” feature. When someone goes to Google to do a search, there will be a link below the search box with the words “show options.” When a internet user clicks on this, a menu will appear on the left side. This menu will then let the internet user choose from several categories–online forums, reviews, videos. And within these categories, there is an option to pick a time frame that best suits your search. A person can decide to look at recent results, results from the past day or go as far back as one year.

SEO experts did not sound the alarm at the news of these changes. Instead they reiterated the fact that SEO is hard work and that business have to continue to put in the necessary effort to get the results that they want. Giving people more options for how they view content does not mean they you won’t be found; it just means that you must continue doing all that you can to increase your online visibility.

For those of you who want to stay at the top of search engine rankings and want to ensure that customers know that you are there, this may mean getting some help. This is where Increase Visibility comes in: you have to run your business and our job is to make sure that you are getting that business through organic search placement, pay-per-click advertising and social media marketing. You can count on use to keep your business in view on the web, while you take care of your day-to-day operations.

Here are just a few of the components of each Search Engine Optimization and Ranking Campaign:
-A Baseline Web Site Ranking Report  
-Keyword Density Analysis – KDA for your current web site 
-Design, develop, optimization and/or re-optimization web pages.
Call us today at 1-877-SEO-ADVICE (877-736-2384) to learn more.

Branding and re-branding are big these days. One of the things that some organizations do to re-brand is to change their name. Most people who were around to see the first name are not going to forget it, but over time their perception of an organization may change if that organization puts effort into going in a new direction and doesn’t just make a cosmetic name change.

Most of us still remember Phillip Morris, so it will take time before we can really grab a hold of the company’s new name, Altria. Philip Morris has been around for so long that it is hard to see it as anything else. Depending on who you ask, some would say the company changed its name to encompass all that it does, since they do more than sell cigarettes and tobacco-related products. The more cynical among us would say that the name change was done to distance the company from its tobacco-selling past, even though it still sells tobacco.

It is one thing to change your company name because you feel as if the current name is somehow tainted or really does not represent all that you do. It is another thing entirely to change your company’s domain name solely on the premise that the name change will increase web traffic, as some people attempt to do.

One very strong argument against such a name change is that of the many things that Google considers when ranking sites, one is the longevity of your domain name. So changing your domain name is not a quick fix to bring in more traffic.

Rather than change your domain name, change the actual content of the site. Having a site that has relevant, timely content and is rich in keywords can make all the difference. Look at your press release section–is that last press release from last year? Do you even have a press release section? Getting your website up to date will make a big difference in the kind of traffic that you see.

If you have been trying to think of ways to increase your website traffic, Increase Visibility can help. Starting with a no-cost website analysis, we can tell you the areas of your website that need updating and help you implement a comprehensive web marketing plan.

Earlier this week, we discussed how SEO and online reputation management are only going to increase in importance in 2009. Now, let us tell you just one of the reason’s why it is so very important that you have an online marketing plan in place: Google SearchWiki.

Google launched its SearchWiki last fall. New Google features do not get the kind of press that latest new model computers or cars get, but these things have an impact on your online presence.
Signed-in Google users can use the SearchWiki to re-rank, delete, add and make comments on search results. A Google user can only make these alterations to their own searches and Google stores these changes for the individual user.

You may be thinking that this is not big deal. If someone re-ranks you on their own personal search page then they are the only ones who know…whether someone decides to move your company’s website or blog up or down is no big deal, right? Wrong. Google also allows individual users to see the ways that other people have customized their searches. Signed-in Google users can see the notes and edits that other people have made with just one click.

As if you didn’t already know, people can influence others to buy or stay away from certain products. This happens through word of mouth and it also happened through “word of web,” as the Google SearchWiki demonstrates. You may not be able to control everything that is said about your business online, but you can be proactive about getting your message out there.

This is especially true if your customer base is web savvy and up on the latest. At least one SEO expert has already predicted that the Google SearchWiki will become increasingly popular and you need to be aware that it can affect your business and your reputation. And this should not scare you because it can be a good thing. Certainly, some internet users will have positive things to say that will send customers your way.

