SEO Today, What does mean for the website

The disturbing news of SEO not working really as well as it used to surrounds the horizon of the web. Just yesterday, the guys of the same block were discussing the news on SEO. Some were worried but some said it’s still working to them.

Too much is happening to fast. Last year we saw too many things happening within a short span of time. We saw the old school SEO diminishing from the scene. We also saw back links lose some weight, especially the ones that were not gained organically or naturally. We saw that content remain to rule the horizon, but the tile of the search engine really went toward the original, quality content that is shared, read and liked by the web visitors. We have also seen that being social has gained importance.

The content that socially buzzed or tweeted, the content that is liked and socially shared and is commented upon get more push on the search engines.

This tells us that SEO still lives. Things have gone tougher and now it is hard to get the ball rolling like the optimizers used to previously. Some of the SEO gurus were also been discussing how to push through and get the desired results. Evil minds eh.

Search Engine Optimization is a serious game now. Though, structuring your website for the search engines, making them search engine friendly, Meta Tag Optimization and building the SEO purpose description tag, still hold its ground, we must change the way in which we structure our web content. The web site content that the web visitors would read when they arrive at our website. It must be build with the intent to satisfy the web visitor’s interest on the website. It must satisfy their intent; it must also trigger the search engines to reply to intent based search query being keyed in by the website visitor.

With the SEO game tilting more towards the web users rather than the search engines. The optimizers must change the way they used to handle SEO.

SEO 2013

Have you read the SEO prediction for 2013? I bet you have. What do you think? Is the SEO game about to end? SEO the SEOs are finally realizing that their hay days are over. No longer will their jargons make the market steer and no longer manipulating the BOTs would work.

I have been researching to see what will be good for SEO in the coming days. The picture for the traditional SEO that we are so used to seems to be dull. But if you are the content guru and have the way with words, if you can build quality, non plagiarized content then you will be well on the path to win the search engine optimization game. More so, the game of getting your web content ranked and getting more traffic to your web pages. Google+ will play a major part, but as the someone on the internet said in its blog, “As big a flop as Google+ was made out to be, Google surely used this "floportunity" to focus on what it does best, Search.”

One word will describe the SEO with content marketing strategy – “QUALITY”. If you are able to present quality researched article on the web and share it with people in your Google+ circles, get comments and feedback. The search engine leader will rank it on the search engine results without having to give the back link a thought. It’s not difficult. But I have read that our friends are already on their way searching for ways of manipulating and cheating the search algorithm. A bad thought, but it’s true.

Good content will be socially shared. Good for the optimizers. Social signals have started to emerge as heavy weights in SEO. The Jigsaw seems to fit

Good quality content will be evaluated, it would be sent out to be read, thus encouraging comments. The social sharing will happen if the content carries weight in terms of quality and information, hence, a step forward towards more people coming to the site and possibly more links.

It’s not easy as it was before, but my friends SEO isn’t going to die, not really in the year 2013.

SEO is not like what it used to be

I have heard many grunts on SEO. Some said it’s not working like it used to. Sure things have changed a lot. Google had pre warned the optimizers through the Penguin and the Panda updates. You need to redress your SEO strategy. The major shift now is that you have to optimize the web pages for the views, get the ball rolling for them to like what you are says. It is not like creating web content, keyword stuff and angled to get the spiders coming to your web pages and ranking them for higher search results. We had seen the sites going down the ranking alley.

So what in with SEO these days? What? I heard someone say that it is dead. Yes certainly it is dead for the person who did hear the call of the day. Honey no. Take a look at the Google home page and check out its ranking. Surprised? It does not rank on the first spot.

Well I am here to tell you that SEO has really come off age, thanks to the search engine algorithm that has forced the optimizers to think in terms of the web users. Keywords still have a role to play, so does the on page optimization. The role of Off Page has changed. Web content still rules but the focus needs to be directed towards the use. Not more article spinning works, no more made up content for the search engine rules.

The crux of SEO now lies in the valuable, original content that gives more to the web user and gets genuine like. More will full content sharing and more social buzz. We can feel the tilt. The idea is to get more people interested and more people to reach your site with intent and favor. People being led to the web pages after arriving through the social shares are the people who know what you are doing and would want to interact with you and your business.

SEO really isn’t dead. It has just changed its face

Getting to Know SEO

Search Engine Optimization – more commonly known as SEO is not alien to many, yet is somewhat new for the people who are still getting their hands on with the web. Website is a fancy tool for some and for other it is waste of time and precious money. The believers in the web marketing yet are few. For those who preach and practice SEO, the skies seem to be dark. Some have come to the point of giving up on the hard core SEO practices, other are still perusing their way around.

