Although there are tons of people on the web at any given time, they are not always there with the same purpose.  If you have a business that has a brick-and-mortar store, you are well aware that everyone who comes into your store does not have the same purpose. You likely set up your store with things that will draw in browsers and serious shoppers alike. Well the same thing happens online. People will stop by your website for different reasons and it is up to you to keep them there and lead them to make a transaction.

Even if you do not have a bricks-and-mortar store, you too have to be aware of the different ways that people use the web—

Information seekers
These are people who are online looking for facts, news and information. They may type a phrase into search engine because they are looking for some very specific information. However, if you sell a product that relates to their query, you may be able to help them and they will visit your site if they think you have valuable and useful information.

Surfers
Web surfers are hanging out and hanging ten as they peruse the web, not looking for anything in particular. When they come across your web site, if it clearly communicates a message that addresses their interests, you can get them to stop surfing and start hanging out at your website.

Navigators
Navigators are on the web with a particular destination in mind. If they know the exact name of the website, they will go right there. But if they do not, they may have to search for it, and if you come up in the list when they search you may be able to get them to your site instead. (Unless of course these navigators were looking for your site in the first place. Then you want to make sure that your site name is firmly placed in their mind so they can type it right in without wandering.)

Increase Visibility can help you snag internet users who are looking for information, surfing around to see what they can find and those who start out with a specific destination in mind. We can analyze who is visiting your site and track you current online marketing campaign so that you can see who is visiting your site and what they are doing while they are there. Take a look at our SEO plans and give us a call at 877 SEO ADVICE (877 736 2384) to disucss which plan will work best for you.

On Monday we talked about how SEO and organic search placement can be compared to two different decision-making processes: one where a person makes a quick decision using instincts and one where someone takes their time to talk over the advantages and disadvantages of the choices at hand. When it comes to deciding how a website ranks in search results, search engines use a more than a few criteria (in fact Google looks at more than 150!).

Well, although Google uses a sizable number of criteria, it does not take forever to come to its conclusions. This is why you need the assistance of a firm like Increase Visibility, so that your website marketing program has all the correct components in place when Google stops by to check you out. You definitely want to be prepared. Search engines do check often…at first. But if it seems like your site has little new material to offer, they will space out their visits more and more until your website becomes an afterthought and you do not want this to happen.

Many of your customers may also make rather instantaneous decisions. Whether they see you in search engine rankings or see your company name in a list of press releases, they probably will not spend all day deciding which link to click to continue their online journey.

Again, you need to be primed and ready. You need to make certain that the prose they see is crisp and clean. You also need to have already worked on name recognition through your online marketing efforts. We all go for what is familiar–even when we do not realize that it is familiar. Returning customers know you already. However, the newer customers whose attention you want to grab may not be acquainted with you just yet, but if your name has been floating around the web on blogs, directories and social networking sites, they will click on a link leading to you because your name is familiar.

Let Increase Visibility help you make sure that your name is front and center in people’s minds when they think about your industry. One of our SEO marketing plans can put you at the top. With our Level III Platinum Plan, we will help you broaden your customer base with blog commenting, article marketing, video marketing, podcast marketing and social bookmarking—just to name a few of the services that we provide.

When you make a decision to choose one thing over another–be it a burger over a chicken sandwich or a blue sweater over a green, you are probably unaware of just how complex this transaction really is. Well, if you take a while to make decisions and spend time talking it out and going over the pros and cons for each option, then you might be aware of some of the complexities.

However, if you are the type of person who just picks something quickly based on instinct, then you may not really be aware of all that goes into choosing one item over another.

Ok, so how does all of this apply to organic search placement and search engine optimization, you ask? Which scenario–the instant decision or the talking-it-out decision–be compared to SEO?

 Well, the answer is that both scenarios can be applied to SEO. And here is how:

A Large Number of Factors Go Into Search Engine Placement

Did you know that Google uses more than 150 different criteria as they try to figure out where your website should  fall in search results? This means that like the person who talks over every aspect of a decision, Google has a lot on its mind when it is selecting which websites will rise to the top and which will sink to the bottom. And of course Google is not forthcoming about sharing exactly what these criteria are or how they may change. They are not going to reveal their recipe and have everyone else cooking up a monster search engine.