Increase Visibility can help you:
-Improve Organic Search Placement
-Get Higher Search Engine Ranking
-Increase Link Popularity
-Implement Effective Social Media Marketing Efforts

This way you can present yourself the way you want to be presented and highlight the products and services that make your business unique. You do want to have people discussing your company in chat rooms, blogs and other forums, but you also want to make sure that your voice is heard and that your web presence is strong.

Google has just launched a new capability that will significantly boost search engine optimization potential for many websites. Google can now perform optical character recognition on scanned documents published in PDF format on the Internet. Basically, that means Google’s search spiders and bots can now “read” PDF documents and include them in search listings, something the web’s No. 1 search engine couldn’t do previously because of problems in verifying PDF file content. The new search parameter will now allow Google to include white papers, newsletters and other material typically published as PDF documents in user search listings.

Many documents — white papers, manuals, magazine articles, newsletters, etc. – that appear on the Internet are first created and formatted in word processing or desktop publishing programs. They are then scanned into websites in the same manner as photos, as a whole and complete item. Unfortunately, unless a user has the same program (and often the same version of that program) installed on his computer, the original formatting is lost when the document is opened, creating a mess of unreadable gobbledygook. Adobe Systems solved this problem with creation of the PDF format, short for Portable Document Format. When scanned documents are published to the web in PDF format, they can be read, downloaded and printed by nearly any computer or printer without problem with use of Adobe’s free Adobe Reader. All the original formatting of the original document, including typeface, photos and graphics, spacing, layout, etc., is reproduced intact. The user sees and can print a perfect duplicate of the original document.

While including PDF documents on a website was a boon for Internet users, it didn’t register with Google’s search engine optimization tools. A tremendous amount of useful information was not finding the audience it deserved. Additionally, site owners were not realizing maximum marketing potential from these in-depth and often expensive to create documents. With Google’s new capacity to include PDF documents in search results, the white papers, newsletters, articles, etc. that you upload to your website can now draw traffic and improve your SEO rankings.

“This is a small but important step forward in our mission of making all the world’s information accessible and useful,” said product manager Evin Levey in the Official Google Blog. By converting a picture of text into searchable content, the new technology allows Google’s search engine tools to index PDF content and include those documents in ranked search results. It may be one small step for Google, but this new capability is a giant leap forward for website owners excited to improve their SEO rankings.

Webmasters seeking to maximize search engine optimization (SEO) occasionally run afoul of Google search rules and are penalized for duplicate content. As explained in our October 7 post, the problem is one of differing goals: ranking vs. filtering. Webmasters who want site content to be accessed by as many search parameters as possible often assign multiple URLS to the same content. Working to produce unique search results, Google’s filtering process groups duplicate content and selects a representative site or page for display. Webmasters often feel they pay a “penalty” for unintentional duplicate content through decreased Internet exposure and display of less than optimal sites/pages.

Try these tips to minimize duplicate content and maximize your SEO exposure:

If you participate in an affiliate program, avoid the “cookie cutter” approach to site content. Your site should contain unique, relevant content that adds value to that found on the parent site.

Don’t use the “cut and paste” approach to creating content on multiple pages or sites. Some repetition of key phrases is unavoidable, but each page within a site should carry unique content with a distinct focus. For boilerplate text such as copyright info, use a short summary and link to a detail page.

Avoid scraping content from other websites; it’s a definite Google foul. However, there’s no penalty (besides annoyance) if someone scrapes your site. Google is quite good at determining which is the original site. If you syndicate your content, ask syndication partners to identify and link back to your content as the original source.

Use the robots.txt file to block less desirable printer versions of content from access by Google crawlers. Check the file to verify that content you want crawled hasn’t been blocked. If you have created multiple versions of your site, include the preferred version of your URL in the sitemap file. Google does not consider multiple language versions of a site to be duplicate content.

Use 301 redirects in the .htaccess file to redirect Google’s spiders.