SEO today is quite different from what it used to be in the beginning of previous year. The things were rosy for many whose web pages ranked at the top of the search results on the pages of prominent search engines. The game since then has tilted against them. Their keyword stuffed, search engine pleasing pages are not anymore liked by the search engine as these fail to show up for the intent and the purpose for which the user conducts the search.

The present day SEO wants our web pages to deliver the purpose and swing along with the intent of the web surfer. The artificially intelligent search engine BOTs get to know why and how of the search engine friendly pages. They can study the link pattern, whether the links are being gathered naturally or has the optimizer arranged to get the links to perk up the search engine positioning.

We need to know SEO of today. The things done yesterday are not good for today and our aim must be to achieve and improve our visibility for tomorrow as well.

• Isn’t it better to leave the web pages as they are?
• Build the Meta tags with the purpose with the keywords that the user actually use to find the product and services instead of wasting time on the keywords that don’t lead to conversions rather they just aim in getting the 1st position on the SERPs.
• Isn’t it better to build the web content for the web surfers instead of the search engines?
• Why not develop the web page interface to suit the needs of and the usage of the web visitor rather than the search engines.

We need to know what the current SEO demands and twist and turn our SEO strategy to suit the search engine needs of today.

Content continues to rule the SEO scene

Repeatedly we are told that content is the king. To benefit from this phrase, we see a lot of material on the web that signals the efforts of the optimizers to harness the fruits of the SEO through content marketing. I have seen many get frustrated and leave, those who know their trade, thrive.

Content that is crowned to be the king is not the one we usually come across. Loud mouthed jargons that spell the details about the product and force the readers to click and buy, No these are not the ones that we are talking about. We are discussing the quality content that is aimed to benefit the reader and by benefiting the people who are surfer the net, the content developer gets 100 billion chances of being seen on the search engine like Google.  Search engine watch informs us that Google gets 100 billion searches every month. Can we overlook the extent of exposure that can a good quality content can get where people, if led properly can share the content, comment and converse about the content they have come across while their search.

We have also heard in the past few months that blogs and website are getting more traffic from the social networks. True, but how can be neglect 100 billion searches that been conducted every month on Google and not take the benefit of the traffic from the search engine.

Content marketers must not forget that we must:

• Create content that has something for the web visitors, the Content that could give them something, instead of simply taking away their time.
• Content must be focused and not branches off to other linked or linkable issues
• Keyword research is still important. The keywords too, must be focus around your subject, your products and services.
• Encourage the readers to leave comments. This leads to more web traffic and more social shares.

SEO Web Content Writing

Article writing had been in vogue since the day SEO took off. The concept behind were to educate the web visitors about the products and services being offered through the website. The intention was also to tell them that you are not only the seller and the marketers of the product, the service but you are also the expert in your area of business and in the products and services you deal in. This led to the reputation and the authority which also brought in huge web traffic and number of healthy back links. Hence, the juice was that the search engines placed trust, liked your effort and the content and gave a better page rank to your website and also improved the ranking of the web pages along with a better page rank.

In all, the good efforts paid off. The happy scenario did not last long enough for the happy go lucky optimizers who started to pull strings and made the mockery of the search engine algorithm. We saw a lot of keyword stuffed articles on the web. We also saw a lot of spinned articles for SEO purpose. Such articles failed in quality contest. They also lacked the value in the terms of educating the web visitors but actually were quite successful in garnering links, improving the search engine ranking, getting more back links and hence better page rank. Those days were happy days for many SEO’s and the web business owners who thrived by getting the top search engine ranking with these efforts.

The need of the day was good quality original web content that could stand on its own feet. Articles, blogs and other shares that could stand out and were not stuffed with keywords. Our friends started to build content for the search engines. The search engine feeds, frustrated the web visitors who found little or no value in most of the web communications.

The Panda update washed off many expectations of many optimizers and the business owners who found their website disappearing as soon as the update in the algorithm took effect. The low quality over optimized content lost its SEO value and the search engine once again reiterated that quality would remain in the lead. If anyone or any website carried keyword stuffed web content, spun articles that are written for the search engines and not for the reader and those that fail to provide quality information would fail to bring SEO benefits to the websites.

SEO content writing has now become a more serious game where quality and intent rules the SEO world.