Increase Visibility Can Help

This should not scare you, however. It simply means that trying to get into the mysterious mind of Google is not a job you should tackle on your own.  Increase Visibility specializes in search engine optimization, but cannot promise to have all of the answers,  Be very wary of anyone who tells you that they have cracked the code and that they know all the secrets of the various search engines.

 Here at Increase Visibility we do not claim that we know every, single aspect of just how a search engine makes its selections, but our staff does have  long and solid relationships with many search properties  and we will put this to will put to work on your behalf. The search engine industry is constantly changing and with our continual vigilance in studying the latest trends, we can provide you with a competitive advantage.

Call us today at 877 SEO ADVICE, 877 736 2384 or email us at info@IncreaseVisibility.com with questions.

And check back on Wednesday for more on this topic.

On Monday, we discussed how the word “blog” was derived from nautical terminology. Blog came from “web log” which in turn came from log, a record that a ship’s captain kept about the ship’s dealings at sea.

Another term with nautical roots that has great significance for organic search placement is anchor text. When it comes to making your website more and more visible, you need to make sure that your website is making good use of anchor text. Good content can do a lot for you, but not if no one can find you.

Words, phrases, and even sentences that appear underlined and often highlighted in a different color on a website are anchor text. Just as an anchor was very necessary to keep a ship from drifting, anchor text is a key element in keeping search engines from drifting past your website in favor of the competition. When you connect certain words to the URLs for pages in your website, you are anchoring those words. A search engine will notice that your website has been pinned down to these words and will inform internet users that your website has some connection to the words you chose.

With that in mind, it is very important to choose anchor text wisely. There was a time when websites all over the internet, simply connected a hyperlink to the words “Click here.” After all, we have been told to use verbs and suggest action to customer, right?

Well, the days of using “click here” as effective anchor words are over. This tells search engines that your business is related to “click” and “here.” Unless those two words represent your key products and services, you do not want to use them. An internet user is very unlikely to type in those two words to find your business.

What you want to do is choose anchor text that highlights the kinds of words and phrases that your customers will use when they are looking for your business online. Increase Visibility can help you determine proper keyword terms to promote for organic listings. You may think that you know how potential customers are looking for you, but it is entirely possible that they are using search terms that you never even considered. Our SEO plans include expert keyword analysis. Once, Increased Visibility zeroes  in on the search terms that people use to find you, we can help you optimize your website to that these keywords are being used effectively on your website.

Here at Increase Visibility we advocate a combined approach to achieving success with organic search placement and reaching out to consumers.

With that in mind, we have to remind you that although Google is without any doubt the biggest player out there, you cannot forget that there are other search engines and that you need to be on their radar as well.

Recently, Yahoo experts had some interesting things to say that follow along the lines of this same theme: it is important to make a combined effort when it comes to marketing. Their advice was that companies and organizations use both search ads and display ads. Contrary to what you may have heard, one method does not reign supreme over the other and you should not throw all of your weight behind one just one of these advertising tools.

There are some people who have been advised to put all of their eggs into the search advertising basket because it is easier to measure the results of search ads. We are certainly not knocking the idea that it is important to be able to measure results. We do think it is important to have all of your bases covered, though. So if you choose only one kind of advertising, you may have a blind spot in your advertising program, one that the competition may be all to ready to fill.

Just as you don’t want to only use posters or only advertise on the radio, it pays to diversify when it comes to your internet ad campaign.

Yahoo gave the following scenario: a potential customer clicks on one of your display ads, views it, but leaves without making a purchase. Then some time later, this same person does a search through Yahoo by typing in one of your search keywords. This time the potential customer becomes an actual customer because after they see your ad, they decide to buy this time around.

As you can see display ads and search ads can work hand in hand to help customers find you and encourage them to purchase your products and services.

If you are wondering about the effectiveness of your current website marketing efforts, call Increase Visibility. We can help track your marketing to let you know who is visiting your website, where they are coming from and what pages are the most popular. And we can give you the insight to interpret these results in a way that you can decide what is working and what is not working as you grow your business.