Keep internal linking consistent.

Get rid of publishing stubs by either not publishing or blocking empty pages.

Use top level domains (TLD) to denote country-focused content.

Increase Visibility offers a free website analysis that can tell you how Google and other search engines see your site. Our trained SEO specialists can show you how to optimize your site and improve your search ranking.

When it comes to SEO, Google rules the roost, and you should know that they take their work very seriously. They may not get it right every time, but a lot of work goes into making it possible for someone to type in words related to your industry and find you.

Like many other huge organizations, Google started with a great idea, but they do more than just think about search engines and queries. Google puts a lot of time and effort into make sure that when someone types in a query, that person is going to be satisfied with the search results.

While they can only examine a small sampling of all the queries that are typed into Google, the company evaluates the effectiveness of these searches using real, live humans and results generated by automated experiments. Human evaluators are not just people picked off of the street. They are trained to examine search results to ensure that they truly are useful.

According to Google, if asked, internet users would say that they wanted a search engine to provide relevant results. But the definition of what is relevant has become increasingly more complex. Internet users want up-to-the-minute results from reputable sources. They are also interested in related links that really tie into their original query. You want to make sure that your website goes to the top of the heap.

Like Google, our team at Increase Visibility works hard, too. We keep current on how search engines function. The techniques you employed last year to get a higher page ranking, may not be working anymore and we can explain why.  There is a lot you can do to get your website noticed and reach more customers, which will lead to higher profits.

We apply our in-depth knowledge of SEO to your specific business goals. Increase Visibility doesn’t just lecture you on SEO. We take the time to learn about you and your business, so we can customize our plans to fit your needs.

Call us today at 877 SEO ADVICE, 877 736 2384 or e-mail us at info@IncreaseVisibility.com.

Google’s “duplicate content penalty” gives web designers fits, despite Google’s steadfast denial of any “penalty.” It really doesn’t matter who’s right; it all boils down to a matter of semantics. Webmasters and Google simply view “duplicate content” from different perspectives: rankings vs. filtering. 

Duplicate content can occur when webmasters attempt to improve search engine rankings and increase traffic by utilizing popular search queries. Duplicate content should not be confused with plagiarism in which content is lifted from one site and republished as unique content on another site. That’s a definite Google foul, as is republishing content without adding additional value. Duplicate content is the non-malicious and usually unintentional repetition of chunks of content within or across domains. It generally occurs when pages are stored in multiple formats with multiple distinct URLs. It’s easy for multiple key words in a search engine to pull up the same content from different URLs, effectively “duplicating” the same content. The problem, besides the obvious desire to present unique content to searchers, is that searchers may receive a less desirable version of your webpage which, naturally, you want to avoid.

The disagreement over duplicate content occurs because website owners and Google don’t have the same goal. You are focused on ranking. You want your website or webpage to be among the first 10 to 20 pulled up in a search. Therefore, you want your unique content to be available from as many search avenues as possible. Google focuses on filtering. In a December 18, 2006 post on its Webmaster Central Blog, Google explained its approach this way:

“During our crawling and when serving search results, we try hard to index and show pages with distinct information. This filtering means, for instance, that if your site has articles in ‘regular’ and ‘printer’ versions … we’ll choose one version to list. In the rare cases in which we perceive that duplicate content may be shown with intent to manipulate our rankings and deceive our users, we’ll also make appropriate adjustments in the indexing and ranking of the sites involved. However, we prefer to focus on filtering rather than ranking adjustments.”

This is the origin of the perceived “duplicate content penalty.” Google says having multiple URLs on the same domain that point to the same content won’t earn you a trip to the principals office, but it does cause Google to react in a way that webmasters don’t find favorable, hence their sense of being penalized. Because Google’s goal is to show searchers 10 different results, Google groups URLs that point to duplicate content and selects what it considers the best URL to represent the group. Unfortunately, Google’s choice isn’t always the one you want searchers to see.

Friday: Avoiding Google’s duplicate content penalty