News and articles on Search Engine Optimization for business websites.
Rankings have always been the top measure of SEO success. They were what every new and seasoned practitioner alike strove for. Here's why that's still relevant today.
Let’s face it, when it comes to online marketing and improving search results, there’s one Holy Grail for businesses and marketers: Ranking #1 on a Google Search. Achieving that first organic result is what everyone hopes and dreams and works for. It’s the pinnacle of success, particularly for the SEO consultant. And there’s little doubt that higher and higher search results are better for a website and business.
But is ranking first on Google all that matters?
Around and around we go. Google’s changed the rules again. In the last week we’ve been introduced to the new Hummingbird algorithm, and then John Mueller (Google Webmaster Tools Analyst) dropped this bomb:
“Well, we don’t use Authorship for ranking.”
Hold your horses and don’t jump to conclusions because this gets interesting.
It all went down in a Google hangout which you can watch yourself here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5Jc2twXZlw
For anyone that is building links or actively seeking out backlinks for their site, one of the most important things to keep in mind is the look of your backlink profile. The term backlink profile refers to the list of links that are pointing back to your site from external sources.
Are you frightened of Pandas and Penguins? If your business and website was severely affected by Google's algorithm changes in 2012, you might be. I have talked to numerous clients who have lamented how much their traffic dwindled as a direct result of those changes. Many have told me how they're scared to do anything with their website for fear of future issues, and not a few have refused to ever speak to an "SEO Expert" again.
For a long time, it was standard practice as part of any good SEO strategy to seek out links on other websites to your own. The ideal link was one where the text of the link included great keywords that related to your site and business. This use of keywords in link building is referred to as Anchor Text and was a very effective means for improving your site ranking in Google.
As we continue to explore Google Analytics, one of the key areas of attention is Referring Sites. These are the sites that sent traffic to you. This is a critical statistic for understanding where your visitors are coming from so that you can gauge the effectiveness of your advertising and social media campaigns.
One of the challenges with Internet marketing is that the landscape is always changing. Social networks come and go, new trends gain traction, and there's always a Google algorithm change looming.
Bounce Rate is a measure of visit quality and a high Bounce Rate generally indicates that site pages aren't relevant to your visitors. But there's more to it than that.
Every business and website needs to make sure that they are listed in search engines and directories. It doesn't matter how great a website design you have, if customers cannot find your site, you will not earn revenue.
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