SEO tactics for Small Businesses

The fact is not unknown to all. Small businesses are cash starved and dishing out the bundle of green to provide for the optimization of their website is at times is difficult. The point here is to build your visibility. Be smart by thinking out of the box, not just follow the footsteps of other people blindly in the urge of getting top search engine ranking. We have seen that even the good websites with good position on the search engine search results get penalized as the new Google updates refresh their indexing after introducing the updates like Panda and the Penguin.

We are in the ear of intense competition and to hold our ground and further our positioning, we at the other side of the computer must think and device strategies that do not disturb our search engine positioning. Though there are no guarantees that the evolving search engines competition and the frequent changes in their algorithm may not disturb your current visibility, but yet we can try to achieve our ends by being cautious and thoughtful while we build our SEO strategy.

Social signal are important to small business owners. This does not mean that we forget the basic of SEO. The On page optimization and the off-page SEO are very mush there, but the fact is that we must ship our concentration from extensive link building to improving our social presence. The link will come and come in good quantities but slowly and will be the source of authority for your web pages.

Blogs are the best way of getting into the conversation mode with your target market. Blogs are the places where a lot of communication happens in terms of comments and their replies. These are the play grounds where you can show your fitness, not playing hide and seek, but prove that you mean business and cannot be beaten at the game. Help yourself and build authority of your website through blogging.

Leading the visitors through social network participation to your website. I am sure you are on the Facebook with your personal profile. Do you have a business page or the fan page as it is called, if not start working on it now. Get your friends and peers to like you page and get the ball rolling. Tell the members of the social networks that your blog, you press release or your articles are out there and are worth reading.

Let the game begin. Your investment would not be more that your time and the brains to create crafty, intelligent, marketable web content that could help you to gather quality, natural links that none of the search engines could shake and get your website the desired positioning without dishing out the handful of greens.

SEO Website

Our websites are our online showrooms that help us to showcase our products, services and the information. Our sales through online web pages depend on the visibility of the web pages on the search engines. We have repeatedly studied the elements that help us in achieving the online visibility and our efforts are always concentrated around getting a better ROI. Our SEO strategies, therefore, must be directed towards letting our website be found on the web.

The visibility thus can be achieved through:

-    On Page Search engine optimization
-    The Off page optimization
-     Link Building
-    Web content promotion – through articles writing and article posting
-    Blog posting
-    Commenting
-    Press Releases Distribution Online
-    Social networking
-    Social media marketing

Thus collectively, we are aiming for a band to happen on the search engines where the regular surfer get to see the link of our website on the search engine results pages when he/she key in the specific search for the products, services or information for which we have optimized our website for.

Contribution to On-Page SEO today is not just getting the on page elements tweaked. It is about building the intent based content where the company owners’ aim in developing web content targeting the semantic search results. Along with the website content, the Meta Title Tag, the Description tag, the ALT image tag help in preparing the web pages for search engine optimization.

The Off Page Optimization is a tough ask. Here submitting the web pages to the search engine directories, article marketing, blog marketing, social media marketing and other steps are taken to build links and promote the website on the search engines with the aim of strengthening the hold on the search engine ranking and getting to the place where the website is prominent to the web surfers eye balls.

Your site might be good. It might have the best aesthetic appeal. It might have unique content on the web pages, but if it is not optimized for the search engines and not found on the search engines results, it will just be an expensive bill board sitting in your back yard.

Back links v/s Social Signals

Search Engine Optimization, its methods, its techniques, and the search engine algorithm etc have always been in discussion by the focus groups and the optimizers. Matt Cutts receive interview on the issue has given rise to the debate on social signals as the source of achieving high search engine ranking. Indexed Facebook shares prove that search engines do look on the social shares keenly and give weight to good quality content shared by the businessmen and the search engine optimizers.

Our efforts through the optimization of our websites bring greater web traffic to our websites. Our intent is to create awareness, more leads and more conversions.

The heavy weight champion of the search engine optimization – the Back links seem to have been in the back yard since the discussion of the social signals began. The masters of the SEO say that links still hold the same position. These are still important and have a lot of say in the visibility of the web pages, as well as in creating the authority. The tilt, in case of back links, has shifted towards quality and relevance.

Links as the gurus say can be easily manipulated but social signal cannot be given the same treatment. Links can be brought, but social signals, social shares; likes on the shares and the dissemination of such shares come naturally. Manufacturing of likes and sharing the posts can be done, but till now has limited out reach.