When you type in a word or question in the search box, you get a list of matches that respond to your query. Sometimes potential responses run into the thousands, even hundreds of thousands. How do search engines decide which responses to show first and which to place at the end of the queue?

The order in which responses are shown is called ranking. Since your goal is to have your website ranked as close to the top of the response list as possible, it pays to understand how search engines rank sites. Search engines use complicated mathematical algorithms to select matches to a search query. Because search engines seek to display a diversified set of search results, they generally employ more than one algorithm to achieve the final search ranking displayed to the user.

There are a number of different types of ranking algorithms, including:

• Query-dependent (or dynamic) ranking algorithms rely on the user’s search terms to rank pages. Sites with greater relevance to the query terms are ranked higher in the response list. Query-dependent algorithms run when the user clicks “Go” to submit his search.
• Query-independent (or static) ranking algorithms look at site features other than the actual search terms, such as the number and importance of linked pages, to determine relevance to the query. Query-independent algorithms can be run before a search is launched and assign a quality score to each document on the web. Search engines use the quality score to determine ranking. PageRank is an example of a query-independent ranking algorithm.
• Content-based ranking algorithms use the words in each document to determine its ranking. Placing the precise search words at the beginning of a document, in the final 20 words of a document, in a bold font and in HTML elements are all ways to increase content-based rankings.
• Usage-based ranking algorithms score documents by how often they are viewed by Internet users. Data from web proxy logs and click-through rates are among the elements used to determine usage patterns.
• Link-based ranking algorithms assign scores to web pages based on the number and quality of hyperlinks between pages. Links that point to a particular page or endorse a page can help to improve link-based rankings.

The ranking of displayed query responses is dependent not only upon the results of individual search ranking algorithms, but on complex interrelationships between the various ranking algorithms. An effective search engine optimization program will take into account the parameters of both individual ranking algorithms and the manner in which they relate to and affect each other. It can be a complicated process that cannot rely solely on the hard data of science or rotely applied formulas. Manipulating the complex relationships between search engine ranking algorithms to build a highly effective search engine optimization marketing program requires the adroit finesse and intuitive insight of an experienced expert.

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

Americans are a country of do-it-yourselfers, but the smart person knows when it’s wise to call in the pros. We’ve all been there. When you don’t really know what you’re talking about, it’s easy to think to yourself, “I can do this. How hard can it be?” This is the kind of faulty thinking that leads to flaming toasters and flooded basements. There are times when trying to save a buck can wind up costing you more money — a lot more. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is like tricky electric and plumbing problems. If you want professional results, call in the pros.

Few non-professionals have the knowledge, experience, time and resources to handle their own search engine optimization program. Getting your website into those coveted top 10 to 20 search rankings takes considerable time, knowledge and skill. It can take from 3 to 6 hours to optimize a website that is already SEO-friendly and more than 25 hours (sometimes, lots more) if it’s not — and that’s if you know what you’re doing. If you’re learning on the fly, you could spend days trying to do what a pro could accomplish in a matter of hours.

Crafting an effective SEO program takes specific skills. Expert knowledge of HTML is necessary. Specific keyword selection, site analysis, reporting and industry information tools are required. Professional-level copywriting skills are necessary to create compelling, keyword-dense website copy. If you’ve already paid for professional marketing copy on your website, you don’t want to jeopardize its effectiveness or replace it with inferior copy. Up-to-date knowledge of SEO techniques and resources is essential to achieving the desired end result. Every industry has its specialists. It’s that expertise that produces the results we desire. 

It’s important to figure in the cost of your own (or your employee’s) valuable time when considering how to tackle optimizing your website. Could the hours you’ll spend fumbling around on the computer be better spent contacting customers and growing sales? What if you run into problems and the project drags on much longer than anticipated? Can you afford to take time and resources away from other important areas of your business? Many people fail to realize that “do-it-yourself” doesn’t mean “free.” There is always a cost, not only in man-hours needed to perform the SEO work, but also in the lost productivity caused by redirecting employee resources. It is generally more cost-effective to outsource work outside your area of expertise.