SEO is a complicated process with many factors affecting the website ranking including constant upgrades and amendments in the search engine algorithm. We had seen quality back links to be THE source of visibility and ranking in the past years. This is now changing. Social signals are known to be more worthwhile now.

Search Queries – Navigational Search Queries

SEO is done with the purpose of presenting your website on the search engine platter to the viewers with particular intents. Semantic search features have taken the best time away from the SEOs who made their websites appear on the top with the purpose of bringing in more web traffic. Thus the result of more click through, lesser unique visitors and even lesser customers. At many times these websites failed to foster good conversions and the owners of the website questioned the usefulness of the web for business.

We have been discussing the nature of search queries. We have studied the informational search query. We also understand by now that how do customers who are willing to make purchase search. Such transaction search queries mean a lot to the website owner. The SEO strategy must be based on the search query that the web surfer key in.

This means that we must optimize our site to fit the 3 types of search queries:

• The informational search query
• The transactional search query
• The navigational search query

With the power of the search engines to understand the intent, it is most important for the optimizer too, to understand the type and quality of the search results. Thus making sure that the conductor of the search reaches the destination with ease.

Navigational Search Query is the decisive search query that helps the web visitor to reach the destination with one click. If you are a brand, the website visitor is searching using the navigational search query will lead him to the exact website search results. Google we have learnt has reduced the number of search results for navigational search queries. At occasions like these we see the search results on the first page (SERP) reduced to 7 instead of 10.

Owning the navigational search query will help, state the experts, in appearing in the organic search result as well as if we buy the keywords to appear in the sponsored listing.

Search Queries – Learn the types

Just yesterday we were discussing transactional search queries. We know for a fact that serious buyers too, surf the net, though lesser in numbers than the visitors who are there to learn and to retrieve information about the product and services. It is but natural. We are all learners at first before we make the buying decision and get ready to get our credit cards swept.

When we are conducting a broad based search like “cheapest laptops”, “laptop offers” we are actually searching for all types and all brands of laptops available. Here we want to know about the brands, different laptop models and their prices before we actually want to narrow down on one particular brand. These types are informational queries. Here they are not keying in the brand name, or are looking for a particular site i.e.: http://www.dell.com.

Almost all of us go through this phase. Our aim is to be helpful to the web visitors and let them go through their learning curve. The aim of the website owners if to get as many visitors as possible and then skillfully lead them to buy.

What do we do to lead the visitors to our web pages? Take it easy from here. We need to present ourselves as honest, trusting source that provides quality information. We must aim to present ourselves as authorities so that the visitors place more trust in our web content and our web pages. We need to:

• Blog about the products – one at a time, not cram in all the information in one go and make ourselves look miserable
• Business news releases help in steering interest of the web surfer looking for information on the product and marketing offers.
• Educated the buyers about what to look for, about the important features that could help them to buy the good product, a step by step guide would be helpful.
• A video – the how to “YouTube” video would help too in this respect.

Working out on positing ourselves on the internet and the search engine results to get more inquirers coming to our web pages would also lead many buyers to come and relearn. We know for a fact the by providing quality information visible on the search engines, we could force a change in buying decisions.

Conversions – People who transact, how do they search?

It is about time we should study user queries that lead to conversions, that is, queries that lead to transactions. When people are ready to buy, what sort of queries they made, hence, leading to purchase. It’s important isn’t it? While working with SEO the intent based search results do play an important role. This semantic search result will have more say in the coming year.

I asked this question the other day when I met the group of SEO experts. The reply was interesting and I thought it would benefit everyone. So here we go.

“These are called the transactional queries. The purchase decision had either, already been made or the surfer is about to made his or her decision. The intent is there and hence the queries might include the words like buy, order or the exact brand name might be keyed in during the search and the local search might be embedded in the query. We can explain the search for the “cheapest air fare from Virginia to Florida” could explain the intent. If the person is not ready to get is credit card swept right away, he is on the verge of making a decision. These types are transactional queries and carry a greater chance of conversion.”

This explains some facts and it would be easier now for most of us to articulate our web content to help in conversions.

This explanation also leads us to conclude that once we understand the transactional queries, we can do certainly take the big piece of cake by signing up for the sponsored search results. Make use of the real estate alongside the organic queries. The purchaser’s intent is to click through every possible clickable link that can lead to a cheaper and better purchase. He loves his money more than he loves the seller; hence, we can take a chance on this fact and get rolled out in PPC adverts. People, we study, tend to click on the PPC ads if they have decided to buy.